FREE INTERACTIVE STORY · AGES 5–7
The Snow Day Sledge: a free interactive story
It is a snow day in the Arctic Village, and everyone is sledging down the big hill. When Ollie’s sledge rope snaps, your child chooses how to help: share a sledge, mend the rope, or build a snow slide.
- Reading age 6
- 1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings
- About 2 minutes
- Friendship
Read the story
Choose your hero
Paint it your way
Chapter 1Snow day!
Maya woke up and looked out. Snow! It covered every roof in the Arctic Village.
Everyone ran to the big hill with their sledges. Whoosh! Down they went, laughing.
But Ollie was at the bottom of the hill, holding a short, snapped rope.
“My sledge rope broke,” said Ollie. “Now I can’t pull it up the hill.”
What happens next is up to your child
How can Maya help Ollie?
Questions for grown-ups to ask
Did you spot it?
- EasyWhat covered the roofs in the morning?Answer: Snow.
- MediumWhy couldn’t Ollie go sledging?Answer: His sledge rope broke, so he couldn’t pull it up the hill.
- HarderWhich ending helped Ollie the most, do you think? Why?Answer: Any answer with a reason: sharing was quickest, mending let Ollie use his own sledge, the slide let everyone join in.
Talk about it
- Have you ever played in the snow? What did you do?
- How did the hero make sure Ollie was not left out? How can we do that at school?
Words to talk about
- sledge
- A flat seat on runners that slides over snow.
- knot
- A twist in a rope or string that holds it tight.
- village
- A small place where people live, smaller than a town.
Reading it together
The Snow Day Sledge is a winter story about including a friend, written at Litsee’s reading level for age 6. The three endings show three kinds of kindness: sharing, teaching someone to fix a problem themselves, and making a game everyone can play.
At the choice, talk about how Ollie might feel watching everyone else whoosh down the hill. Children who can name a feeling are practising the inference skills teachers look for in Year 1 and Year 2.
If it snows where you live, try a gentle slide or a snow knot of your own. If not, practise “over, under and pull” with a shoelace or a ribbon.
About this story
- Reading age
- 6 (ages 5–7). Written for Litsee’s reading level for age 6, where sentences are mostly 5–9 words long.
- Length
- 1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings. Each way through is 109–116 words.
- Reading time
- About 2 minutes for a 6-year-old reading on their own, at Litsee’s pacing of 60 words a minute for that age. Reading aloud to your child is usually quicker.
- Book band
- Roughly Turquoise to Purple, if your child’s school uses book bands (schemes differ; see our book bands guide).
- Characters
- Ollie, Grandma Rose, two seals
- Theme
- Friendship