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FREE INTERACTIVE STORY · AGES 5–6

The Treehouse Steps: a free interactive story

On a windy autumn day the steps to the treehouse blow away, and Squirrel cannot carry her basket of nuts up the tree. Your child chooses how to help: a rope ladder, or a basket the birds can lift.

  • Reading age 5
  • 1 short chapter, 1 choice and 2 endings
  • About 4 minutes
  • Friendship

Read the story

Choose your hero

Paint it your way

Chapter 1A windy day

A painted treehouse with a round green roof in a big old tree, on a little grassy island with a waterfall.

It was autumn. The leaves were red and gold. Whoosh! The wind blew and blew.

Ruby walked to the big tree. At the top was a little treehouse with a green roof.

Squirrel was at the bottom of the tree. She had a basket of nuts.

“The wind blew the steps away!” said Squirrel. “I can climb, but not with this big basket.”

What happens next is up to your child

How can Ruby help Squirrel?

Questions for grown-ups to ask

Did you spot it?

  1. EasyWhat season is it in the story?Answer: Autumn.
  2. MediumWhy could Squirrel not get home with her nuts?Answer: The wind blew the steps away, and she could not climb with the big basket.
  3. HarderHow did the hero show kindness?Answer: By stopping to help Squirrel, making a ladder or asking the birds, and carrying the nuts.

Talk about it

  • What do you notice about trees in autumn? Look out of the window together.
  • Who helps you when you are stuck? Who could you help?

Words to talk about

autumn
The season after summer, when leaves change colour and fall.
treehouse
A little house built up in a tree.
basket
A box made of woven sticks, with a handle, for carrying things.

Reading it together

The Treehouse Steps is a gentle autumn story about helping a friend, written at Litsee’s reading level for age 5. The sounds (whoosh, tie, tweet, flap) are fun to read together, and each page has only a few short sentences.

At the choice, ask your child what they would use to reach the treehouse. Some children invent a third idea, such as a slide or a trampoline. That is worth celebrating: it shows they are thinking like a writer.

Take the story outside on an autumn walk: collect red and gold leaves, look for squirrels and nuts, and find a tree that would be good for a treehouse.

About this story

Reading age
5 (ages 5–6). Written for Litsee’s reading level for age 5, where sentences are mostly 3–7 words long.
Length
1 short chapter, 1 choice and 2 endings. Each way through is 113–115 words.
Reading time
About 4 minutes for a 5-year-old reading on their own, at Litsee’s pacing of 30 words a minute for that age. Reading aloud to your child is usually quicker.
Book band
Roughly Green to Orange, if your child’s school uses book bands (schemes differ; see our book bands guide).
Characters
Squirrel, a family of birds
Theme
Friendship

About this story

Written for litsee.com by the Litsee team, The Treehouse Steps was drafted with AI help and checked against Litsee’s reading level for age 5.

Pictures of the Meadow Treehouse Village: from the Litsee app, painted with AI image tools and hand-picked by the Litsee team. “Read to me” plays an AI voice recorded in advance.

Last updated: .

Questions parents and teachers ask

Is this a good autumn story for Reception?

Yes. It is short, gentle and full of autumn words, and it is written at Litsee’s reading level for age 5. Many Reception children can read the sounds and some words themselves.

Who is the hero?

Whoever your child chooses: one of the 15 Litsee heroes. The story begins with Ruby, and the name changes on every page when you pick another.

Can my child choose who the story is about?

Yes. Ruby leads The Treehouse Steps unless your child picks another of the 15 heroes above it. That hero’s name then fills every page, and “Put them in the pictures” paints them into the Meadow Treehouse Village. Nothing is typed, saved or sent.

Now let your child make a story of their own.

In Litsee, your child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next in an illustrated story that is read aloud.

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Try it in LitseeYour child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next, in an illustrated story that is read aloud.Start your free trialUse it in classRead an illustrated, narrated story together on the whiteboard, and let the class choose what happens next.Start a free classroom trialSee Litsee for schools