Heart words are frequent words with a part that doesn't sound the way it looks, like the s in is. Zupzi Read has 65 of them across Level 1: First Letters, Level 2: The Alphabet, Level 3: Blends, Level 4: Digraphs, Level 5: Magic E, Level 6: Long Words, Level 7: Vowel Teams and Level 8: Diphthongs and Silent Letters. The regular letters are decoded with sounds already taught, and only the tricky part is learned by heart.
- 31 lessons
- Level 1: First Letters, Level 2: The Alphabet, Level 3: Blends, Level 4: Digraphs, Level 5: Magic E, Level 6: Long Words, Level 7: Vowel Teams and Level 8: Diphthongs and Silent Letters
- 65 heart words
This page describes Zupzi Read's program: the order the app teaches in, lesson by lesson. Zupzi Read is coming soon to the App Store, and it goes there only with the whole program, ages 3 to 8.
Sight words, the heart word way
Heart words follow the model described by Farrell, Hunter and Osenga: children identify the letters spelled as expected and learn only the unexpected ones by heart, with a heart drawn above them. In is, the i sounds just as taught, and the s, which says /z/, is the heart part. A handful of words, i, a, the and of, come at the very start, before the sounds they use are taught. Source: Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter and Tina Osenga, “A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words” (Reading Rockets; consulted September 2026).
Heart words and sight words
“Sight words” usually means frequent words a child knows on sight. Heart words are the same kind of words taught a different way: instead of memorizing the whole word, your child decodes the regular letters and learns only the tricky part by heart.
How the Heart word step works
“This is a heart word. The heart part is tricky, so we learn it by heart.” The word appears with a heart above the tricky part and a line under the regular letters, and your child builds it with letter tiles.
Real screens from the app, in the iPhone simulator, with a test reader.
Every heart word, level by level
The pink part, with the heart, is the part to learn by heart; the rest sounds the way it looks. Each word shows the lesson that brings it.
Level 1: First Letters6 heart words
- ilesson 2
- alesson 3
- thelesson 4
- oflesson 7
- islesson 8
- tolesson 9
Level 2: The Alphabet28 heart words
- solesson 1
- saidlesson 2
- dolesson 2
- putlesson 4
- golesson 5
- belesson 7
- melesson 7
- comelesson 7
- somelesson 7
- onelesson 7
- aslesson 9
- helesson 11
- haslesson 11
- hislesson 11
- arelesson 12
- forlesson 12
- orlesson 12
- herlesson 12
- welesson 14
- waslesson 14
- wantlesson 14
- werelesson 14
- twolesson 14
- youlesson 16
- yourlesson 16
- mylesson 16
- bylesson 16
- havelesson 19
Level 3: Blends1 heart word
- fromlesson 1
Level 4: Digraphs9 heart words
- couldlesson 1
- wouldlesson 1
- shouldlesson 1
- shelesson 4
- theylesson 6
- therelesson 6
- whatlesson 8
- wherelesson 8
- wholesson 8
Level 5: Magic E6 heart words
- donelesson 3
- gonelesson 3
- givelesson 9
- livelesson 9
- lovelesson 9
- movelesson 9
Level 6: Long Words7 heart words
- doeslesson 1
- friendlesson 1
- intolesson 4
- againlesson 7
- anylesson 7
- manylesson 7
- peoplelesson 13
Level 7: Vowel Teams6 heart words
- motherlesson 3
- otherlesson 3
- brotherlesson 3
- learnlesson 3
- heardlesson 3
- becauselesson 15
Level 8: Diphthongs and Silent Letters2 heart words
- buylesson 1
- eyelesson 1
Questions about heart words
Are heart words the same as sight words?
They are the frequent words often called sight words, taught a different way: your child decodes the regular letters and learns only the tricky part by heart.
Which heart words come first?
i, a, the and of come first, before the sounds they use are taught; then is and to, still in Level 1. More come in every level from Level 2 to Level 8.
How many heart words are in Zupzi Read?
65 in the whole path, listed on this page level by level, each with its tricky part marked.
More of the path
Phonics, step by step:
By age and grade:
Or jump to a level of the scope and sequence:
