Kea

letter names

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01 Opening

Kea was a green parrot who loved letters. Not the sounds yet — the names. To Kea, each printed letter was a little friend with a name, and saying its name felt like saying hello. "That's a B," Kea would say, tapping it. "Hello, B!"

02 Kea

Kea flew past a big red sign. "S!" Kea called. "That's an S, curvy like a snake." Kea didn't have to sound it out. Kea just knew its name, quick and sure, the way you know a friend's name across the playground.

03 Kea

A shy little finch pointed at a letter and whispered, "What's that one?" "That's an M," Kea said warmly. "Two little mountains — M." The finch tried it: "M." "Yes! Now you know its name too." One more letter-friend, learned.

04 Kea

Kea and the finch went name-spotting all day. "T!" "O!" "A!" Every letter they passed, they greeted by name. The more names they knew, the more the world seemed to say hello back — on signs, on boxes, on the sides of books.

05 Closing

At sunset Kea and the finch perched together and named their favorite letters one more time — B, S, M, T. Each one felt like a friend now, not a stranger.

Kea fluffed up, warm and proud. Knowing a letter's name was the very first hello. And Kea had a whole sky full of letter-friends to say hello to tomorrow.

Hear it as an audio drama

A short play starring Kea, from LetterTots. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.

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Read the drama script

Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and Lettertots — this is Kea, in chapter 1 of the Lettertots cast.
Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
Narrator: Kea is a bright little bird who loves the alphabet — because every letter has a name you can say.
Kea: Every printed letter has a name! This one is A. This one is B. When you know their names, you can talk about them.
Narrator: Kea pointed at a big round letter.
Kea: What do we call this round one? Its name is O. Say it — O!
Narrator: A young chick pointed at another.
Chick: What's that tall one with a line and a hat?
Kea: That's T! You found T.
Chick: T!
Narrator: Kea and the chick named three more letters together.
Kea: Every letter has a name — A, B, C, all the way to Z. Learn the names, and the whole alphabet becomes your friend. That's what makes Kea, Kea.
Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.

Reading together with a grown-up? A card for the grown-up

For the grown-up: ask one question, then wait. When they answer, add one word to what they said. Tap the button when they have said something — that is one turn each, a circle. Nothing is recorded or kept.

Let them finish it

Say “Kea: every letter has a name you can say …” and stop. Let them finish it.

Then say the whole line together: “Kea: every letter has a name you can say out loud — hello, letter!”.

Now wait. Count slowly to five in your head. Their answer is worth the quiet.

Circles together: 0