Okay little one, so when we learn to read, sometimes it can be hard to understand all the big words and how they fit together. That's where key words come in!
A key word is a word that is very important to understanding what a whole sentence or paragraph is about. For example, if we see the word "dog" in a sentence, we can guess that the sentence might be about a furry, four-legged animal.
In a reading scheme, we use key words to help us figure out what level of books we can read. These levels are usually labeled with different colors, like green or purple.
So, let's say you're a little kiddo just starting to learn to read. You might start with books labeled green, which have simple sentences and easy key words like "cat" or "ball".
As you get better at reading, you can move up to books labeled purple or pink, which have longer sentences and harder key words like "adventure" or "imagination".
So, using key words and reading schemes helps us find books that are just the right level of difficulty for us to learn and have fun reading!