This iPhone/iPad app is FREE for 24 hours. It normally costs $2.99. This spelling app has 3 levels with more than 200 words. Children are shown a picture of the word that they are to spell. The letters of the word are on tiles – some tiles are placed in the word and the other tiles are under it. The child’s task is to properly place all the tiles in the word. In level one, some of the words are sea, milk, wolf, house, street, fire, fox, koala…. no particular spelling pattern is emphasized. Generally, children’s spelling lists have something in common – short a words, words with ee or ea, adverbs ending in ly, etc. This app presents words in no sequence that would help children generalize about how to spell other similarly sounding words. Another issue I have with the app is that it capitalizes the first letter of every word. Children need to be taught that only proper nouns or words at the start of a sentence should be capitalized. I wish this app presented words more systematically because there is a value to making children think about how to properly place sounds in order to spell a word. Perhaps this app would provide useful practice for older ESL students.

