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Montessori* Letter Sounds

montessori

FREE for a limited time – Montessori Letter Sounds for the iPhone/iPad, an app that focuses on teaching letter sounds. Based on the Montessori* method, Montessori* Letter Sounds has 4 levels: I Spy, Letter Sounds, Mix & Match, and Sound it Out. In “I Spy” (up to 3 years), kids identify sounds – at the beginning, at the end, and in the word. “Letter Sounds” helps kids (up to 4 years) memorize letter shapes & sounds. Kids trace the letter, watch how the letter is formed, then write it in the sand. The letter is identified by sound rather than by its name. After earning enough marbles, kids may go on to “Mix and Match” (from age 4) which combines hearing and seeing the letters. The final level is “Sound it Out”  (from age 4 1/2) which requires kids to write words with a moveable alphabet. The app also has a tool box which includes: the phonetic alphabet in script/cursive/upper case, a notebook for tracing the letters, the sandbox for learning how to write letters, and the image box to increase vocabulary. FYI – it is the short vowel sounds that are taught in this app and the sound for A is NOT the A as in apple/alligator/cat/ etc. It is more like a (the word) or the A at the end of toga. This app can be used by more than one child and can be switched to French.

Montessori Letter Sounds HD - Les Trois Elles Interactive

 

 

 

 

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Cookie Next Door – Rainy Days

cookie

WOW – here’s one you don’t want to miss!! FREE for a limited time –  Cookie Next Door-Rainy Days. This app is a current choice in the “New & Noteworthy”  section of the app store. Kids become storytellers in this animated adventure. Their speech, songs, and rhymes bring Cookie and his friends alive. The app includes a Creative Comic Book, a Voice Over Studio, and an Animated Stage Projector. Creative Comic Book utilizes storyboards to guide kids through the storytelling experience. In the Voice Over Studio, kids can change the pitch of the characters’ voices. As kids tell the story their speech, singing, etc. is transformed into the voices of the characters. Once the story is complete, the Animated Stage turns it into a play with dancing props! This app is very creative, very fun and it’s great for developing oral language skills. I am looking forward to more adventures of Cookie and friends!!

Cookie Next Door ~ Rainy Days - Sabodu LLC

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Spell + Friends

spell +

Currently FREE – Spell + Friends is the perfect app to help prepare students for the National Spelling Bee. The Spell + Friends word list includes words from Paideia, the Consolidated Word List (CWL), regional/national bees since the 1970s, and Scripps’ Consolidated Word List (CWL). There are over 2,000 words with clear and crisp pronunciations, definitions, and etymology. The app has three modes: learn, practice, and compete. In the practice mode, the word is pronounced and the student spells it by typing it into the blank. The definition, word origin, and a sentence using the word are also provided in this mode. The app also keeps track of words that were missed.  Students can log into the Game Center to compete if they wish. A great app for older students!!

Spell + Friends by Tap To Learn - TapToLearn Software

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ABCmouse.com 26 A-Z Music Videos

a to z

FREE – A to Z Music Videos. This app has 26 animated videos  – one for each letter of the alphabet. As kids watch the videos, they earn tickets to unlock other videos. There is also an option to purchase tickets to unlock videos more quickly. The videos are top-notch! They help children learn letter names and sounds AND develop vocabulary. Every video is produced in a different musical style, so kids are also introduced to a wide variety of musical genres. This app is a must-have for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers – a perfect introduction to the letters of the alphabet!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K. RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Associate the short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

ABCmouse.com 26 A-Z Music Videos - Age of Learning, Inc.

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ABCmouse.com – Ham with Jam, Dan & Jan, Hen in the Pen, Big Pig & Little Pig, To Run is Fun, Big Bug & Little Bug

FREE for a limited time – 6 beginning reading apps!! These apps for the iPhone/iPad are from the ABC Mouse word family beginning reader series. I chose to downloaded The Hen in the Pen to review the series. Each story emphasizes words from a particular word family. There are also easy sight words in the stories. There are several ways that the books can be read: Read to Me, Read with Pause, I Can Read It, and Hear the Words. I really like the Hear the Words option. It allows the child to read alone but tap any word that he/she gets stuck on. There are parent tips on the title page that explain word families and sight words for beginning readers. There are also parent tips throughout the books. The illustrations are colorful and support the text so that kids can use picture clues as they read. The story lines are very simple. But, that is not a negative thing because these apps are more about the process of reading than the actual story. When my son was an early reader, he loved books like these because he could read them “all by himself” and that alone makes them worth downloading 🙂 And…. they are currently FREE.

Common Core Standards met:

K.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Recommended!

ABCmouse.com Ham and Jam - Age of Learning, Inc. Ham with Jam    ABCmouse.com Dan and Jan - Age of Learning, Inc. Dan and Jan

ABCmouse.com The Hen in the Pen - Age of Learning, Inc. Hen in the Pen     ABCmouse.com Big Pig and Little Pig - Age of Learning, Inc. Big Pig & Little Pig

ABCmouse.com To Run is Fun - Age of Learning, Inc. To Run is Fun   ABCmouse.com Big Bug and Little Bug - Age of Learning, Inc. Big Bug and Little Bug

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Bug Games HD

bug games

Singing crickets! Bug Games HD is FREE for a limited time. This super cute app for preschoolers has 4 sections: Cricket Concert, Bee Word Builder, Ant Tunnel Builder, and Spider Dot-to-Dot. In the Cricket Concert section, kids can select a song to hear the crickets sing together or they can tap on each cricket to play the song on their own. In Bee Word Builder, kids hear the phonic pronunciation of individual letters as they use them to put words together. Ant Tunnel Builder requires kids to rotate puzzle pieces so that the ants can march through a completed tunnel. Spider Dot-to-Dot has kids connecting dots in numerical order. Kids collect sticker rewards along the way. This app has a nice combination of learning games for preschoolers – cute, fun, & engaging! Who knew playing with bugs could be so much fun 🙂

Bug Games HD - by Busy Bee Studios - Busy Bee Studios

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Learn with WordFriends

word friends

Learn with WordFriends is a FREE educational game from WordWorld, PBS’s Emmy winning show. Kids build and discover words with Dog, Duck, Sheep, Ant, Bear, Pig and Frog. Animal characters and word objects are formed from the words’ letters – a very cool feature! There are 3 puzzles to play: WordRain – grab letters as they rain from the sky to build the word, WordScramble – rearrange the scrambled letters to form the word, and WordMatch – a tile memory game. There is also a WordFriend Farms where kids can interact with the different animal characters. Dog is included with the app and the other animals are available as in-app purchases. Very cute, happy app!

If you like this app, also check out PlaySquare which features the same characters. Here is a link to my earlier review on that one 🙂
playsquare « Search Results « appydazeblog

Enjoy them both – they are super cute!

Learn with WordFriends - WordWorld

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Grammar Wonderland (Primary) & Grammar Wonderland (Elementary)

grammar primary

grammar

FREE today – the full versions of Grammar Wonderland (Primary) & Grammar Wonderland (Elementary). In both games kids lead their characters through different adventures as they practice  nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. The primary version is for younger children – the words are read and some levels include pictures. The app does not teach the parts of speech but it provides lots of practice for kids in a fun game-like environment. After teaching a lesson about parts of speech, teachers can have kids show what they know with this app. Practice is provided for the following: common nouns, proper, nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, possessive nouns, pronouns, action verbs, present-tense verbs, past-tense verbs, future-tense verbs, linking verbs, adjectives, articles, comparative/superlative adjectives, and more! Many parts of speech are taught in both apps – perfect for differentiating your instruction for a variety of reading levels. Both also apps permit multiple player – great for the classroom!

Recommended!!  – Download them today 🙂

Grammar Wonderland Primary       Grammar Wonderland (Primary) - McGraw-Hill School Education Group

Grammar Wonderland Elementary       Grammar Wonderland (Elementary) - McGraw-Hill School Education Group

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Preschool University – phonics/spelling apps

spelling-magic

Moveable Alphabet option from ABC Spelling Magic

Wow!! Preschool University has 12 phonics/spelling apps available for FREE right now. There are links to all below. I have them grouped by the skills that they teach and from easiest to most difficult. The first group teaches letter sounds.

  • ABC Magic Phonics – initial letter sounds, 1 picture for each letter       ABC MAGIC PHONICS - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 2 –  initial letter sounds, 4 pictures for each letter       ABC MAGIC 2 - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 3 Line Match – Kids apply what they know about sounds by matching. There are 2 modes: matching 2 pictures with the same beginning sounds or matching letters to a picture that starts with that sound.       ABC MAGIC 3 Line Match - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 4  – Kids are given a letter and they must find pictures of 3,6,or 9 items that begin with that sound.       ABC MAGIC 4 - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 5 Letter Sound Matching – Kids match sounds in 2 modes: picture to letter or letter to picture. As kids become more advanced, you can increase their number of choices (4, 6, or 9) and increase the number of matches per round (5,10,15,20,or 25). ABC MAGIC 5 Letter Sound Matching - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 6 – is the same as Sound Beginnings (follows #8).
  • ABC Magic 7 Memory Match – A matching game with 2 options: match letter to letter or match picture to picture. Letter sounds and picture names are pronounced with the option of turning the sounds off. Grids of 12, 16, or 20 are available.       ABC MAGIC 7 Memory Match - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Magic 8 Sound Matching – This app is an extension of ABC Magic 7. It’s another matching game with 2 options: letter to picture having that beginning sound or picture to another picture with the same beginning sound. Letter sounds and picture names are pronounced with the option of turning the sounds off. Grids of 12, 16, or 20 are available.       ABC MAGIC 8 Sound Matching - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • Sound Beginnings – This app is the most advanced of the letter sound teaching apps. It is called sound beginnings but actually teaches beginning, middle, and ending sounds. There are two options: a picture to letter and letter to picture. As kids become more advanced, you can increase their number of choices (3,4, or 5) and increase the number of matches per round (5,10,15,20,or 25). Awesome practice for beginning readers!!       SOUND BEGINNINGS - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY

The second group of apps uses letter sounds to spell words that phonetically regular. There are 2 ways to use each of these apps. Word Jumble provides the  child with the letters of the word and the child puts them in order. Moveable Alphabet (the more difficult option) has the entire alphabet across the top of the page and the child must find the correct letters to spell the word. If a child touches a picture, the app reads the word. If a child touches a letter, the app gives the sound for that letter. Each vowel is taught in isolation but there is also a shuffle option which provides mixed practice. Vowels are printed in blue and consonants are in red so you can reinforce the CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) pattern.

  • ABC Spelling Magic Short Vowels – teaches short vowels       ABC SPELLING MAGIC Short Vowel Words - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Spelling Magic 2 Consonant Blends – teaches consonant blends and consonant clusters       ABC SPELLING MAGIC 2 Consonant Blends - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • ABC Spelling Magic 3 Blends & Syllables – GREAT practice spelling multi-syllable words       ABC SPELLING MAGIC 3 Blends and Syllables - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY
  • Sentence Reading Magic – Kids built 2 or 3 words sentences using phonetically regular words.       SENTENCE READING MAGIC - PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY

These apps provide a lot of good practice for preschoolers and early readers!!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K. RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Associate the short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
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Oh, What a Tangle

tangle

FREE for a limited time – Oh, What a Tangle is an interactive e-book for the iPhone/iPad. It normally sells for $4.99. It is a cute story told in rhyme about Kiki, a little girl who doesn’t take the time to brush her hair because there is always something better to do. A knot develops and Kiki allows it to get wildly out of control. Cute story with animation and interactivity found on almost every page. Kids can help paint Kiki’s nails different colors, use a magnifying glass to find the tiny knot in Kiki’s hair, make the birds fly around Kiki’s head, etc. Kids also collect hidden brushes throughout the story to unlock puzzles at the end of the story. Very cute story with rich vocabulary – great for a lesson on context clues 🙂

Recommended!

Oh, What a Tangle! - Digital Leaf