Phonics App Reviews

** means it is one of our favorite apps and we are using it with our students.

• **Abby Explorer Phonics - First Grade - Free ($2.99 for full version) by Hien TonYear Published:  I love this app. I only have the free version, but I am hoping to get the full version on  the student iPads soon. We have a grammar app from the same company that is  having problems and I want to wait for a response before we put this one on them.  It has categories for sentences, matching, riddles, search, review, words, spelling, &  writing. Within each of those categories is an option to do short vowels, long vowels,  s,l, & r blends, final consonant blends with S, vowel pairs, y sounds, digraphs, and the  ng ending pair. Not all the categories are available with the free version. You can  upgrade individual skills, PDF creator feature, and add removal for $.99 - $1.99 each.  You can also just upgrade the entire thing for $3.99. If you just buy the full thing  through itunes it is $2.99.

• **Chicktionary - Free ($1.99 for additional puzzles) by Blockdot, IncYear Published:  The kids love this app. I even enjoy it. Every student in the class can play it to match their  level of learning. The game gives you 7 letters and you have to make as many words out  of those 7 letters as you can. It is the same idea as "Making Words." There are eggs in  groups of 3 letter - 7 letter words. When you get a word right, it places it into the correct  number of eggs. I have some students who just go for three letter words and others who  try any they can get. It uses strategies such as knowing if you have ing, er, ed, or s that  you can add those endings to some of the words you choose to make a new word. We  just use the free version. I have been using it whole group so the I can monitor the  advertisements.

• **Hideout - Free by Brigham Young UniversityYear Published:  This app works on the word families app , it and op. It has a great catchy rhythm for  each sound. Then you bump different beginning sound to the word ending. At they end  they play a little game that leads to a sentence. The student clicks on each word to  create a sentence.

• **Howie Hungry Monster: Build Words - Free ($2.99 for full version) by PlaySmart-KidsYear Published:  This is a great app. There are 5 levels covering short vowels, long vowels, bossy r's, and  other vowel teams. Words are broken into first letter sound and then then the ending  family. The letter sounds are one color and the ending families are another color. The  students hear a word. Then they pick from multiple options for beginning sound that  match the same color as the empty frame above. If you get it wrong, it send the letter  back and puts an x over it. Then you try the ending family.  Once you get the complete  word it says the sounds together to complete the word. The word builds a macaroon  and then a Howie the monster eats the macaroon with says yum, yum, yum with a cute  little voice. I love this app and so do my students. You can also get a report of your  progress when you want.

• **PhonicsFun 1 - Free by Innovative Net Learning LimitedYear Published:  This was the first app we put on our iPads. We wanted parents to use it for our RTI  students. It is a very basic app where student choose from a given number of letters  to determine the first letter of the picture shown. The difficulty increases by adding  more letters to choose from around the picture.

• **Word Wonderland (Primary) Free - ($1.99 for full version) by McGraw-HillYear Published:  This is a great app to use with word endings. My own kids have tried it out and really  enjoy it. We do not have it on student iPads, but it is in the queue to be ordered. You  have to make a frog hop across lily pads to the other side of the pond. Some lily pads  are missing and there is just a word ending sound. You have to pick a lily pad from  the bottom of the screen that has a picture and word with the same word ending.  You also have to watch out for the fly who comes to steal the special star. Shake the  iPad to make him dizzy and go away. I think that is my four year olds favorite part.

• ABC Phonics Long Vowel Words-Free ($2.99 for full version) by Abitalk IncorporatedYear Published:  In this app a spaceship flies around and planets appear. Onthe planets are words. You  want to click on the words containing the vowel you are working on. The planet then  blows up. If you click on the wrong word you see a poof of smoke. The free version  comes with 2 vowel sounds. I think my students would get bored of this quickly and  all they have to do is look forthe letter to know if they should click on it. I don’t think  it is very beneficial.

• Hungry Monster Vowels-Free ($2.99 for full version) by PlaySmart-KidsYear Published:  We have other versions of this app, this is the vowel version. It has short vowels, long  vowels, bossy r’s and other vowel teams. A word is given, the beginning and  ending sounds are given and the student has to put the pick the vowel that goes with it.  The word is a hot dog bun and the vowel is a hot dog. When you put them together  correctly the monster eats the hot dog. You can click on the hot dog to hear the sounds.  You can choose to see a report of the student’s scores anytime. You can also set the  difficulty level. 1- words begin and end with 1 consonant, 2 – words begin or end with digraphs, 3 – words being with blends or end with 2 or 3 letters.

• Phonics 1st Grade2 Lite - Free ($3.99 for full version) by Futonge Nzembayie KisitoYear Published:  Description from their website: "In this level, children will learn R and L blends (bl, br, cr, cl, gr, gl, pl, pr) and long  vowels ‘a’ and ‘i’ with the silent E (van-vane, kit-kite). This app will also introduce  the concept of long vowel digraphs (ai, ay, ee, ea) and the long vowel sounds of ‘y’  (windy, cry). There are 4 decodable stories to match the key lessons. The videos and  games are part of our 1st grade Level 2 phonics program on  http://www.kizphonics.com/phonics-program/1st-grade-level-2/      This app works great with our KIZ PHONICS BOOK 5 for 1st grade Level 2. It is a great complementary product."    It starts by showing the  blend and then you add the rest of the word to it. When you  click on the game, it gives the ending and a picture. You then click on the blend that  goes with the picture. The only issue I have is that the answer is always the blend you  are currently working on. There are also books that go with the skill, buy you need the  full version to read those. I do like that there are a lot of skills in each app.

• Phonics 2nd Grade1 Lite - Free ($3.99 for full version) by Futonge Nzembayie KisitoYear Published:  Description from the companies website: "In this level, children will learn the long ‘O’ & long ‘U’ vowel sounds with the silent ‘E’.  They will also learn vowel digraphs like the ‘oa’, ‘ow’ and short vs long ‘oo’ digraphs.  There are also videos and activities for learning the r-controlled vowels (er, or, ar, ir, ur),  double vowels or diphthongs (oi, oy, ow, ou) and special vowels (aw, ew). The app also  features 7 short stories which are built around the sounds learned in this level. Children  will learn to read short stories and sentences. This app works great with our KIZ PHONICS  BOOK 6 for 2nd grade at  http://www.kizphonics.com/phonics-program/2nd-grade-level-1/ .  It is a great complementary product."

• Phonics and Reading WIth McGuffey Lite - Free ($19.99 for full version) by Software For a Better WorldYear Published:

• Phonics Fun 7 by Innovative Net Learning LimitedYear Published:  A picture is given and then empty circles for each sound are presented. Click on the  picture to hear the word and then go to the bottom of the page to choose which sounds  you want to drag up and spell the word. Silente’s are already in place. It gives vowel  combinations like ay and ai, digraphs, and blends. You can also click on the sounds at  the bottom of the page and theyhave audio with them. I think this is a really great app.  My only complaint is that the sounds are sometimes difficult to understand.

• PhonicsAwareness, 1st Grade - Free by Bugbrained, LLCYear Published:  It starts with segmenting activities and then breaks words into their number of sounds. Then you find the letter that the word starts, ends or says in the middle. I like the skill, but I do not like the way layout of the page when dragging the letters into the parts of  the word. You then drag letters or phonemes in to the letter sound boxes. I like this part better than the beginning. .It does some matching activities and then some syllable activities It gives an assessment at the end. It also does blends and vowels.

• Picture Packets - Vowels- Free by Center for Innovation in EducationYear Published:  I can’t even figure out how this app works. I think I need more information to figure it  out. I am sure someone who understands this system would be able to use it, but I  don't have a clue. Check it out on itunes and maybe you will know how to use it. : )  My favorite part of this app is the cute octopus icon.

• Space Voyager Letters- Free ($1.99 for full version) by Mrs. Judd's Games, LLCYear Published:  A letter is put on the bottom of the screen and you have to fly your spaceship through  the same letter on the screen by moving your iPad around. I find it a little difficult to  navigate and I think it would be even more difficult for a child. It starts out with just  identifying letters, which my students are past doing. It then goes to matching lowercase  and uppercase letters. Followed by vowel and consonant recognition and vowels within a  word. You have to pay $1.99 to unlock more levels. I think this game would be fun for  only a short time.  ($.99 unlocks crystals, but I don't know anything about those)

• Word Detective #1 - Sounds Like Fun - Free by AppBachYear Published:  This app would not load once I opened it. I just let it sit there for ten minutes and then  it would let me swipe to the next part. The first part just makes a sound and then you  pop empty bubbles while you say the word yourself. Then it just has you flip pictures  over that have the same sound. I did not see the point of this app. It was a bit confusing.

• Word Warp Xtreme-Free ($1.99 for ad free) by Mobility WareYear Published:  This is similar to Chicktionary, but there are 5 different ways to play. They are all timed. Some of the words would be quite difficult for first graders. There is the option to play against another person by passing the iPad back and forth or if they have an iPad, it will connect the two and you play to see who can get the most words first. I think this is more of an adult game. It also has a skeleton with red eyes on the front page. For that reason alone, I would not use it with students.