App Review 2

App Review 2

Here are some more reviews of Apps I have tried with my son and/or my kindergartners.

AlphaBELCH

$.99

A silly alphabet story about noisy animals.  The reader can tap a button to have the sentence read to them and they can tap the other button to hear the animal.  If I had to rate this story out of 5 stars, I would give the story 2 stars.  Yes, it is a silly story that the students will laugh at, however that is all it is, a story.  It does have an animal for each letter of the alphabet, but it doesn't track the print.  This is a good story to have on the bookshelf for the students to look at once and a while or at the beginning of the year to gain their reading interest.  The price is a plus for it with the app only costing 99 cents.

ABC Alphabet Little Book

FREE

This is an alphabet book.  It has the letter and a picture to match the letter on each page.  Then it also has the words ___ is for ___ on each page matching the letter and the picture.  This app is wonderful!  It gives the player numerous options.  The player can choose read to me, read myself, or autoplay.  Plus (the BEST feature) you can even customize the story meaning you could record yourself or have your students record themselves reading the story.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 4 stars because it tracks the print and it is customizable.  

ABC Alphabet Phonics

FREE

Ideal for ages 0-6. 

Helps children learn letters quickly by sight and sound.  This app displays however many letters you choose and then has the child find the one it says to find.  This app gets harder throughout game play.  This app allows the adult to set the minimum and maximum items to display.  It allows the adult to customize items and game sounds.  The adult can also turn on and off uppercase letters, lowercase letters, animals, kids, monkeys, and sketches.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 5 stars.  This app is great for learning the letter rapidly.  Plus the customizable features are great!

ABC Go

$1.99

Toddlers and Preschoolers

This app allows students to explore letters, words, and vehicles!  For each letter of the alphabet, vehicles are shown.  When the student clicks on a vehicle, photos and videos are shown for each vehicle.  This app does need internet access to get all the videos to work.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 3 stars since you have to have internet access to get all the videos to work.

ABC Magic Phonics

FREE

This app helps children learn the sounds of the letters. This app has a page for each letter, followed by a picture.  When you tap the page to come up it says the sound of the letter a few times then says the picture.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would rate it with 1 star.  Yes, it goes over the sounds for the letters, but the app is boring.  It has a picture for each letter, but nothing to keep the children's attention.  It is a free app but I don't think it is worth installing.

ABC Magic Reading Short Vowels

FREE

Teaching children how to read using phonics.  The app says it would like the user to do the blending part first, then the segmenting, followed by the reading part.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 2 stars.  The app has a lot of potential, but sometimes the voice making the sounds is hard to understand.  Also the buttons for the user to advance to the next question look like they are unusable because they are lighter, making it confusing for my students who used this to know what to do after they blended the word.

ABC Phonics Rhyming Words Lite

FREE

Recommended for 4-7 year olds.

This app has children match rhyming words.  The description from the App Store says it helps children recognize word patterns and understand how the initial, middle, and ending sounds affect pronunciation.  After the children match rhyming pairs they earn jewels.  After they earn so many jewels they get to play a bonus game.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 1 star.  My students are great at rhyming but with this app they are not.  I think it is too difficult with the word printed on the fruit and not very enticing.  I think this app would be better if they used pictures to rhyme with first and then build up to words.  For children that can't read the words it is too difficult for them to play.

ABC Pocket Phonic: Letters, Sounds, & Writing + First Words

$2.99

Recommended for 3-6 year olds.

This app introduces children to letter sounds.  Then it introduces them on how to write the letter, first showing the children how to do it then giving them practice.  Then it puts the sounds together to form words. This app has numerous setting that you can adjust.  For example, at my school we use D'Nealian for handwriting.  In the setting part of this app you can change the handwriting to D'Nealian or Zaner Bloser.  You also have the option of lowercase, uppercase, or cursive. If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 4.5 stars.  It is great for my preschool son and my kindergarteners to use.  I like how the kiddos have to practice the handwriting with it and if they are too far off on their tracing they have to keep doing it.  I like how it asks them the sounds and they have to pick the letter.  I like how it blends the word and helps the students see the relationship of letters/sounds and words.  This is a great app!! :)

The ABC Song All In One Activity Center
FREE

This app plays the famous ABC song.  It also has four spelling activities and games within the app.  If I had to rate this app out of 5 stars, I would give it 2 stars.  My students do love listening to the ABC song.  The letter formation part of it teaches the wrong formation of the letter for the handwriting my school uses.  This app is really way too easy for my kindergarteners.  It is more for toddlers.  It really isn't a learning app, I think it is more of a fun playing app. 


Well, that's all folks!  I hope you find these reviews helpful.  Stay tuned for more reviews.