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Word Wall HD
Cute, low-pressure games focus on multisensory pre-reading skills
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Word Wall HD
Pros: The four games are distinct enough that most kids should find at least one appealing and engaging.
Cons: Drag-and-drop "writing" exercises aren't very interactive, and some kids may get bored quickly.
Bottom Line: Easy games serve pre-readers with a variety of learning styles, but it would benefit from more complexity and interactivity.
Teachers or parents can sign up for the (thankfully free) SmarTots service to keep track of kids' progress with the app. The virtual sticker collections should appeal to you and your students, and Word Wall HD could create some healthy competition among kids who want to collect stars (but have to complete games first to obtain them).
Word Wall HD teaches early reading skills through colorful, creative games. Kids can choose from four games or two options to practice matching (via drag-and-drop) letters and words. The multisensory approach is based on the idea that kids should see, hear, play, and write to learn pre-reading skills. The games "See and Find," "Hide a Word," "Bubble Words," and "Jigsaw Words" are all similar to other game concepts kids may have already encountered online or off.
Kids can learn to build and recognize words through the use of word families (building many words using -am, -at, or -ug, for example) and sight words. When they succeed, kids get cute in-app stickers as rewards and a "word wall" on which to post the stickers and their favorite words.
Word Wall's games are versatile -- easy enough for very young pre-readers to play, yet increasingly challenging for new readers further along the path to practice their skills in fun ways. As kids complete simple word-building puzzles, pull letters out of bubbles to spell words, find hidden words, and play a word-to-picture match game on Word Wall HD, they’re gaining pre-reading skills. Matching letters and word families in the Writing ABCs and Writing Words sections help kids identify words and patterns on their own. There are also cute stickers (who doesn't love stickers?) and a "word wall" for kids to collect favorite words.
Potential improvements: It would be nice to see more complexity and interactivity. For example, in the Writing ABCs activity, kids simply choose a letter and drag it onto a shaded version of the same letter; no writing (or even tracing) is involved.
Learning Rating
Makes no sense
It has half the answers wrong or illogical. My students did not get it.
They were fed fake information.
do not use.
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