Spellyfish Phonics App Review
App Info
Price: $2.99
Overview
For parents looking for an engaging app that will help children learn to read, spell, and sound out their letters, Spellyfish Phonics- Short I Words is a great app. Through a variety of short word lessons, wonderful graphics, and an underwater concept, children are going to love learning to spell simple three letter words.
Features include:
- Hint feature
- Progress report
- 8 Lessons
- Multi-user function
Quality
At first glance you can tell the developers have done a lot of work with the visuals and the sound effects in this app. Not only are the illustrations and animations brightly colored, but the combination of images and sound effects really bring the app to life and add to the overall underwater feel with water sounds etc. The user interface is very simple to use and children will have no problem moving through the app especially with the introduction segment that shows them exactly how to use the app. Additionally, there are a variety of options to customize the app with upper and lower case letters, keyboard options, music, etc. that provides a ton of flexibility for parents and teachers.
Education
The main idea with Spellyfish Phonics: Short I Words is to teach children to sound out and spell short “I” words. The app is broken into an introduction, 6 regular lessons, and 2 review lessons that will combine all of the lessons and reinforce what is learned. Each lesson focuses on a certain theme, with the first 4 lessons focusing on spelling a variety of words that rhyme. For instance, lesson one is all ‘ig’ words. Lessons 5 and 6 focus on short “i” words that begin with “d” and “r”.
As children move through each lesson they are provided a picture that illustrates the word that Spellyfish is looking for and they must select the correct letters in order to spell it. In the event they get stuck, they can tap the hint button and then tap the fish (or letter) they are having trouble with and options will appear that coincide with that sound. For instance an “F” sound may show up as “f” or “ph”. Children then must use their problem solving skills to select the correct letter. The hint function is great, especially for younger children just beginning to spell as it will help them learn and build their confidence as they play it more and more.
Another great thing about this app is that parents and teachers can follow up on the progress by viewing the statistics area. This will provide information on how many words have been mastered, how many correct answers were given and the number of attempts it took. This added bonus is a great way to see what words may be more troublesome than others.
Entertainment
Spellyfish Phonics: Short I Words is definitely a more educational app than entertaining as it does not have any additional activities or games. With that said, children will likely enjoy challenging themselves as they move through each lesson and the wonderful images and illustrations help to keep children engaged and entertained.
Value
Priced at just under a dollar this app is an absolute steal! Parents and teachers don’t want to miss out on this app and all the wonderful educational features that it includes. What is even better is for such a small price, multiple users can play, learn, and enjoy a good challenge. Teachers will certainly find this to be an awesome addition to the classroom for not a lot of money.
Child Friendliness
What I love about this app is that it doesn’t take a lot to get started and while the set-up is very intuitive, the developers have included an introduction section to help children learn how to use the hint feature etc. Another great feature is that Spellyfish helps children sound out the words and letters which not only helps children learn how to do it too, but also helps them select the correct word.
The developers have also made sure to protect any and all parent areas and access to external links which is a must for this type of app since young children will likely be playing it. Overall this is a great app for young children since it is so easy to use.
