How Can Teachers Use It?
Interactive Alphabet is billed as a "cradle to kindergarten" app, so it certainly fits the bill for a kindergarten teacher with a range of literacy levels. Teachers can use the same app for kids just learning the alphabet, those learning to write individual letters, and those writing words. For kids ready for more of a challenge, teachers (or students themselves) can create custom flashcards using their own voice and images.
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What's It Like?
Interactive Alphabet is quite versatile. Baby mode advances through the entire alphabet, one letter at a time, introducing the letter, its phonetic sound, and showing an interactive image of an object that begins with the letter. Explore mode lets kids choose which letter to explore and when to advance. They'll interact with an object from each letter, like eating an apple for A or feeding olives to an ogre for O. There's also a tracing mode, customizable for righties or lefties, for kids to learn how to write each letter and some words, as well as a typing mode to teach a bit of touch typing. It's incredibly customizable. Teachers or students can add their own photos, words, and voices to create custom flashcards that are then added to the letter mix. They can also choose uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.
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Is It Good For Learning?
The customization alone makes Interactive Alphabet is a great tool. As kids learn the words and letters, they can work with their own frequently used words (like names or cities) to really make learning relevant and meaningful. Creating the custom flash cards is easy enough that the kids can do it themselves. The range of skills covered makes it perfect for a kindergarten classroom where kids are coming in with a wide range of abilities -- some not knowing any letters and some reading independently. Kids will be engaged by the fun, interactive animations. It'd be nice if there was a way to track kids' progress through the letters or for teachers to set up student accounts with the custom cards, but even without that, this app provides excellent practice.
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Choose the letter to to explore.
Elements are interactive, like zipping a zipper or moving a train.
Practice spelling words by typing.
Practice writing lowercase letters by tracing letters and then words.
Customize your own flash cards with audio and images.
