Endless Alphabet

Adorable animated monsters teach sophisticated vocabulary

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 14 reviews

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

Pre-K–2

Subjects & Topics

English Language Arts

Price: Free to try, Paid
Platforms: Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle Fire, Windows

Pros: The animated definitions make learning the word meanings easy and fun.

Cons: No checks for understanding make it hard to know how much kids are retaining.

Bottom Line: Animated words and definitions grab kids' attention and introduce challenging and unique vocabulary.

Use Endless Alphabet as a way to introduce vivid words for students to incorporate into their writing or vocabulary. Kids can view the animations on-screen as a whole-class activity. They can also explore the endless alphabet on their own. Since no assessment is built in, you could have students choose a word or two to incorporate into their writing. After using Endless Alphabet for a while, kids could also mimic the format to create skits demonstrating the meaning of other words, acting out or drawing their definitions.

Endless Alphabet is a charming spelling and vocabulary app for young readers. A monster's mouth is full of words in alphabetical order. Kids scroll through and select a word and then see and hear the word, put the word back together with phonetic sounds for each letter, and watch an animation demonstrating the word's meaning. It's "endless" because new words are added regularly. These aren't the typical words of preschool phonics apps, either. No "C is for cat" here -- rather, "C is for cooperate." Kids will learn other great vocabulary like bellow, gargantuan, opera, and quarrel.

Kids work at their own pace with no objective or goals beyond exploring the words. Since the app isn't linear, kids can take charge of their learning by choosing the path they take through the words. The animations demonstrate meaning in an unforgettable and concrete way -- kids see a monster grow from normal size to gargantuan or watch as the word invisible appears when paint is thrown on it. The app itself offers no opportunity for kids to apply what they've learned, but a creative teacher could easily come up with fun extension activities. The name of Endless Alphabet may be misleading. This is more of a vocabulary and phonics app than a way to learn the alphabet.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

Cute monsters and clever animations engage kids in exploring words and letters.

Pedagogy

Kids can connect word meanings to the real world through the adorable animations, and the phonetic pronunciations teach letter sounds. However, there are no opportunities for kids to demonstrate or apply what they've learned.

Support

Words are added regularly to keep the content fresh, but kids can't track which words they've mastered. No tips or extension activities are available.

Common Sense reviewer

Community Rating

Good resource for kids struggling with early letters/simple words

There are lots of early alphabet/language apps, but this one is one of the better ones. Very straightforward and well designed.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Users can interact with untrusted users, including strangers and/or adults.
  • Personal information can be displayed publicly.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Unclear whether this product provides processes to access and review user data.
  • Unclear whether this product provides processes to modify data for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Unclear whether personal information are shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Unclear whether this product displays personalised advertising.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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