Increase awareness of letter-sound correspondence and how it relates to spelling.
Community Review for Montessori Crosswords
My Take
A very well done app that is nice to look at, engaging for students, and offers a fun and safe way for students to increase their phonological awareness and connect it with spelling. As a special education and RTI teacher, I especially like apps that are low pressure and promote students taking risks without fear of failure while still achieving learning. I feel like this app accomplishes both of those things. Students are able to get sound "clues" by tapping on letter tiles, there are picture "clues" offered as well, and, if they get really stuck, the missing words are provided for them to then copy by dragging the appropriate letter tiles into the blank squares. I also like that it works well for a variety of grade levels and can be used for at-grade level practice as well as for remedial practice for students who are performing below grade-level or who have learning disabilities.
How I Use It
I use it on iPads with special education and RTI students in grades K-5 who are receiving small group ELA support in our school's Learning Center (outside of their regular elementary classroom). I have also used it with my 4 year old son and he enjoys playing with this app as well.