Great For Student Involvement and Small Groups
Community Review for Starfall
My Take
I feel that this is a great website for early education. It allows me to pull my students into a lesson and let them be a part of it. They do not have to worry about getting the answer wrong. I also really like that it reviews the sound with each section. It does not just tell them the letter and the picture. I feel that it has really helped my students. If we have extra time or indoor recess, I will often pull this site up and do it on the Smart board just to review. They always get excited. They love feeling like they are doing the lesson.
How I Use It
I used this website in several ways. When I introduce a letter, I use this on my Smart board. We go to the ABCs section of the website. I pull up the letter we are learning on the Smart board. Each letter contains an activity for the students to do. We do them as a whole group. I call up a student individually and they do the letter. The lesson goes over the letter, the sounds, and several pictures that begin with each letter. At the end of each lesson, there is a game that relates to the letter. The students are able to do these games with little to no help. The students will often help their classmates complete the lesson. My favorites are sorting upper and lower case letters, and finding the letter that does not match. When the students go to computers for small groups, the site is used as a review lesson. They are able to go through and click on any letters they like. Students often find the letters we have covered so far and review their sounds and words that begin with that letter.