Great Early Reading Resources

Variety of drills offer solid, thorough approach to reading fundamentals

Bottom Line: This can be a fun way to engage struggling readers or reinforce early reading classroom instruction.

Simple but fun games cleverly let prereaders explore familiar names

Bottom Line: This collection of name-based mini-games offers a targeted and clever introduction to literacy.

Well-known curriculum adapts well to fun, easy-to-use app

Bottom Line: Thorough phonics program offers a nice mixture of learning, practicing, and reading.

Well-crafted app lets emerging readers and writers develop reading skills through word building

Bottom Line: Students who already know their letters can work on developing basic reading skills through word building, word play, and letter-sound recognition.

Delightful monkey means business on this challenging early reading app

Bottom Line: Automatic leveling and mix of phonics and sight words make this a great addition to any early reading toolkit.

Cartoon classroom has wide variety of point-and-click learning

Bottom Line: Though it's not for deeper thinking, this free platform has a ton to offer.

Early learners follow an individualized path of skills and interests to gain literacy skills and more

Bottom Line: Top-notch phonics program effectively balances and guides students, but lack some standard features useful for classroom use..

Creative, smart mix of activities for pre-K to 2 is a breath of fresh air

Bottom Line: This early-learning standout offers scaffolded, creative learning of foundational skills.

Kid-centered early reading game leans into discovery and delight

Bottom Line: This is a smart spin on phonics with a deep commitment to a kid-driven, fun-first experience.

ELL-friendly reading program gives students support, independence

Bottom Line: This is a good specialized program for small-group instruction, especially for ELLs, with a great teacher dashboard and a pedagogical approach informed by research.

Gently ease kids into phonics with superb Montessori-inspired puzzles

Bottom Line: The surprisingly great combo of Montessori principles and technology helps kids learn phonics without overstimulation.

Add music, sound effects to books to spice up story time

Bottom Line: This will enhance -- but not necessarily enrich -- stories; if that's what you're looking for, it works well and pairs with A-list books.

Blended reading program offers individualized growth

Bottom Line: This is a research-backed blended reading platform that builds literacy skills and helps teachers plan and deliver targeted instruction in the classroom.

Leveled readings with progress-tracking enhances differentiated reading program

Bottom Line: It's worth considering as a supplement to your reading program thanks to the good variety of leveled books, easy assigning and assessing, and detailed progress reports.

Good early reading practice, but busy with a capital B

Bottom Line: Duck Duck Moose Reading offers good skills practice, if kids can block out the distractions.

Delight early readers with lively if only supplemental phonics lessons

Bottom Line: This app's plentiful phonics activities should keep emergent readers engaged, but teachers will need to figure out assessment.

K–2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities

Bottom Line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.

Thorough lesson plans help teachers utilize an amazing digital library

Bottom Line: Though it could use some updates, Skybrary for School has a set of top-quality resources with great value worth checking out.

Free, expansive digital library unlocks treasure trove of books

Bottom Line: This large collection of books and videos on a wide variety of topics is an easy -- and free -- enhancement to any classroom library.

Detailed, adaptive literacy program goes from basics to analysis

Bottom Line: This is a comprehensive resource that's worth a look for teachers needing help getting students to actively engage with reading material.

Quality flashcard-style phonics app missing some basics

Bottom Line: Phonics Genius is a great resource for building phonemic awareness and a library of sight words.

Package of leveled texts and supports can fuel reading development

Bottom Line: Reading A-Z offers much of what teachers need to support tried-and-true instructional strategies, but the pricier packages add in digital reading experiences.

Great looking, free library has a reasonable diversity of titles

Bottom Line: This is a reading app that focuses primarily -- and successfully -- on the reading; don't expect many bells and whistles though.

Simple and useful reading fluency assessment tool frees up teacher time

Bottom Line: Some districts may find this to be a cost-effective, time-saving option for reading records.

Differentiate reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons

Bottom Line: The quality and scope of texts, lesson plans, assessments, and supports on this platform can help facilitate online or offline targeted reading instruction in nearly any home or classroom.

Daily news stories and supplements keep elementary schoolers current

Bottom Line: This highly useful current events platform can be a daily fixture of elementary school classrooms.