Rocket Speller offers children an engaging space scene to practice spelling. The app presents words to students and they must reconstruct the word. In addition, each word is presented with a picture to reinforce vocabulary development. Rocket Speller has the option to have the word displayed (visual hints) so students are reconstructing the word in order to continually practice spelling the word and build visual memory of the letters. Children like how getting a few correct answers leads to different choices for designing their own rocket ship and eventually blasting it off into space. From an educational perspective, Rocket Speller combines naturally occurring letter sounds together such as ck, ee, ea, and or. Rocket Speller offers some nice options for parents. There are several different categories of words to choose from or mix them all together. Parents can choose to have the narrator say the letter name or sound. We recommend choosing the “sound” option when working on spelling words. Parents can choose between capital or lowercase letters to form the words. We recommend choosing lowercase for activities involving common words that mostly appear in lowercase print. Rocket Speller has five different levels that provide options for visual hints, audible hints and smart technology that can determine when a child is having difficulty and provide assistance called Adaptive Assistance. Rocket Speller is $2.99 and available for iPhone and iPad. Rocket Speller would be appropriate for children ages 4-8.

The Vocabulary/Spelling City app coordinates with the website www.spellingcity.com. The app draws on all the lists created in Spelling City and has seven free games that your child can play within the app. Student favorites are HangMouse, Unscramble and Missing Letter. In addition, parents can set up a free account with Spelling City and create their own list of spelling or vocabulary words for your child to practice. Once you have created your own account with Spelling City and created your own lists, you can login on the app and they will appear for your child to practice. This app would be appropriate for students ages 5-12 and is available for iPhone and iPad for free.

Word Wagon is an app that progresses from learning letter sounds to the beginning stages of spelling. Word Wagon includes 103 words, and children will learn how to spell many common 4-6 letter words. As the wagon moves along, common objects fall into the scene and children can tap on them to practice spelling the word. Word Wagon includes stickers and free play activities that break up the spelling and letter practice. Students earn a sticker for each correctly spelled word and a game for every three words spelled correctly. For students ages 4-7, the stickers and game play help to keep them interested and motivated to return to this spelling app. As with other Duck Duck Moose apps, Word Wagon has appealing music and delightful characters. Word Wagon is available for iPad, and iPhone and is $1.99. Parents can change the four levels of play easily and have the option for upper or lowercase letters. It is really important to use the lowercase letters for words most commonly seen in lowercase print. This will make the transfer to reading, writing and spelling easier for children. If you have a beginning speller, this app is a perfect fit!