First Words with Phonics: Learning Animals – Top Learning App Using Synthetic phonics

First Words with Phonics: Learning Animals is a top fun educational app for toddlers and pre-schoolers. It is bright, colourful, easy to use and will help your kids learn how to read and spell the name of 30 animals via fun and interactive activities Looking for a learning app that uses phonetic sounds, then, this one is for you!

When looking for app that teaches how to read and spell, Fun Educational Apps is always happy to review and recommend apps that offer the "phonics method".  Synthetic phonics is now widely used in school and it helps create confident readers. If your kid is starting to read, then we advise you to have a look at: First Words with Phonics: Learning Animals.

First Words with Phonics: Top Learning How to Read App for Toddlers and Pre-schoolers

First Words with Phonics Learning Animals offers a unique way for your kids to learn how to read and spell the name of 30 animals (full version). Although you can choose what system you want to use (Letter name or Synthetic Phonics), we like to use the Synthetic Phonics. It allows children to link each letter or a combination of letter with its appropriate sounds. Each letter is then spoken out and kids can easily learn and remember the spelling.

First Words with Phonics offer 2 levels of settings when using the Synthetic Phonics:

1. "Synthetic Phonics Basic": introduction to Synthetic Phonics. Simple words are only presented and children are introduced to blending (drawing individual sounds together to pronounce a word) with basic phonemes (the smallest single identifiable sound). 
2.  "Synthetic Phonics Advanced": Words and letter sounds of greater complexity are introduced that include graphemes (a group of letters representing one sound), digraphs (two letters making one sound which is different from the sound either can make alone) and letters that have more than one sounds. 

To start learning, kids can simply tap on 1 of the animal. Then, the picture of the animal will appear with letters scattered around. Each animal is featured in its own habitat and kids can listen to the noise they make. They just need to drag each letter to its place. Each letter is then spoken and once all the letters are in order they highlight while spoken one after the other followed by the full word.

Once your toddler or pre-schooler has placed all the letters correctly, he/she will be rewarded with a cute animation and ready to move on to the next animal.

There are many options to choose from via the setting menu, and we advise you to open the app by yourself before handing it to your kids. Go to settings and choose which option you want to adjust the game play to suit your kid's level.

What Fun Educational Apps Liked

First Words with Phonics is a top, fun educational app and we loved that it offers the synthetic phonics. The kids at Fun Educational Apps have learnt how to read and spell using this approach we wish more early learning apps would use it. We like that each letter is associated with a sound. It makes it easier for the kids and ideal for kids with dyslexia. In addition, we really valued the 2 settings for the Synthetic Phonics which helps children learn all the letter sounds.

The app is easy to use and offers bright and colourful artwork to engage and stimulate the young ones. We also like all the various options under the settings. You can choose upper or lower case, words size and various difficulty levels. Note that for the youngest ones, you can turn on colour and letter hints to give them extra help. As kids progress, then you can turn off the hints to make it more challenging.

The navigation is well done and encourages children to discover all the animals. It is nice to have all the animals pictured in their own habit and listen to the noises they make. The animation after each word is cute and is a nice reward for the kids. They will want to get the word correct to see it.

First Words with Phonics Learning Animals is also available in separate apps in French, Italian, Greek and German, with Spanish on the way. Get the French version and in no time your children will know how to read, spell and say the name of all the animals in French.

Overall it is a top fun learning app. It is very well done and will support your kid's early learning stages. We liked it and are adding it to Fun Educational Apps list of favourite. Hope you will like it too!

 

Want to give it a try, download the lite version now

or get a chance to win the full version for free; we have 15 promo codes to give away. Click here for more details.

If you can't wait, the full version is available for download via the iTunes App Store.

For our readers outside the US here are the iTunes Apps Store download links for (inlcudes all versions):  

UK. -- Canada -- India

Comments

[Denyse]

Always looking for new apps to motivate my speech students to learn to read. This app looks like it takes students to the next level beyond associating a letter with a sound. The level that most of my students get "stuck" on and slows down the process. I would love to see what this app can do for my students.

[Kinder Hangman App]

Great iPhone app to help children learn new words and improve their vocabulary. This iPhone app can be also used by adults, whose second language is not English and who are just learning the English language. This app will also be helpful for them.