Literacy

App Review

1. Grammaropolis
This app takes students on a journey for each part of speech. They
follow a map and at each stop along the way, there is a different
activity. Some are videos; some are songs, stories, and quizzes. I
have seen it referred to as the Schoolhouse Rock of the 21st
century. It helps students learn each part of speech while it seems
like they are playing an adventure game. Each part of speech also
has a sort of character that goes along with the part of speech they
are representing. For example, the nouns works I the naming
office where he names people, places, and things. I think this app
would be best for grades 2+ and is free to download.



2. Toontastic
This app is for children in kindergarten and above and is free. It
teaches students about the parts of a story and walks them through
creating their own. First, they choose a setting, then they add
characters, they then record their voice and move the characters
around the screen. Then they choose to set a mood with music. It
breaks up the story into beginning, middle, and end and describes
what should go in each section.








3. Endless Reader
This app teaches students sight words by having them drag and drop
the correct letters. While doing so, the letter they are
dragging makes its sound, so they can begin to develop their
phonemic awareness. They then use the new sight word in a
sentence, and similarly, each word they drag and drop
becomes animated and says itself. The sight words are sorted
alphabetically and the child can work their way through the
alphabet on level one, and then move up to more difficult
levels. This app is best for pre-k and kindergarten and the
first level is free, but you must pay for the following levels.