Reading Eggs

I recently stumbled onto a wonderful set of apps developed by the Reading Eggs team. Don't let the name fool you though. They have also designed apps for numeracy. 

Together with their apps, you are also able to create an account on their website, and follow each childs' progress. 

The apps are really great, and the kids in my class have thoroughly enjoyed working on them - in fact they will choose these apps instead of games!! Below is just a few of the apps that I have had the opportunity to work with:

• Eggy Phonics 1: Short vowel words

Eggy phonics allows you to create as many users as you need, which is really fantastic if you only have one tablet in your classroom. It will also show you the progress of each child, therefore allowing you to see where a child is struggling, and also giving you the opportunity to help that child. 

Once you have selected the child's name, you are taken to a screen which will have two options - words or reward game,

The words game, is a graduated level game. You start on level 1, and with the word cat. Once you have completed all 6 activities, you are then given a short reward and are moved onto the next activity. 

Activity one, is a simple match the word spoken to the correct picture, after completing this level correctly you must then spell the word - this gives you both the letter name and the letter sound. After completing these activities twice, you move onto bubble words - you have to pop the bubbles to spell the word. Your final activity is writing the word. You then earn a badge, and depending on how well you have done, you are awarded a certain amount of game time - you may use your game time straight away, or save it until you have a certain amount,

Eggy phonics begins with the -at word family and moves through the different families.

• Tap the Cat

Tap the Cat has various activities, ranging from Speak and Listen to Draw and Paint.

1.     Speak and Listen

The app will show you the word, and you then need to record yourself saying the word - great for those battling with a speech impediment.

2.     Smart Quiz

Here, you need to listen to the question and then select the correct question. This I find really useful when working on auditory perception skills. It begins with questions such as; “I can moo. Who am I?” It covers animal sounds and identification , initial sounds as well as associations and colour identification.

3.     Letters

The child must find the matching letters. This activity will help the child learn both the letter name and the letter sound.

4.     Writing

After writing the word, the child is then able to save their best attempt at writing the word.

5.     Sight Words

Take the bunny home to complete this very cute activity. Get the bunny to jump to the correct word until you have eaten the green carrot.

6.     Vocabulary

Matching the word to the picture – touch the word and then select the correct picture.

7.     Time to Rhyme

This activity begins with a good description of what rhyming words are. You are then given a sentence such as; On the house I see a ______ . To complete the sentence, you will need to choose the correct rhyming word.

8.     Draw and Paint

This is a fun activity, your child can paint 6 different pictures.

Eggy Words 250 HD

This is one of the favourites in my class. This is a variety of sight words, which appear on the screen on eggs. You need to touch the correct word. You can choose different speeds and levels. This is a great activity to help with visual tracking.

Eggy Add to 20

In this app there are various games to choose from; balloons, teddy, snowboard, sheepdog, memory and fishing. You are given a sum, and then need to choose the correct answer. With this app, the activities are all very different and require different skills. Some require you to find the answer, while others require you to work out what numbers will give you the answer.

 All of these apps are available in the South African App store as well, and are R24.99 each.