Join a word machine, robot dog, mechanics, and some out-of-this-world alien friends, in the fun and educational app that takes on phonics for kids from a Pre-k level up to 3rd Grade, in an innovative, new way. Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards for Reading Success is a great tool for assisting (while entertaining) kids in learning “sight words”, or words that don’t have a simple sound that always corresponds with the same letters. For example, the word “one” is pronounced with a “wa” sound, but doesn’t start with the letter “w”, a letter which commonly makes that word sound.
Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards for Reading Success, by Terasoft, a.s., is available for the iPhone and iPad (universal app), and is recommended for children ages 4-9. I’m reviewing the full-length version of this app, but you can check out the free lite version now, to give it a trial run with your kids. The full-length Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards is $1.99, and unlike the lite version, it contains no ads.
Open the app and visit the Settings section (upper, left-hand corner symbolized by white and yellow gears), to adjust the difficulty to suit your child’s level. In Settings, you can choose the exact words that are used in each category: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, Nouns, or All Words. You can also customize the pace of the game from slow, medium, to fast, and determine whether to set the word games in all caps, all lowercase, or Abc order. In Settings, you can also turn off the sound effects and music.
Now it’s time to create your player profile! This in itself is a fun game too. Choose whether you want to create a boy, girl, or monster avatar, and then design it by tapping on the arrows next to each characteristic of the avatar, from their head to their feet. Now push the start button and get playing!
There are six games to play in Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards (hint: try the Flashcards game first; here, your child can practice and learn the words that will be used in the other five games):
Word Machine: Help keep the Word Machine fueled. Listen for a word to be pronounced, and then tap on that word from those provided on the signs at the bottom of the screen. If you need to hear the word spoken again, just tap on the voice button.
Spelling: Time to feed your robot dog, and what does a robot dog eat, but cans! A word will be presented visually and read aloud, but then the word will disappear. It’s your child’s turn to spell the word by picking up and dragging each letter represented on a can, to it’s correct position in the word.
Bingo: The aliens want to get back to their home planet! It’s your child’s job to get them a ticket by winning at Bingo! A word will be pronounced, and your child must find that word on the Bingo card. Tap on that word, and an alien character will mark that winning space. Once your child has made a complete line of aliens (just like a Bingo card), he or she will earn a ticket.
Memory Game: Tap on a speaker to hear a word, and then tap on the doors below, revealing the words visually. Try to remember which door is hiding which word. It’s just like a memory game, but this time, the attempts are also scored on the high scores card.
Gears: In this game, your child will tap on the speakers on the screen to hear a word. Then he or she must find the word pronounced in the bank of words provided at the bottom, and tap and drag that word to the speaker, making a working gear. Continue till you have all gears in place.
Flashcards: In this game, your child can practice reading and listening to the pronunciation of words while also interacting with the characters on the screen. This is a free play, simple practice game, and there is no score or objective- just learning.
Check out my video below to see Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards in action.
After completing some of the games, you mom, can visit the report card on the home screen, symbolized by a trophy in the upper, right-hand corner. You can determine in what areas your child excels, and where he or she may need more practice. Your child’s profile avator will be next to the high score, so be sure that if you have more than one child playing the game, they each use their own profile.
The animation, sound effects, and music really enhance Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards, and put these word games at an awesome level of interactivity. I also like how your child can practice the same sight word skills, but in six different and fun ways, avoiding boredom playing the same game over and over. Plus, with the incentive to get a high score, they’ll want to try to better their score each time.
Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards is a very comprehensive and detailed app, that hits the mark on being both educational, and entertaining for kids. However, I did notice a couple of glitches. When using my iPhone to create a player profile, there wasn’t enough space to see the entire name, which you can view in the third image above. There were also a couple of glitches in the use of quotation marks in the information section (the “i” button on the home screen), instructing on how to play the games. No major issues seemed evident that would influence me to not recommend it.
Action Sight Words, Games, & Flashcards is a clever and resourceful app for children in the early elementary years, that innovates a fun and engaging approach for learning sight words and phonics.
Disclosure: This app review was submitted and published as part of my expedited review service. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.