Ultimate Dinopedia — Decker absolutely loves this app, but it does require some assistance from me as the app has a lot of information stuffed into it in text form. Decker likes me to read the information sheets about the various dinosaurs, but he’s figured out on his own how to launch the cool animated videos of dinosaurs eating, walking, running, and fighting. Some of the background information does come with a small button that, when pressed, narrates the item being viewed, but the Dino Stats and Fun Facts have some complicated wording for a 4 year old.
Other features of the app include a Family Tree, a really cool interactive screen that allows you to view Meat Eaters, Plant Eaters, or All Dinosaurs on a touch-sensitive map. Touch a dinosaur on the map and you’re taken to a dedicated page that has the previously mentioned Dino Stats and Fun Facts as well as The Story (narration and text provided) and details about the image provided.
click on the Dino Profiles tab at the top of the screen and you’ll be taken to a scrollable list of what has to be hundreds of dinosaurs — it could be well over a thousand but I gave up counting in the Bs. The list is alphabetical, and a click on the name of a dinosaur provides a small window to the right where you can learn how to pronounce it (text pronunciation as well as a button to push to hear it pronounced). You learn what period the dinosaur flourished, where it as located, and it’s average size (in feet and meters).
Decker loves the Video tab at top — there’s not a video for every dinosaur found in the Profiles tab, but the 14 animations are still plenty entertaining to both a 4 year old and his dad. I thought Decker might get a bit scared watching the Tyrannosaurus stalk and attack a smaller dinosaur, but nope… all I got was Play it again!
The app’s subtitle is The Most Complete Dinosaur Reference Ever — and from what I’ve seen, I can believe it. There is probably still a lot more information that Decker and I have not yet uncovered… there’s so much that I sometimes lose track of what I have and have not viewed! I have to give National Geographic credit for putting together one very large reference app that will be a huge hit for any dinosaur fans in your household.
World Wall HD — this is a pure educational app, so I wasn’t certain how Decker would respond. He headed into PreK this year knowing his letters and sounds, so I was curious to see how he might do with an introduction to putting sounds together to make words.
The app has numerous options, and I’m impressed with both the Writing ABCs and Writing Words. When Decker clicks on Writing ABCs, he can pick any letter from the screen. After selecting a letter, he is told to drag and drop it onto the writing area and then the app speaks the letter, the sound, and gives a word (and image) that starts with that letter. I actually catch Decker every now and then following along exactly — I hear him repeat the word when the narrator says Say Lion (for L), for example. And he figured out quickly how to cycle through all the letters.
The Writing Words is interesting to me — Decker is given 12 word families (am, an, at, ar, etc.) and he taps on one. He is told to drag and drop the letters to make the sound formed by two letters. After he drops them, he hears the individual sounds (aaaa, nnnn…. an) before being given four or five consonants that can be dragged in front of the word family to make new words. He loves it! He’ll call me over and show me how he learned to spell fan… and man… then tan…
Again, I thought the app might not appeal to him because of its lack of explosions and flashy artwork… but what I’m finding is that his natural curiosity about how words are formed and pronounced keeps him moving forward. He loses track of the time and the next thing I know he’s spent 20 or 30 minutes learning to spell more words.
In addition to these two exercises, there are four more games along the bottom.
1. See and Find, a matching game where he has to find a hidden word (spelled out) and its matching picture. Finding a match gets you the word pronounced by the narrator. You can also switch between Easy and Hard difficulty levels.
2. Hide (his favorite so far — including a screenshot) , a game where the screen is blacked out and you drag a spotlight around the screen to find hidden words. Find 10 and you win the game. Again, reinforcement is seen with the spelled out word (duck) and the big graphic that is displayed along with the word’s pronunciation when the word is discovered.
3. Bubble Words, a game where letters float around the screen over an image of an item (wall, for example). Decker has to sound out the word and grab the appropriate letters to drop into the spaces below the image. He’s not turned on to this one yet, but I can already see him figuring out how to identify the object and then break the word into component sounds…
4. Jigsaw Words, a game where the image (a pig, for example) is broken into 3 or 4 puzzle pieces. When the pieces are dropped into their correct location, the image becomes solid and the word is repeated by the narrator.
In addition to these six activities, there’s also a sticker wall where you (the parent) can drop stickers on screen of items and have your child find the text word (a sticker as well) underneath it… or vice versa. I’m finding that Decker is figuring it out better when I place the text sticker on screen and ask him to put the matching image sticker above it — he has to sound out the word’s letters and I think spelling is really clicking for him.
All in all, I am so impressed with this app — Word Wall is one of those surprise apps that I want to share with every parent of a child learning to spell.
