Sight Word Apps

I have a kindergartener and a second grader.  For this age - sight words are very important.  There are two apps that we use often.  I highly recommend these apps.

Word Bingo  by ABCya.com ($0.99) - This uses predetermined sets from the Dolce word list.  There are 300 words split into the following categories.  Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and nouns.  You can also choose all words.  There are four games included - Word Bingo, Spelling Practice, Word Fling and Word it Up.  My daughter loves Word Fling the best - I am a big fan of Word it Up.  Note that you must play word bingo before you can select Word Fling or Word it Up. 
Positive - the games are actually fun..... Also, you can program in a student name and track the progress.  You can go into the word lists and see what words they are getting right how often. 
Negative - you can not customize the lists

you can read more about it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-bingo/id406264088?mt=8

Sight Words by Phototouch - free - This ap is a flashcard type app that drills on sight words.  It is actually pretty cool in that you can either use their predetermined list - or you can add or delete from their list.  They have 5 lists - preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third.  You can set which lists you want turned on for the quizzing. You can also use the recording of the word that it came with - or you can rerecord it so it is in your voice.

The "game" itself will show three different words on the page and then a voice will say the word.  The child should then select the word that was just read.  If right - "fantastic" and next slide appears.  If wrong the ipad beeps and gives the child another chance.  It will continue to beep until correct word is chosen.  Also - you can select the minimum and maximum number of words to show.  You can even set the min and max to 1 - which would be a good review.

If you set the min at 3 and the max at 10 (for example) - the app will level up and down accordingly.  So, for instance if you have three words shown and you get three right in a row - it will start to show you four words at a time.  Also, if you are getting the answer wrong on the first attempt two times then it will decrease the number of words shown.

Negative: This is just meant for one person and there are no reports on how they are doing - or tracking to let them start at a certain level.  Also - the game can get monotonous. 

That being said - it's free and you can put it your own lists - sounds like a keeper  : )

you can read more about it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-words-by-photo-touch/id421341850?mt=8

Hope you enjoyed those reviews - I'll have more soon!