June 2, 2023
One of the questions that gets asked a lot in the Simply Kinder Teacher Facebook Group is about Kindergarten Apps for Reading. So we compiled a list of FREE apps that are recommended again and again into one big list to reference.
Practiced Skills: listening, reading, comprehension
This app is free to elementary teachers living in the United States and Canada. Your students can read and/or listen to over 10,000 popular titles. Epic offers teachers the options to assign specific texts to students, monitor your students’ progress and send home weekly reports to parents. Perfect for a listening center, just add a set of headphones.
Practiced Skills: sight words
This is a basic app that focuses on the Fry sight Words. It combines simple activities with audio features to help boost the learning process. The activities are designed to help kinders hear the words, practice writing them, recognize letters and use the words in activities. Games include jigsaw puzzles, hangman and word tic tac toe.
The games and graphics are not as flashy as some other reading apps. Still there is enough variety to keep children’s interest. It is an easy way for beginning readers to practice their sight words.
This app is available in the Apple Store. The free version contains words 1–25 for free and there is the option to purchase additional word packs. Each set of words has it own activities which progress as the child advances.
Practiced Skills: letter sounds and spelling
This app offers practice for spelling 90 words (mostly cvc). Each word provides a picture for a given words, it pronounces the word and offers all the letters to spell the word. The student is to put the letters in order to correctly spell the word. If an incorrect letter is tried to place the letter is returned to its original place.
Practiced Skills: letter practice, sight word practice
This app contains only the uppercase letters of the alphabet. It is designed to resemble good ole magnetic letters. The students could use this app to practice the order of letters, the spelling of their name or the spelling of sight words (with a set of provided cards).
Practiced Skills: listening, reading, comprehension
Rivet has over 3,500 free books for kids. It is completely free and contains 8 different reading levels. I love that it does not contain any in app purchases, or advertisements.
Books are categorized and searchable by topic and reading level. It comes with reading support on every page, so kids can get help when they need it.
Students can tap on individual words to hear them read out loud. Apparently, it doesn’t always work on some older devices, so check the list to see if your device is compatible before downloading.
The kids can also customize their profiles and earn badges by reading and popping balloons when your done with a book. This helps keep students interested. There is nothing like earning a badge to keep them reading!
This app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play
Practiced Skills: rhyming skills , phonological awareness
The Partners in Rhyme app invites children to practice their rhyming skills. There are four games to choose from and the app uses pictures rather than words, so the children say the words and must listen for the ones that rhyme. Consequently, it is great for increasing phonological awareness.
I like how easy and engaging the games are, so most Kinders will not have any trouble playing by themselves.
The app says the name of each picture every time the child touches the picture, so you don’t have to figure out if a picture of a baseball cap is a cap or a hat.
This is a great app for rhyming recognition. The game creates opportunities for kids to think about rhymes rather than memorize them. This is perfect for increasing phonological awareness. It is only free in the Apple Store
Practiced Skills: simple sentence formation
This app is great for your beginning writer. I really like that it uses real life pictures. The sentences start out very simple two word phrases and scaffolds as the student completes the activities. Visual, sentence and word hints are available to modify the needs of each of your students. It also has the features for you to add your own pictures and your own voice to the activities.
Practiced Skills: Sight Word recognition
Sight Words Learning Games & Reading Flash Cards offers a user friendly and engaging experience for kids. This fun app invites children to practice the words from the Dolce Sight Words List and offers a choice of six different games.
I love anything that uses play to teach. Each game is full of fun animations and bright colors that keep kids engaged. Each user can create a profile, so you have the option of tracking scores. Most children seem to enjoy playing the games and that makes it a great learning tool.
While the app is free, it does offer In-App Purchases. This means that the free version will have limitations. It is available on Apple Store and Google Play
Practiced Skills: Beginning sounds
This Phonemic Awareness Bubbles app focuses on beginning sounds. Games include matching pictures with the same beginning sound and picking the picture that starts with a different sound
Again, this is an app that only uses pictures! This means that kinders must really focus on the sounds they hear when they say (or hear) a word.
This is another app that is free, but offers In-App Purchases. This means that you get a certain number of games for free, but have to pay to access anything else.
I could only find this app in the Apple Store
Practiced Skills: fluency, expression and creativity
This app allows you to upload any picture or drawing and animate it by recording your voice. I think this app would be perfect to have a student create a drawing from a theme of the week and then have them animate it with a thematic passage/poem. Chatterpix Kids would be a great challenge for your most creative and energetic students.
Practiced Skills: reading and spelling 100 sight words
100 sight words are practiced in this app. There are 4 levels, each containing 25 sight words.
The students are given 3 “lives” for each attempt at a level. They must speak and write each sight word. Students earn lives by swiping special tiny eggs and lose lives when they swipe the wrong word or miss a word that should have been swiped.
Multiple players can play this game however, each students work is not saved. This could be easily monitored with a simple checklist that the students can cross off as they complete each sight word activity.
Practiced Skills: motor skills, letter writing, creativity
This fun and interactive app allows students to draw/doodle on a blank canvas. Students can also add given stamps and stickers to their work. This app would be great for letter writing practice, drawing an illustration to go with a given sentence or story or to just practice strengthening their fine motor skills and iPad use.
Practiced Skills: language development, vocabulary
This app provides language development in a fun, interactive way. A picture is shown in the center of the screen, the student to tap the correct word from a choice of words listed in front of them to earn points.
Practiced Skills: reading CVC words, phonetic awareness
This app provides several learning activities to practice the spelling of many 3 letter words. I like this app because it uses real life pictures, There are also several features that offer modifactions to better meet the needs of your students. There is an “achievement screen” that is available at the end of every round for you to check in on the students to see their progress.
Practiced Skills: sight words
This app provides practice for students learning sight words of all levels. The student will hear a word and then will need to choose from 2 or more different words. This app has a feature for you to your own voice and words to the activities. Sight Words by Touch Photo has many features to meet the needs of your students!
Remember that any app you download collects information. It is your responsibility to read the developer’s privacy policy. This is where you will find out how your (or your student’s) information is collected, used, and shared. Don’t forget that privacy policies or terms of service frequently change, and you won’t necessarily be informed.
You should also check to see if your school or district has any policies about downloading and using apps in the classroom.
We will be adding apps as we see them and if you come across an app that you love for your classroom, please share it.
If you noticed the iPad case, I LOVE THESE and highly recommend them! They are super durable, come with a stand, and have a sheild over the screen to protect them.
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