8 Fun iPhone Reading and Writing Activities & Apps to Get Kids Reading and Learning

1. iPhone Typing Test

A simple Web site created to test typing speed on an iPhone.

Go to this web address on iPhone Safari

http://www.iphonetypingtest.com/test.html

Directions

Click the Start sign (shown below) to begin the test.

The test will begin when you click inside the blue field that will appear on the next screen

that opens. When you have finished, click on the “Done” button on your iPhone’s keyboard.

2. iWriteWords, learn handwritting by playing

This amazing app will help teach your kids how to write while playing. Great for preschoolers.

Drag Mr. Crab through the numbers while drawing the parts of a letter. Join lines to make letters, letters to words and so on. The software records your child’s strokes so you can review them later and see how they are improving.

3. Letter Tracer preschool letters writing practice

Help your preschooler and other prereading children trace and paint letter and number shapes so they’ll be prepared for reading and writing in grade school.

Designed by parents, for preschoolers aged 2-5 years.

LetterTracer is an educational tool that helps preschoolers and other pre-reading children trace and paint letter and number shapes. Early exposure to letters and numbers helps prepare children for reading and writing in grade school. LetterTracer’s three-way combination of visual letters, interactivity via tracing, and a spoken voice-over helps children learn and retain the alphabet.

Designed by parents, LetterTracer is generally appropriate for children ages 2 to 5, and was intensively field-tested by our own children! Uppercase and lowercase letters A to Z and the numbers 0 through 9 are shown in three selectable styles:

✔ Flashcard mode: each letter is shown in its regular, filled-in black-on-white rendition. Use this mode as you would flash cards, to practice recognizing letters and numbers with your child.

✔ Tracing mode, for younger children: a hollow outline of each letter is shown. Your child can finger-paint on the screen to trace the letterform.

✔ Freeform mode, for older children: a smaller image of each letter is shown in the upper-left corner; the rest of the screen is available for freehand drawing of the letterform.

Choose from three difference voices; each calls out the name of letters as they appear, to reinforce your child’s learning:

✔ Adult Male
✔ Adult Female
✔ Child

LetterTracer is easy and fun to use for both parents and kids:

✔ In flash card mode, “swipe” back and forth to move between letters easily

✔ When drawing, shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to clear the screen and start over. Kids love this feature!

✔ Choose a larger, more forgiving brush size for younger children, or a smaller, more precise brush size for older children

✔ Choose from 10 painting colors

✔ Choose from three different voices to call out letters and numbers

Tactile practice with letters is an excellent complement to “passive education” from television. LetterTracer is appropriate for roughly the same audience as pre-reading and early-reading skills shows such as Super Why, Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, WordGirl, Between the Lions and WordWorld.

LetterTracer is excellent ABC practice for native English speakers, but is also appropriate for introducing the English alphabet to ESL students.

Niftybrick Software is an independent artisan software studio. We take your feedback and satisfaction seriously. Please write to us at support@niftybrick.com with any questions or suggestions.

4. Rulla – scrolling banner

Create a message that crawls across the iPhone screen like a news ticker. Start with names and work up from there.

Get your message across.

OBS: Free for the first 1000 customers.

Rulla is a large scrolling banner, great for displaying messages over a long distance. Kids and parents love it. Businesses people too. Try beaming the message of love across the dance floor; totally beats SMS. Nifty features include:

- Create messages with symbols you can’t even type with the built-in keyboard (including hearts, smileys, peace symbol, male/female, telephone, and yin yang).
- Roll the banner at five different speeds, from Very slow to Very fast.
- Choose between several contrasting color schemes, including red for light-sensitive environments (like astronomy or photography darkrooms).
- Three sizes for the banner text, from Small to Large.
- Saves your 20 most recent banner texts.

PS: Rulla works great with Chinese and Japanese characters, too. Try the handwriting keyboard yourself to create and display a message in Chinese. It’s really fun!

Video demonstration:

Trivia: “Rulla” is Swedish for “to roll.”

Note: The banner size adapts automatically to the technical limits of iPhone’s graphics subsystem. We hope to work around these limits in future (free) updates.

5.StoryNory – Free Audio Stories for Kids

6. iKids Play – Caterpillar’s Dream

iKidsPlay takes preschooler stories and adapts them to the iPhone. This app is easily memorized by non-readers and easily learned by beginning readers. Bonus is the painting tool, a doodle pad and a recording/read-aloud section.

7. Word Scramble – By Zynga

If you’ve spent any time on Facebook, you’ve probably stumbled across friends playing the word-finding game Scramble. Now, finally, you’ll be able to get your fix without being bombarded with pictures of friends’ babies and invitations to socially-aware rallies! The company behind the super-popular title, Zynga, announced today that it’ll be bringing the game to the iPhone with Scramble Live.

Even if linguistic hunts aren’t up your alley, you have to be interested in the multiplayer portion of the game, which lets you play against iPhone and Facebook users in real-time. It’s a smart way of adding multiplayer, and a method we wish more iPhone devs would take advantage of. A better explanation of the game can be found after the break, or you can throw caution to the wind and pick it up for the limited time price of $2.99.

Scramble Live by Zynga from Zynga on Vimeo.

8. Wurdle – Boggle Like Game

Early and skilled spellers can use this game to make words with this Boggle-like game.

· pass and play multiplayer
· 4×4, 5×5, 6×6, 7×7, and 8×8 grids
· customize your display with photos!
· set timer, minimum word length and more
· view all possible words at the end of a round
· TWL and SOWPODS word lists
· online high scores
· untimed mode

Unabashed Vanity

#3 in Top 10 Best iPhone Games (Wired)

“It’s just beautifully designed, easy to use and a heck of a lot of fun.” (Chicago Tribune)

“This is app-store crack for a good segment of the iPhone gameplaying population. The simplicity of its design with easy to use touch screen controls make it one of the best.” (Touch Arcade’s Best of 2008)

“Wurdle is a great word puzzle game that has an incredible amount of replay value. Wurdle is about as perfect as a word puzzle on the iPhone/iPod Touch can get.” (Finger Gaming)

“I’m obsessed with wurdle…I cannot get enough…wurdle is outstanding!” (Molly Wood, CNET.com)

“Addictive fast-paced iPhone word game… Terrific use of the touch screen for gameplay” (daringfireball.net)

“It has a few tricks up its sleeve that elevate if from an amusing distraction, to a bloody-eyed, stay-up-all-night-and-forget-to-feed-the-cats-and-kids addiction.” (Untold Entertainment blog)

“Wurdle’s options spell F-L-E-X-I-B-L-E.” (MacLife)

Incoming search terms:

• teaching your child how to write
• child writing app

Tags: Caterpillar’s Dream, iKids Play, iPhone Typing Test, iWriteWords, LetterTracer, Rulla, StoryNory, Word Scramble