Rocket Speller PLUS blends phonetic spelling play together with motivating rocket building activities. This app is a kid favorite that receives great reviews from both teachers and parents, too.
In Rocket Speller PLUS, kids are given a series of words to spell. The settings in the app allow parents to customize the theme of the words, choose between five levels of play and letter style. The leveling of words, clarity of the letter sounds and the adaptive assistance provided in the app help kids to stay in the sweet spot of focus, enjoyment while still being challenged.
Instead of leaving off the tricky phonics spelling words, Rocket Speller PLUS groups the letters together by individual sounds. This means kids are seeing letter-sound patterns (like /oa/ & /er/) and hearing the corresponding sounds at the tap of a finger. This is one of the first apps we’ve reviewed that understands how to support beginning readers in spelling every day (interesting!) words without sacrificing the phonics rules.
Kid’s aren’t just spelling words in the app. We know that spelling practice is better with a motivating game element to keep kids interested. Rocket Speller PLUS switches between spelling and rocket building to give kids a creative outlet alongside all their hard work. Numerous combinations of rocket pieces keep kids building and launching rockets, with plenty of spelling happening in between.
Rocket Speller PLUS is an excellent app for both the home and classroom!
Activity 1: LEGO® Brick Spelling
Have LEGO bricks around the home? A permanent marker transforms your bricks into spelling cubes. It’s amazing how a fresh way to practice spelling, with something as simple as letters on LEGO bricks, can increase your child’s motivation and willingness to build words.
For older kids: Instead of giving your child words to spell, pass them a handful of letters and see how many real words they can make from the letters. Be ready with your tablet or a dictionary to let kids look up possible words to make. We believe in giving kids the tools to discover new words, instead of just sticking with the words they already know.
For the little ones: Go on a word hunt! Bring your LEGO brick letters and find words around the house (or in your books) that you can build. Run out of letters? Point out the missing letters. Encourage your child’s creativity and problem-solving by helping him (or her) figure out how to create or use other materials to represent the missing letters.
Other common household materials that can be transformed for spelling practice:
• Clothes Pins
• Bottle Caps
• Marbles
• Rocks
• Magazine Letters
Activity 2: Spelling with Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss is one of our favorite authors. Besides absolutely loving the humorous and creative stories, the books have many teaching moments, especially for spelling.
Grab one of your favorite Seuss books. Go on a letter pattern hunt looking for words that all have the same ending on each page. Dr. Seuss incorporated a lot of rhyme in his books so there should be plenty of patterns to discover.
Keep some post-it notes nearby and cover up one of the rhyming words. See if your child can guess the word and spell it for you. Using the letter patterns from the other words on the page should help your child’s spelling.
Fizzy’s Lunch Lab | App Review & Activities