ABC Gurus app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: Colto
First release : 04 Mar 2015
App size: 77.45 Mb
Parents, are you searching for a fun and creative app to inspire your preschooler to learn the alphabet and phonics? Your kids will have loads of fun personalizing letters and turning them into crazy characters while they learn.
Created by a Mum/Teacher with Kindergarten and Preschool Teachers, this app teaches phonemic letter sounds, associating them with their letter form, names of letters and the meaning and pronunciation of new words starting with letters.
The game is playable in 5 languages: English (US & UK), Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese
The phonemic skills this game teaches are key skills preschoolers need to acquire based on the American Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence. The Preschool Sequence states “a crucial part of learning to read is developing phonemic awareness, the understanding that individual sounds are associated with individual letters”
- TitiCrafty.com "It’s created by a mom and teacher who understands what we want and what kids need."
- AppsZoom.com "The app is beautifully designed, with gorgeous graphics and vivid colors"
- AppyMall.com ".. I am certain that kids would love this app..."
- TopBestAppsForKids.com "The combination of coloring, playing and learning is perfect"
- TheiPhoneMom.com "This app is truly a fun and unique way to teach kids the alphabet"
Recommended Ages 2-5 years
Required iOS 7 or +
FEATURES
- Play in 5 languages: English (UK & US), Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese
- Play with upper or lowercase letters
- Easy for kids to play on their own
- 36 features to decorate letters including animated eyes, mouths and stickers
- 5 crayons to color letters
- Audio of phonemic letter sounds
- 45 animations of words starting with each letter
- Audio of letter names and a word starting with the letter eg. E is for elf
- Take a snapshot of your characters
- Create your own alphabet album on your device’s photo gallery
- No in-app purchases or third party advertising
HOW DOES THIS APP TEACH CHILDREN?
ABC Gurus appeals to a child’s innate desire to interact and create. Children colour in and personalize the letters repeatedly while listening to the phonemic sounds they make. This is incidental learning, one of the most powerful learning forms for preschoolers. By repeatedly playing with the letter, kids learn to associate the letter form with its sound through repetition and identify it as the first letter in a word.
HOW TO PLAY
Scroll through the alphabet on a rotating planet, choose a letter and get creative coloring it, adding cartoon eyes, a toothy mouth and quirky accessories. Each time you color and add features, you hear the phonemic sound the letter makes. Tap the play button and a word starting with the letter comes to life in a hilarious animation. Interact with the animation and discover what happens!
Take a snapshot of your creation and it’s saved in a separate album on your device’s photo gallery. Complete your album with your A-Z creations for further practice.
ABOUT US
Colto is a creative studio developing award winning educational mobile games for preschoolers that make them smile while they learn. Our team of Parents, Teachers, Developers and Designers creates high quality playful games that stimulate preschoolers to learn key educational skills based on the American Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence.
CONTACT US!
If you have any support requests, comments, or questions do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or visit Colto’s online Community at colto.com. We’d love to hear from you!
Latest reviews of ABC Gurus app for iPhone and iPad
I am a special education teacher in the United States. I read a review of this app in Childrens Technology Review and decided to download it. As a teacher, I feel that I should what I view as flaws in what is otherwise a very good app. The sound that you have for the letter A sounds more like the O sound as heard at the beginning of the word octopus instead of the sound that is heard at the beginning of apple. The sound that you have for the letter I sounds very much like the E sound that would be heard in eagle instead of the sound that is heard at the beginning of egg. Also for the letter Z you have the Canadian pronunciation Zed instead of the saying Zee like what is used in the U.S. Once changes are made to correct these errors, I would give this app 5 stars.
I saw this game was crashing when you open it then found out if you touch the screen as soon as it opens it doesnt crash. Could be a problem from the latest iOS update like I saw in other games
This app is a rather simple educational app for teaching letter sounds. My two year old has been able to recognize letters since before his second birthday so weve been looking for ways to further advance his knowledge and work towards early reading skills. He will color and decorate the letters and repeat the sounds as he does so. My criticism is the video ad on the opening screen. Its colorful and catchy, easily accessible by my toddler and has no option to be turned off or removed. He loves this video and is easily distracted from the letters to watch it repeatedly. He is unable to go to the App Store thanks to a lockout function that requires reading to bypass. This video is a distraction in an otherwise clever early education app. It also took me weeks to explore the settings and change the language from the default U.K. English to English. Not a big deal, but a lot of his reading apps have British accents and I think this could be confusing when learning letter sounds. Check your settings!