Starfall This is a wonderful site for students ready to begin basic letter recognition, sounds of letters and basic phonics rules. The site has four main windows. The first one shows all the letters of the alphabet. When you click on a letter you are met with an activity that makes you click on the letter to advance. When you click the letter you hear the sound that letter makes. The vowels are given special treatment with a song for their short sound. The main page has several games for young learners. These tend to change with the seasons but are are always entertaining. Sometimes there is a snowman to build, a calendar to make, a garden where they learn about sequence, and so much more.
The second level has games, movies and short stories that are designed to help students learn basic rules in fun games and practice reading with wonderful animated stories. When you click on the screen the characters dance or move in unexpected ways. Color recognition is also touched on in a couple of the stories. Along the side there are movies to teach alphabetical order, left to right and chunking.
The third section has stories for beginning readers has several sections. The activities are interactive. Children fill in sentences to complete the story.
The fourth section is where the real reading begins. Children can choose stories to read.
This site is extremely well done. It changes and updates and really helps to make learning a fun filled activity. SUPER SITE!
