Word Wonderland (Elementary)
By Amanda Bindel,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Engaging game, but learning seems incidental, lacks depth.
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Word Wonderland (Elementary)
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What’s It About?
In this arcade-style word game, kids explore different space worlds while guiding a space crab along a complicated path, past obstacles, to a final destination. To clear the path, kids have to sort words into categories, from vowel sounds at the easy level to Greek and Latin roots at the expert. Kids choose from four levels of challenge: easy, medium, hard, and expert. They can work on such concepts as short and long vowels, r-controlled vowels, blends, digraphs, prefixes, suffixes, diphthongs, endings, endings with le, and Greek and Latin roots. Multiple profiles can be set up on a device. The Tips section in Settings includes tutorials showing all features -- stars, arrows, machines -- and how to use them. Nothing in Tips explains the concepts relating to the words or word parts, however.
Is It Any Good?
The problem with Word Wonderland (Elementary) is that it contains no explanation of any of the targeted word concepts, and the critical thinking kids do is not related to the word skills the app is supposed to teach. What is a diphthong? How does r control a vowel? The word sort ends up being an activity for matching letters in words to letters on the space path. For example, given the suffix -ion, kids could simply find the word ending with -ion (suction) and drag the suffix into place. No critical thinking or understanding is necessary. The tutorials are focused on explaining the intricate rules surrounding each part of the space path -- the arrows, the stars, the machines -- and maneuvering the space crab along the path to the end. Word Wonderland plays like an arcade-style space game with some words thrown in almost as an afterthought. That said, the space maze is fun; this just isn't an app suitable for real learning.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
To improve educational impact, explain the concepts to your kids or help them find the concepts in the Practice Skills section that corresponds to what they've learned in school or at home.
Steer kids to word apps such as Word Joust or phonics apps such as Phonics Genius for word-skills practice, and save arcade games for strategy.
App Details
- Devices: iPad, Android
- Subjects: Language & Reading: phonics, spelling
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: problem solving, strategy, thinking critically
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: April 19, 2013
- Category: Education
- Topics: Space and Aliens
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill School Education Group
- Version: 1.0
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 4.3 or later; Android 2.0.1 and up
- Last updated: July 12, 2020
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