Quality CVC apps can be tricky to find! To start with, you have to find apps that won’t quit on you every 5 seconds, and ones that won’t try to sell you something with a million pop-ups. Other things to consider are the quality of the graphics, specific skills that the app targets, and of course, cost.
I’ve tried out a lot of CVC apps over the years and today I’m going to give you my top 5 favorites. These apps hit the skills and standards you need and are also super engaging for students!
#1 – Gappy Learns Reading
Available on Apple and Android. Cost – $2.99
Gappy Learns Reading is my go-to for CVC instruction, but it isn’t free. I downloaded this onto my personal iPad and did intervention work with my students. This app was always a big hit!
I love that you can choose between beginning, medial, and ending sound isolation along with full CVC words. This app really allows you to differentiate skills amongst your students! Once you choose a skill, the students listen to the word and drag the letters into the correct spots. I like how this app guides them but doesn’t tell them the answer. When they get it right, Gappy can cross to the other side.
#2 – Montessori Crosswords for Kids
Available on Apple and Android. Cost – $2.99 in the App Store and $3.99 through Google Play.
My 2 favorite things about the Montessori Crosswords app are the wide range of levels and the user settings. This app is great for CVC practice, but it doesn’t just stop there. For the students who are ready, you can have them practice with beginning and ending blends, digraphs, vowel teams, diphthongs, etc.
On top of the wide variety of practice skills you can also change the user settings on some of the following things:
- The letter displayed – you can have the students only access the 3 letters in the word, or give them access to all letters.
- Vowel team and digraphs as a unit – you can decide if you want these displayed together as one selection, or have the students select each letter individually
- Directionality – you can force spelling from left to right or let them place the letters randomly.
- Interactive animation – after the students get a word right they have a fun little animation that they can play with. You can turn that off, or limit the number of seconds the students can play with the animation.
- Letter sounds – you can choose if you want (or don’t want) the student to hear the letter sound when they tap each word or each box in the word they are spelling.
These are just some of the settings you can customize, there are many more!!
#3 – CVC Words Reader
Apple only. Cost – FREE
CVC Words Reader asks students to match up pictures to the correct words. If you tap on the picture it will say the name of the word, and then you drag it to the correct spelling. It starts out with 2 words and then moves up to 4 by the end of the level.
They have a .99 cent version of this app, but all it does is allow you to slightly change the settings. I would recommend just using the free version. This app is perfect for students who need a little more guided practice.
#4 – Word Reading Magic
Apple only. Cost – FREE
The free version gives you 4 different options to choose from.
- Images to Words – drag the correct picture into the box.
- Words to Images – Drag the correct word over to the image
- Choose the letter – spell the correct word by tapping the letters in the correct order.
- Labeling – Drag the words on the bottom to the correct picture.
There is a .99 cent upgrade that you can get that contains more words and a little bit more functionality within the settings. The free version has a lot to offer by itself though!
#5 – CVC Word Vocabulary
Apple only. Cost – FREE
CVC Word Vocabulary is all about developing phonemic awareness skills. It says the word and the students drag the correct picture into the basket. What I really like about this one is that, as you move up levels, it narrows in on phoneme segmentation. In the first level, it says – ram. In later levels, it will say /r/ /a/ /m/.
There is another version of this app called CVC Word Recognition that costs $1.99. This app has a “Words” option where the word is said, and the students have to pick the correct one. In this app, you can choose between the word option or the image option that is included in the free version.
They also have a sight word version of this app as well!
Looking for more CVC word practice? Check out the following posts:
You might also like some of the following resources:
- Boom Cards – CVC Words MEGA Bundle
- Words and Activities
- Word Families Worksheets and Picture Sorts
- CVC Word Problems
- Word Work – Differentiated Worksheets
