SPELLING CITY
Time 4 Learning
954-357-1150
Spelling City has added a fun dimension to weekly spelling words! It offers a complete online spelling program with a wide array of games and activities to reinforce proper spelling. Prior to reviewing this product, my children have used the free version of Spelling City. We all enjoyed using the program and I could not imagine what a Premium Membership might add. Well, I was pleasantly surprised! Included in the Premium Membership is a program that automatically tracks the students test scores, so you do not have to grade tests or record scores. In addition, it provides both a class and individual grade record. The Premium Membership also contains two games that are not available with the free membership; Letter Fall and Speedy Speller. Of course, these were my daughter's favorite games and mine too. Another excellent feature of Spelling City is the sentence writing and paragraph writing components. This feature allows the student to either write their spelling words in sentences or write a story using all their words. With the Premium Membership, the teacher is able to read the student's writing, respond to them, and keep a record.
Overall, Spelling City is a comprehensive spelling program. It reminds me of a lavish buffet with lots of great items, but too many for one sitting. This is an excellent feature in itself because most children like a variety of activities. So let's check out what is on the Spelling City buffet.
The homepage provides a list form, where either you or your student may type in the weekly spelling words. If you do not have a spelling list, they provide a rather extensive collection of spelling list to choose from. Once your spelling words are entered, the student has three choices to start the program. The first option is TEST ME, this selection is quite similar to a pre-test.The words are spoken clearly, then followed with a sentence. Words or sentences may be repeated by clicking on a button. The student types their responses in the space provided. Upon completion of the pre-test, the student may click on the Check Me button and the pre-test is scored. Now the student is ready to move on to the second option; TEACH ME. Here the words are spelled aloud and used in a sentence. The student not only sees the letters, but also hears them as they are spoken. The third choice, and probably the favorite, is the PLAY A GAME option.
Here, the student can choose from fourteen different games. Some of the games are Alphabetize, Match It, Hang Mouse, Word Search and Crossword. Also available in this section are sentence and paragraph writing activities. There is definitely enough variety to keep every student happy. In addition, you can print many of the games and make handwriting worksheets with the spelling words.
All in all, I found the program very user friendly, however, the first couple of times I forgot to save the spelling words. Once I realized this, it was an easy fix. I used this program with my 9 year old daughter, Karina. She enjoyed the games most of all and found practicing spelling words much more fun then the traditional method we used in the past. Karina typed her words into the program on Monday and used the Test Me mode to take her pre-test. During the week, she played the various games and followed up on Friday with a Post-Test. I can not say that her spelling skills improved significantly over the four weeks we used the program, but I can say
that she enjoyed spelling considerably more. We will continue to use this program and I would recommend it to others. I feel it works well with elementary school age students and is reasonably priced at $24.99 for an annual membership. The membership is good for up to 5 students in the same family. Spelling City also offers a classroom membership for $49.99 for up to 30 students. The program is online, so an internet connection is required.
I received a free 30 day premium membership in exchange for my honest review of Spelling City.
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