Spelling Rocket Week 1

For the past two weeks, my twenty-two second grade students had the opportunity to play the spelling rocket app on the iPad. Each student was allowed twenty minutes on the game twice in the past two weeks. My classroom has a wide range of readers and spellers so this game was a great one to use. 

The Spelling Rocket app is a game where students are give a word and they have to slide letters into place to spell the word correctly. After four words, the child gets to pick one part of a rocket to help build a rocket. At the end of each level the student get to shoot off their fully made rocket.

My students loved the game and a few gave me ways they would want to make the game better. Many said that they thought the words were a bit too easy the first time they played. This made sense to me because I had all my students try level 1 first. I was shocked because all my students said level I was too easy, even my lower students.

The second time they played they found it much more fun because I chose levels for students based on their TRC scores. For my higher kids I had them on level 4 but for my lower kids I only brought them up to level 2. This worked even better then the first time and they all wanted to continue playing.

The game was easy for them to play and I gave no directions at all. They quickly picked up what they needed to do and how they needed to do it. This is definitely a great game to use for students who need more help with spelling. I used it in my classroom in place of word work for two weeks. I feel like it was more helpful for my students who were struggling readers because it was a bit more fun then sorting words on paper.