PunFlay was the portal created to showcase the iPhone and Web Games developed by Media Lab of Emantras of California in the USA. They specialise in interactive games for the web and iDevices primarily for educational, social and general entertainment especially for the little ones. Aimed at children in the 3-5 year age range, Word Wall is a visually appealing and engaging game to help kids learn to recognise letters and their associated sounds.
Word Wall offers fun educational activities using the alphabet in a pleasant and colourful environment. The main features of the game are Writing ABC where the user must drag and drop the matching letter to the lines below to be shown a picture beginning with that letter and Writing Words where the user must drag and drop the letters to create a short word which can then be added to to create a larger word. Apart from the main features, there are also four different games that include:
• See & Find – a memory-style game with two levels – Easy (6 cards) & Hard (12 cards) – where they need to match the picture to the related word;
• Hide a Word – search for the hidden word on the page using the fun spotlight feature;
• Bubble Words – drag and drop the letters of the item in the picture onto the lines below to spell the word;
• Jigsaw Words -a jigsaw puzzle where they join the puzzle pieces together to make the picture and the word.
Upon completing an activity, the user is given a star as encouragement and they need to collect all 10 stars to receive a sticker which they can then view by tapping on ‘My Wall’. Word Wall syncs with SmartTots to monitor your child’s usage and give you reports on what they are learning (you can add more than one child too). This feature is fantastic and I wish more developers would incorporate it into their apps! The iChild (4) and the iToddler (2.5) really enjoyed playing the games but some elements were above their heads so I had to have a play myself just to check things out on their behalf. Of course. :)
What I would have liked to have seen in this game was the ability to actually write the letters by tracing them on the screen, in addition to the dragging and dropping but regardless of this, Word Wall is an exciting, educational children’s app that reinforces their comprehension and memory skills and encourages early reading.
Category: Education
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Cost: iPhone $0.99 – US 
| UK | AU (19.5MB)
HD $0.99 – US | UK | AU (34.7MB)
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Amanda
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Alison, Amanda, Grace and Mary are four mothers from different parts of the world dedicated to educating parents about the best digital stories, educational apps, fun games and technology products available for their children. We also offer the latest news in apps for kids, interesting articles, developer interviews, free apps and regular giveaways!
