Spell the words. Build the beasts.
Spell this week's words, win the parts, then glue a pigeon's head onto a walrus. Science has questions. You don't have to answer them.
Quite possibly the coolest spelling app ever made.
We checked. The competition was mostly worksheets.
A different game every round
The app has six ways to practise a word, and picks which one each word needs. Here are three, then the spin you earned. Go on.
Something has fallen out of the word. Which letter?
under _ ants
Listen, then spell the missing word.
The head teacher was deeply to arrive at assembly in pyjamas.
Finish a round, earn a spin. It is not rigged. We asked it.
Four sections are coins. Two are parts.
Random drops
Spin the wheel after a round and it sometimes drops a creature part. Most are ordinary. Some are not, and the seasonal ones only turn up in season.
- Frog headCommon
- Shark bodyUncommon
- Octopus tentacle legsRare
- Candy Cane Curl tailSeasonal
Build something unwise
Any head, any body, any legs, and a tail if you like, glued together in the Workshop. Nobody can stop you. It even spells its own name.
Heads are prefixes, bodies are roots, legs are suffixes. The name is built the same way. Try not to notice.
Coins, trophies and the Sanctuary
- Earn coins and dig tokens. Spend the coins in the shop: new parts every day, and games to keep.
- Your own records, week by week, and a scoreboard for your year group.*
- Trophies to show off in your very own (virtual) cabinet. Can you collect them all?
- A Sanctuary for your beasts, with a photo studio and a stat card for every one.
*Only if your “responsible” adult switches them on.
Four ways out into the field
Same game, different words. Which ones come up is the app's job. How long it takes is yours.
“See my progress” lists every word on the week's list as Not yet, Nearly or Got it, with the last eight goes at it beside each one. A word is got once it has been spelled right three times running.
Helps you see what's wrong
Check and fix
Get feedback on how close the spelling was and what was wrong, then quickly try again while it's fresh.
How you did
At the end of the round, see how you did and reap the rewards, with a chance to try the tricky ones again.
A spin every round
Who doesn't love a chance to win even more stuff? Every round gets a spin, with more chances of random drops and coins.
A short break in the middle
Halfway through a long list, and now and then in a Quick practice, a field game turns up. It lasts about half a minute, and there is never more than one a round.
There are ten of them. You start with one and dig the rest up on the map. A grown-up can switch them off.
And the shop
Five wrapped parts a day, with the rarity and price on the tag. When they are gone, they are gone until tomorrow. Christmas, Easter, the summer and a child's birthday bring parts of their own.
Coins are earned by spelling and nothing else. There is nothing to buy with real money.
A map that fills in as you go
You start here
Five zones. You start in the Hedgerows; the other four stay under cloud until you open them with coins. Then dig. Field games, rare parts and new scenes for the Sanctuary are buried out there.
The Bestiary
Flamingo legs
◆
A sticker album with a numbered spot for all 202 parts. A gap shows where its part drops and how rare it is, and nothing else. The rest is finding it.
Your sidekick
The Sanctuary
Put up to five on show in a scene, take their photo for the catalogue, and pick one to be your sidekick. There are twenty scenes, from the farm to the moon, and most of them are dug up on the map.
Every creature gets a stat card, and the scores come from its parts. Flamingo legs wobble. Shark tails swim. Choose accordingly.
Ten minutes a day on the list that actually came home from school.
The creatures keep them coming back. What they're practising is built on how spelling is learned.
It practises the real list
You add the words your child brought home. Nothing generic, nothing they'll never be tested on.
Spaced, not crammed
Mega Mix brings earlier words back just as they start to fade, so this week's list is still there next month.
Words taught as parts
Prefix, root, suffix. The creature's head, body and legs map onto them, so the reward teaches the same idea as the lesson.
Spelling it, not spotting it
Pick-the-right-one formats stay locked until a word has been typed correctly twice. Recognising a word isn't the same as producing it.
Made for children who find it hard
Clear letterforms, reader tints, audio that's always one tap away. Help arrives in steps. It never feels remedial.
Rewards that can't be bought
No loot boxes, and nothing to buy with real money. Coins are earned by spelling, and nothing in the game changes which words come up.
Your part takes two minutes a week
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Add this week's list
Type the words in, paste them, or photograph the sheet that came home. A sheet for the whole half term is split into weeks, one after another.
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They play
The app picks the games and the order. Ten minutes is plenty.
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See what's sticking
Which words are ready for the test, which are nearly there, and which ones to look at together.
The grown-ups' side
One place for the whole household. It is on a computer or a phone, and it is yours: children never see it.
Progress, word by word
Each word shows as Not yet, Nearly or Ready, and opens to show how the goes at it have gone.
Word lists in five steps
Who it is for, how you are adding it, the words, a name, and when. Weeks can be queued back to back, so a half term's lists go in at once.
As much help as they need
Choose which formats they meet, whether a new word starts gently and moves on, and a QWERTY or ABC keyboard. Changes start from their next session.
Adding a child
Five steps and about two minutes: who they are, how they sign in, what they see, how the app is set up for them, and handing it over.
Scoreboards, if you want them
Off until a grown-up switches them on. Other children only ever see the name your child chose in the app, never their real one.
Questions parents ask
Who is it for?
Children aged 6 to 16 with a weekly spelling list. The humour is dry enough to hold a teenager.
What does it run on?
Any phone, tablet or computer with a web browser. Nothing to install, and you can add it to your home screen.
Who holds the account?
You do. Your child signs in with a password you set, and you manage their lists and settings.
Does my child’s real name appear anywhere?
Only to you and your child. Everyone else sees a name your child picks from ones the app makes up, like Sneaky Platypus or Slightly Damp Receipt. There is nowhere to type one, so a surname, a school or an age can’t end up in it.
Can other children contact my child?
No. There is no chat, no messaging and no friend requests, and nothing a child types is ever shown to another child. If you switch scoreboards on, other children see a made-up name and a score, and nothing else.
What do you keep about my child?
Their first name, their year group, the name they picked, and how each word has gone. No email address, no photo of them and no location. A date of birth only if you choose to add one.
Are there adverts or in-app purchases?
No to both. Nothing costs real money, and there is no tracking. The app uses no analytics from other companies; this website counts visits, without cookies, through Cloudflare, who host it.
Can I delete their account?
Yes. You can delete everything the app holds about a child from your account: their lists, progress and creatures.
Is it suitable for a dyslexic child?
It was designed with them in mind: clear type, adjustable reader tints, audio replay on every word, and support that steps in gradually.
How long should they play?
About ten minutes. Rounds are short and end on their own, and the app sends no notifications. Missing a day costs nothing: words come back when they are due.
Is it all spelling?
Mostly. A long round is broken up by a thirty-second field game, and there are bigger games in the shop, bought with coins earned by spelling. Those pay nothing back, no coins and no parts, so playing them never stands in for practice.
Is any of this based on evidence?
The methods are. Spaced practice, checking and fixing your own attempt, and learning words by their parts all have good research behind them, particularly for dyslexic children. The app itself has not been independently trialled.
Doesn’t choosing between wrong spellings teach the wrong spelling?
It can, so those games stay locked until a word has been typed correctly twice, and the right spelling appears straight away. Most practice is spelling the word from scratch.
Beastly spellings, sorted.
Add this week's list and they can start tonight.