Have you ever thought about which letters of the alphabet are the skinniest? Roundest? Most likely to tip to the left or right if they tried to balance on a line? This app asks you to look at letters differently than you ever have before. In this game, players are given a few lines and one dot (or several) and asked to figure out which letters would fall on top of the dot if gravity were turned on. Sometimes you choose which letters to use, sometimes you add the line, sometimes gravity is turned upside down. When you successfully complete the puzzle, you’re rewarded with a little sprinkling of paper circles that look like they’ve been cut from books or other found paper. The screen backgrounds are sometimes a solid color, sometimes a pattern (reminiscent of floral or striped wallpaper), and the overall mood of the game is quite calming. If you choose to turn the sound on, you can hear a subtle sound each time a letter falls or hits another object, reinforcing the sense of the physics of the game. One of the six early literacy skills is “letter knowledge” and while this app doesn’t require you to know what the “name” of each letter is, it certainly forces players to think about what makes a “j” look different than an “i” or the differences between “p” “b” “d” and “q”-- subtle details that can be tricky when you’re learning to read. The puzzles can be very challenging as you progress through the levels, so this is a great one for kids and parents to work on together. Many of them could have multiple correct answers, so see what ideas your kid tries out before offering adult suggestions--you might be surprised!
