Top FREE Apps for Learning Letters!
ABC Ninja — The Alphabet Letters and Phonics Slicing Game for Kids(iPad/iPhone)
This app is a great tie-in for kids who love the popular Fruit Ninja app. With plenty of customization options and three different levels, it's a good app for any age working on mastering letter recognition, and it's fun even for older kids!
Cambugs Letter Sounds (iPad/iPhone, in-app purchases): This app does have an in-app purchase for unlimited users, but it's FREE for one user profile (perfect for home use!) It should be a go-to app for learning letter sounds, as it's developed by educational psychologists and parents in conjunction with the University of Cambridge.
Creative Kids Academy — ABC Alphabet (iPad/iPhone):
This isn't a fancy app, but it provides a canvas to color in each uppercase letter. Each letter is spoken and can be shared or saved to the camera roll. For young toddlers and preschoolers learning letters, it's a simple way to reinforce the shape and name of each letter, in a format that they almost always enjoy — coloring in.
ABC Alphabet Letters by The Little Book (iPad/iPhone): Another new addition to our list, this app is developed by Innovative Mobile Apps, makers of many favorite free apps. This one features full color photos for each letter of the alphabet, along with the ability to customize with sound recordings, new text, and even new pictures.
A to Z Music Videos from ABCmouse.com (iPad/iPhone, in-app purchases): This is just one of SIXTEEN free apps from ABCmouse.com. It's a fun take on learning letters, with songs to help teach letter names and early phonics. The app is also rich with vocabulary development opportunities, and the music is fun for kids. Five videos are immediately free. Additional videos are unlocked with tickets as videos are watched. There are in-app purchases to speed the process, but they are NOT REQUIRED for any of the content!
Little Stars — Toddler Games (iPad/iPhone)
This app is highly rated on the app store, and still a favorite download on our site. It includes ABC letter names and sounds, and even more great learning, including early words, counting and recognizing numbers, shapes and colors.
ABC Alphabet Phonics — Preschool Kids Game Free Lite(iPad/iPhone): Grasshopper Apps develop some of the most popular free apps on Smart Apps For Kids, and this one is great for early letter learning. From the Good Free App of the Day post: The app names a letter and the child has to find and press on it. You can change just about everything in the app: the voice, the images, etc. so you can help your child learn his ABCs by using your voice and his own favorite items!
Little Writer — The Tracing App for Kids (iPad/iPhone): This app from Innovative Mobile has almost 1200 reviews on the app store, with a 4.5 star rating. It's hard to believe it's all free. From the Good Free App of the Day post: Little Writer is a free tracing app that includes letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, shapes and even some basic words AND it has a ton of customization options, including adding words (such as the child's name so they can learn how to trace it!)
Alphabet Tracing (iPad/iPhone, in-app purchases): A great app for learning all of the letters and numbers, it shows how to draw the letter, provides tracing practice, and associates an object with a letter, too. A cute train traces different patterns on the letter to keep kids engaged. An in-app purchase is available to make pdf versions of the letters to trace, but the main content of the app is all free!
9 in 1 children games (iPad only): Another app with more than just letter learning, all for free! There are two games for learning letters and numbers, and more games with matching, tangrams, creativity and several games for early math skills. One of my favorite games is actually an addition game, where the child matches the number tile to a set of objects before finding the tile to match the sum.
PBS Kids Video (iPad/iPhone): This app features more than 1000 videos, including numerous series and episodes featuring letter learning. My kids especially loved SUPER WHY and Word World, but most of the shows have at least one episode featuring some learning about letters. This app is great for on-the-go entertainment that's actually educational.
Educreations Interactive Whiteboard (iPad only): This app is so much more than just an app for learning letters — it allows the user to turn the iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Instead of letting app developers show children how to make letters, parents and teachers can record videos on each letter! When kids are ready, they can make their own video about each letter, too. It's a great, FREE way to fully utilize the wonderful technology available in the iPad.