Chimp Fu
An excellent app for teaching syllable division
APP DETAILS
Developer – Nessy Learning Limited
Age – 5 to 11 year olds
Subject – Literacy
Special Need - Dyslexia
Score – 84/100
Price – £2.29 / $2.99
App Store Link - http://geni.us/sW5
Play Store Link – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.nessy.ChimpFuUS&hl=en_GB
Windows Store Link - Not Available
App Review
Chimp Fu is based on the popular learning game of the same name that features in the Nessy Learning Programme. The aim of Chimp Fu is to defeat the gorillas to become a Chimp Fu Master. Quite an accomplishment I am sure you will agree but, more importantly, along the way children learn important strategies that help them understand and use syllables.
A good understanding of syllables is important for both reading and spelling. In particular the skill of syllable division is really useful when confronted with unfamiliar words. If children do not have a strategy for breaking longer words into manageable parts, they tend to resort to either guessing or giving up.
The app does a really good job of explaining how to go about splitting words into syllables. These explanations are delivered at the start of each level by an entertaining character called Monkey Major. He also demonstrates how children can read each chunk and then blend them together.
After this briefing, users are faced with words written on a hotdog and have to move a dotted line along the word to where they think it should be split. When they are happy with the positioning, they slice the word with their finger and the on screen monkey chops the word in two at that point.
If the word is split incorrectly the banana of pain will appear and will turn partially red. If it goes completely red the game is over. Once a player identifies the syllable division in enough words they are rewarded with a quick mini game. This requires them to tap as many randomly appearing hotdogs as they can in the time available. They receive a bronze, silver or gold star depending on the number of items that were tapped.
I absolutely love the progression available in Chimp Fu. It contains nine levels which take children seamlessly from cvc-cvc words such as hel-met, through consonant blends like trum-pet, right up to difficult three syllable words e.g. re-place-ment. As children master more complex syllables their monkey gains new Chimp Fu bandana colours, just like a martial artist receives belts.
There is space for up to five player profiles and progress is automatically saved at the end of each session. Chimp Fu is also the first Nessy app that can be linked to a nessy.com account. This allows students to continue the game on other devices but more importantly it means that teachers can track activity and progress. This gives teachers the opportunity to see where exactly individual students are going wrong and target support more specifically.
Chimp Fu does not contain any adverts or in-app purchases but there are links to other Nessy apps and to their social media sites. These are not protected. Chimp Fu is available on both the iOS and Android platforms. I would highly recommend this app. Children enjoy playing it and it is teaching them the really important skill of syllable division which is not covered by many other apps.
Peter
Educational App Advice
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