Minneapolis, Minnesota – Preschool University today is proud to announce an upgrade of ABC MAGIC PHONICS 5-Connecting Sounds, Letters and Pictures 2.02 for iOS. This is the first app in the ABC MAGIC series to have a huge update that includes more levels, more sounds and more images. This app helps children build a strong phonics foundation and gives them the skills and the practice they need to be able to identify by ear which sounds, letters and pictures go together.

This app has three levels of sequential learning for English learners to master. The sequence is designed to take the learner from the concrete to the abstract; from not knowing anything about letters to having good phonemic awareness. The app uses sounds, images and letters. The free version has three lessons that each focus on a particular step of the Alphabetic Principle.

* Matching Sounds to Images
* Matching Sounds to Lowercase Letters
* Matching Letters to Images

This app features four phonetic images for each letter. Each word in each of the groupings uses only the most common sound for each letter. For instance, ‘igloo’ and ‘inchworm’ would be used for the letter i, but not ‘ice’ nor ‘ivy’ as those begin with long i (the second most used sound for the letter i). “This is an important concept for teaching beginning readers – to start by teaching only the most commonly used sound of each letter,” says Preschool University President, Richard Colombini.

ABC MAGIC PHONICS 5-Connecting Sounds, Letters and Pictures operates in portrait orientation. From the Home Page, users can select one of the three choices for games.

On the home page, three rectangles can be seen that each have an arrow in the middle of them. By tapping the top rectangle, the app user is brought to the first game. Four twirling stars spin to a stop on the left side of the app screen and 4 twirling images spin to a stop on the right side of the app screen. Each star and each image, when tapped, will sound off. Each sound star will say the sound of a letter when touched. Each picture will say its name when touched. By tapping the squares on the left, the user can hear, “/r/, /a/, /v/, /w/.” By tapping the squares on the right, the user can hear, “rice, wagon, astronaut, volcano.”

The object is to connect a sound on the left with the image that begins with that sound on the right. A success is revealed by the pictures staying connected with the colored yarn. An incorrect guess will have the yarn disappear. Using the previous examples, the app user would tap on the sound star that says “/r/” and drag the colored yarn from there across to the rice image. The app user would then tap on the sound star that says “/a/” and drag the colored yarn from there across to the astronaut image. Play continues until all of the pictures are connected. Once all four connections have been made; then a new screen will appear, just like before with sound stars on the left and images on the right. There is a counter at the bottom of the screen that keeps track of how many screens have been cleared.

The second game is accessed from the middle rectangle on the home page. This game involves connecting sound stars to letters. Sound stars appear on the left side of the app screen and letters appear on the right side of the app screen. This game is played in the same exact way as the first game, except, that now, the sound stars are matched to letters. The app user picks a sound from the left and drags the colored yarn line across the screen to the matching letter on the right. Once each screen is cleared, the counter at the bottom will increase by one. At 100, after 100 screens have been cleared, there will be a spinning sun that displays with music.

The third game is played like the first two games. The third game is different in that it has letters on the left side of the app screen and images on the right side of the app screen. The object is to match the letters on the left with their matching images on the right

These games are designed so that children can do them independently after being given the basic instructions of how to play the games. The app has built-in feedback mechanisms to help children work independently. These mechanisms allow children to learn at their own pace and in their own way.

Seven additional levels can be unlocked for an in-App purchase of $1.99.
* Matching Sounds to Sounds
* Matching Images to Images
* Matching Lowercase Letters to Lowercase Letters
* Matching Uppercase Letters to Uppercase Letters
* Matching Sounds to Uppercase Letters
* Matching Uppercase Letters to Images
* Matching Lowercase Letters to Uppercase Letters

This in-app purchase also includes eight more images per letter, two additional voice choices and the ability to change the number of items being matched from 3-6 items per side.

Feature Highlights:
* Choose from one of three lessons
* Every image, letter and sound star will always sound out when touched
* App has built in feedback mechanisms to encourage child learning
* Learn The Alphabetic Principle
* Develop Phonemic Awareness
* Learn How Sounds Relate to Words
* Learn Letter-Sound Correspondence
* Gain proficiency in the use of the sounds of the letters
* Gain Proficiency with Auditory Discrimination

“A team of educators using accelerated learning techniques and Montessori principles developed this fun app, which your child will enjoy using as they learn,” stated Richard Colombini of Preschool University. “It has been tested and successfully used with preschoolers.”

Device Requirements:
* Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus
* Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Universal app optimized for display on all iOS devices
* Rated 4
* Size: 42.1 MB

Pricing and Availability:
ABC MAGIC PHONICS 5-Connecting Sounds, Letters and Pictures 2.02 is free and ABC MAGIC PHONICS 5-Connecting Sounds, Letters and Pictures for Schools is $1.99 (USD). They are both available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category. Review copies are available on request.

Preschool University
ABC MAGIC PHONICS 5-Connecting Sounds, Letters and Pictures 2.02
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Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Preschool University’s mission is to create and promote excellent reading materials and high quality learning tools for children. Established in 2010, Preschool University is an accumulation of over 20 years of experience and success in child reading development. It began as a promise by Montessori preschool owner and lead teacher, Richard Colombini, to prospective parents. The promise: “All Kindergartners Are Guaranteed To Read” The company currently offers more than 24 free educational apps in the App Store. Copyright (C) 2011- 2015 Preschool University All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.