An Imaginative Word-Building Playground That Captivates Young Minds
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Continue reading to learn more about the Planet Lettra word-building app.
What is Planet Lettra?
Planet Lettra is a unique word-building app developed by Studio Goojaji that transports children into a whimsical space-themed environment where letters float in colorful bubbles across the screen. Unlike traditional phonics apps, Planet Lettra takes an open-ended approach to literacy learning, allowing children to experiment freely with letter combinations without time limits, levels to complete, or points to accumulate.
The app recognizes over 100,000 words in English, French, and Spanish, making it accessible to multilingual learners. Planet Lettra received a Children’s Technology Review Editors’ Choice Award in 2016 and has been praised by education specialists for its innovative approach to phonemic awareness and word exploration.
The app features charming alien creatures called “Munchers” that live on the planet’s surface and interact with the words children create, adding an element of discovery and playfulness to the learning experience.
Is Planet Lettra Easy to Use?
The following factors impact the overall usability of the Planet Lettra app.
Getting Started With Planet Lettra
Planet Lettra includes a helpful tour of the app that is suitable for parents and children alike, narrated in rhyming verse that sounds like it was written by Dr. Seuss. This charming introduction helps new users understand the app’s unique mechanics and sets expectations for the open-ended play experience.
The app requires no account creation or personal information, making it immediately accessible to young children. The developer does not collect any data from this app, which provides peace of mind for privacy-conscious families.
Navigation and Interface
The developers put a lot of thought into the mechanics of the game, making it easy enough for young children to use and intriguing enough to interest older players. The interface is intuitive, with floating letter bubbles that children can manipulate by touching and moving them around the screen.
However, some users have noted challenges with bubble control. Some users find that “the letters go together too easily and it gets frustrating,” though this can be controlled through settings that allow users to adjust how easily bubbles combine.
Settings and Customization
Planet Lettra offers customizable settings through special pink bubbles that can be assigned specific values, allowing educators to focus on particular blends or rhymes. Users can control how letter bubbles combine with a ring feature, where pulling the ring all the way to the bottom requires bubbles to be pushed together manually for combination.
The app supports multiple languages and regional accents, including American English, Australian English, Irish English, and British English, making it adaptable to different linguistic backgrounds.
Engagement in Planet Lettra
The following factors influence how engaging young learners may find the Planet Lettra app.
Gameplay and Visual Appeal
Planet Lettra excels in creating an immersive, magical environment that captures children’s imagination. The app features floating bubbles that change color depending on their contents: single-letter bubbles are white, multiple-letter bubbles are yellow, real words are orange, and non-word combinations turn blue.
The planet also has creatures living on the surface that like to eat bubbles, with some eating any bubble while others only want orange bubbles containing real words. Some creatures even “get dressed up” when they eat their favorite bubbles by sprouting clothing, beards, and antennae.
Interactive Features and Rewards
Rather than traditional point-based rewards, Planet Lettra uses intrinsic motivation through discovery and experimentation. The sound environment is musical, soothing, and non-repetitive, creating a calming atmosphere that encourages extended play without overstimulation.
Children can explore beneath the planet’s surface to review words they’ve created and even rearrange them into silly sentences, adding layers of engagement and reinforcement to their word-building activities.
Age Range and Accessibility
The app is designed to be accessible for children of various ages and reading abilities, encouraging play in a non-competitive and relaxing manner. Teachers report using it successfully with students at all levels, from prereaders to more advanced learners.
Literacy Learning With Planet Lettra
These factors impact how effectively Planet Lettra teaches essential literacy skills.
Type of Phonics Instruction
Planet Lettra takes an exploratory approach to phonics learning rather than following a systematic, explicit instruction model. While this can be beneficial for developing phonemic awareness and letter-sound recognition, it lacks the structured scope and sequence that research shows is most effective for beginning readers.
The app is designed to guide children in building the most important sight words for reading fluency and provide exposure to important letter blends. However, without explicit instruction in letter-sound correspondences, some children may miss foundational phonics concepts.
Word Recognition and Building
Planet Lettra recognizes over 100,000 words in each supported language, with words important to reading fluency (about 1000) being formed more easily and more often. This feature helps guide children toward creating meaningful words while still allowing creative exploration.
Children will hear new words read automatically when real words are formed by popping bubbles, and words previously built can be reviewed and read aloud. This immediate auditory feedback helps reinforce word recognition and pronunciation.
Phonemic Awareness Development
Teachers can use this word-building app to help students develop phonemic awareness and encourage risk-taking in spelling and the discovery of new words. The app’s open-ended nature allows children to experiment with letter combinations without fear of making mistakes, which can build confidence in emerging readers.
However, some letter combinations are not pronounced correctly, such as “im” being pronounced “I am” and “un” being spoken with a long u sound instead of a short one. These pronunciation errors could potentially confuse children learning letter-sound relationships.
Areas for Improvement
The app works best for students who already know their letters and can work on word building and letter-sound recognition. Children without strong foundational letter knowledge may struggle to benefit from the open-ended approach.
Kids need a solid comfort level with words to prepare a word mentally and construct it successfully, and it can be tricky to figure out which words work and which don’t. Some children may become frustrated without more explicit guidance on word formation.
Is Planet Lettra Good for Literacy Instruction?
Planet Lettra offers a refreshing and creative approach to phonics learning that stands out from more traditional educational apps. This outstanding app helps young readers develop an intuitive understanding of phonics and word analysis skills in a playful, encouraging environment.
The app’s greatest strength lies in its ability to foster exploration and experimentation with language in a stress-free environment. Children can experiment and play without stress: there are no time limits, no levels to complete, no points to accumulate, and no in-app purchases. This approach can be particularly beneficial for children who may feel pressured by more structured learning environments.
However, Planet Lettra works best as a supplementary tool rather than a primary phonics instruction program. While it excels at building phonemic awareness and encouraging word play, it lacks the systematic, explicit instruction that research shows is most effective for teaching foundational reading skills.
The app is particularly well-suited for:
- Children who already know basic letter-sound relationships
- Supplementing structured phonics instruction
- Encouraging creative exploration with language
- Supporting English language learners through multilingual features
- Special education settings where open-ended exploration is beneficial
For families seeking comprehensive phonics instruction, Planet Lettra should be paired with more structured programs. For those wanting to spark curiosity about words and language, this app provides an engaging and unique learning playground.
Want to discover more phonics education apps? Check out Phonics.org for a growing library of honest reviews from literacy experts!
Planet Lettra – Overall Ratings
Quality of Literacy Instruction: 3/5
Usability: 4/5
Engagement: 5/5
