I have a kindergartener and a second grader. For this age - sight words are very important. There are two apps that we use often. I highly recommend these apps.
Word Bingo by ABCya.com ($0.99) - This uses predetermined sets from the Dolce word list. There are 300 words split into the following categories. Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and nouns. You can also choose all words. There are four games included - Word Bingo, Spelling Practice, Word Fling and Word it Up. My daughter loves Word Fling the best - I am a big fan of Word it Up. Note that you must play word bingo before you can select Word Fling or Word it Up.
Positive - the games are actually fun..... Also, you can program in a student name and track the progress. You can go into the word lists and see what words they are getting right how often.
Negative - you can not customize the lists
you can read more about it at
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-bingo/id406264088?mt=8
Sight Words by Phototouch - free - This ap is a flashcard type app that drills on sight words. It is actually pretty cool in that you can either use their predetermined list - or you can add or delete from their list. They have 5 lists - preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third. You can set which lists you want turned on for the quizzing. You can also use the recording of the word that it came with - or you can rerecord it so it is in your voice.
The "game" itself will show three different words on the page and then a voice will say the word. The child should then select the word that was just read. If right - "fantastic" and next slide appears. If wrong the ipad beeps and gives the child another chance. It will continue to beep until correct word is chosen. Also - you can select the minimum and maximum number of words to show. You can even set the min and max to 1 - which would be a good review.
If you set the min at 3 and the max at 10 (for example) - the app will level up and down accordingly. So, for instance if you have three words shown and you get three right in a row - it will start to show you four words at a time. Also, if you are getting the answer wrong on the first attempt two times then it will decrease the number of words shown.
Negative: This is just meant for one person and there are no reports on how they are doing - or tracking to let them start at a certain level. Also - the game can get monotonous.
That being said - it's free and you can put it your own lists - sounds like a keeper : )
you can read more about it at
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-words-by-photo-touch/id421341850?mt=8
Hope you enjoyed those reviews - I'll have more soon!