Word Games for Kids - Futaba

If you're looking for a fantastic multiplayer game AND a fun way to help children learn new words, look no further....

Category	Price	Seller	Device
Education	Free	INKids Education LLC	iPad

  Futaba is a 4 player game designed for kids. This outrageously fun word quiz game can be used at home or in the classroom as a entertaining way to build language skills.   

**** DESIGN YOUR OWN GAMES ****

It's perfect for children 4-8 and is ideal for supporting class room activities of all types (or just as fun to play at home!). Futaba is a great way to learn a 2nd language learner or you could even use it in your history class.

The idea is simple; Each player takes a seat around the iPad and taps in to start. The game begins as images zoom into the playing area. The first player to match the word to the image scores a point. Win 3 rounds and you'll be awarded a giant (but very friendly) seedling... 

Futaba (Japanese for 'seedling") was originally conceived by Dave Wingler, from Osaka Kunei Girls' Junior and Senior High in Osaka, Japan. The idea was to provide a simple and fun way for ESL students to practice learning words in a classroom environment. After contacting INKids, we decided to build the Futaba game so it could not only be used in Dave's classroom, but in homes and classrooms throughout the world.   

Futaba comes with over 100 wonderful hand drawn illustrations, professional audio soundtracks and has high quality visuals (just check the screen shots below). 

**** USE YOUR OWN IMAGES & TEXT ****

Parents, teachers and even students themselves can create their own content by using either the built in camera, the camera roll by copying images to iTunes. NEW: Dropbox account holders can also upload new images via the drop!

This is only available in the full version. Future support is planned for iCloud.

 If you have any questions, or would like to let us know about how you are using Futaba in your school please email [email protected]  

INKids Guarantee: We take pride in the loyalty and trust of our customers who purchase an INKids product, if you're not 100% satisfied with your purchase, please email us right away.

Reviews

Mr.Bill
Chrysler1962

I like this app because it is interactive for more than one person. You can teach up to four students from one iPad !!! Great app....Thanks a lot.

Great educational value
kidzrul

This app is great on its own - but the ability to customize the games - and integrate through dropbox - really moves it to "head of the class".

Fun, easy and educational!
Newkkteam

Futaba is a fantastic app for language learning. We love the fact that we can easily customize it by creating games based on our son's weekly spelling lists. He can play by himself against the clock or we can join in the game and "compete" against him. It makes learning that much fun for him and less of a headache for us.

Promising
ESL teacher 2

A cute game, but before I use it with students I would want to see a couple of fixes. Firstly, please get rid of the uppercase letters at the beginning of all the words. Teachers spend a lot of time teaching kids when to use them - at the beginning of sentences or proper nouns - and it would be helpful if this game followed the rules! Secondly, could you make it a little harder for kids to guess by sometimes having 2 or more of the word choices begin with the same letter? (I do like the fact that if kids do guess they only get one chance, but if only one word begins with that sound it is too easy to guess correctly!)

Potential
Tutu67

Very fun but a little too easy. I love the suggestion of making some of the word choices similar. My daughter was able to guess based on the first letter. Maybe add levels to increase the challenge?

Not great
Teacher smurf002

Lots of distractions on the screen. Pictures too cutesy. Word choices not great; e.g. the word choice for backpack was 'bag.' ~ a teacher

Very Intelligent
iWantexcellence

This app is quite good - fun for kids of all ages, and has tremendous potential in schools and learning settings. The Dropbox feature is nice for expanding content. Don't avoid it because some dope gives low ratings based their expectation to get something for nothing. I paid $1.99 for the pro or full version after seeing my own kids (5, 3, and 2 years old) very engaged with the two-player sample version. I teach middle school and the kids enjoy the interface. I look forward to updates and using it for reviews of material. Thanks for making it open to user content.

Oh what fun!
Kinder5k

Just got this app a few days ago, before update. My kinder students had a blast. They absolutely loved it & boy did it help them recognize & read words quickly. A great game to fill in time for those fast workers.