Have Fun learning about letters and their sounds! LeapFrog characters spring to life in this engaging and educational DVD. Popular LeapFrog characters, Leap, Lily and Tad go on a wild adventure to the Letter Factory. Led b... more »y wacky Professor Quigley, Tad joins Js jumping on trampolines and Ks practicing karate kicks as new letters learn their sounds. Fun songs will have kids singing letter sounds in no time.« less
Michelle S. from PERU, IN Reviewed on 12/8/2012...
This show has been watched over and over and over at my house! It really works to teach kids their letters!
Movie Reviews
Great for Primary Classrooms too!
Colleen D. Gallagher | Pittsburgh, PA | 01/02/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is one of the best learning DVD's I have seen. It will be a great watch for the Pre-k to first grade classrooms. The DVD teaches the letter names. Most importantly, it teaches the letter sounds in a creative way. Viewers see the letters, hear the letter names, they see a picture/video that represents the sound each letter makes, and the viewer hears a catchy tune to match the letter sound. For instance, the letter C is shown in a cold environment with ice hanging from it. The letter comes to life by shivering and stating that it is /c/ /c/ /c/.... old. Then the characters in the story sing the catchy Leapfrog song; "The C says/c/, the C says /c/, every letter makes a sound. The C says /c/. This DVD/VHS is marketed towards parents to use with their PreK to First grader, but all teachers need to know about this video and share it with their class. It would be a great review or introduction to letter sounds. Teachers could also use the catchy phrases and visual representation of the letter sounds in their lessons by creating activities or visuals based on the video. Students will see the sounds letters make, hear the sounds, and sing the sounds. This video combined with strong phonics based classroom instruction will help reach a variety of learning styles and lead your students on the path to becoming strong readers."
The best there is! You HAVE to get this!
carolyn | Canal Winchester, OH | 12/10/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I just can't believe how well done this DVD is for little ones. My little guy, age 3, learned his letters and sounds very quickly after watching this DVD. Then, 3 weeks later after not watching it for about that long, he's still talking about what sounds each letter makes. It's very well done, makes it very easy for children to understand, plus it's very enjoyable to watch. After about 34 times of hearing, "The R says errrr" with that tune attached gets a little redundant, but not to little ones. You have to get this for every preschooler you know. It's really that good!"
Fantastic DVD!
Janet Boyer | Pennsylvania | 01/28/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"My son was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified when he was 3. PDD-NOS is on the Autism spectrum, and children with this diagnosis often have developmental delays.
My son had a speech delay and other developmental delays. His speech is great now...no one can detect that he has this diagnosis. However, the delays have, understandably, affected his learning in some areas.
While his spatial skills have been way above average--as has his grasp of science (such as planets and their attributes)--he has resisted reading. He gets tired and frustrated.
Well, trying many approaches for helping him, I thought I'd take a chance and get Letter Factory from Amazon.com, especially since the reviews were so good.
I am so THRILLED that I did! I thought for SURE he'd suspect that I was "getting him to learn" (make no mistake, PDD-NOS doesn't mean a low IQ!), but surprisingly, he's been watching Letter Factory on a consistent basis for WEEKS now! I'll even hear him singing the catchy songs to himself as he goes about his business.
In the DVD, Tad (Leap's younger brother) joins Professor Quigley to all the different rooms where new letters learn their sounds. For example, when they enter the A room, there's a silly purpose monster that scares the little A's into saying "ahhhh!" In the K room, the little K's are practicing their karate kicks as they learn how to make the "kay" sound.
What's especially great about the Letter Factory is that it combines the visuals of the letters with the sound that the letter makes in a very catchy tune. For example, as the F's are flying, they sing "the F says 'eff', the F says 'eff'...every letter makes a sound, the F says 'eff'". This method helps both audio and visual learners to grasp the sounds...not to mention those that are more musically inclined.
I see my son applying what he's learned (very quickly, I might add!) to books. He'll now pick up books from the library ON HIS OWN, and attempt to sound out the words. Combined with the DVD's Talking Words Factory I and Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory, I KNOW The Letter Factory has contributed to his progress in a BIG way.
Highly recommended!"
Good Concept But Some Serious Errors...
Gym lady | Africa | 12/18/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The creators of this program have come up with an excellent concept; animating letters that make sounds representing each letter in the Alphabet. I have a degree in Psychology and studied several modules on how children learn to read. I also have 2 preteen children who I taught to read and one 4 year old daughter who I bought this learning video for. The four year old learnt all the sounds pretty quickly. However, there are a few letters pronounced incorrectly; L is pronounced ULL, R is pronounced ER and a few others are not clear.
But by far the BIGGEST problem with this video is that all the letters are only taught in UPPER CASE letters. So your lovely child may learn all her sounds but most books for children are written in lower case letters, with CAPS only at the beginning of sentences and names. Some parents may not see this as a problem because we take for granted that our experienced minds can easily switch between reading lower and upper case letters, but from the numourous case studies I did to complete my modules, plus from my own experience with my children, most childhood educators recommend teaching lower case letters first, then very early introduction of upper case letters. 98% of all prose in all books is written in lower case! Imagine a 4 year old learning the letter 'A', then in a simple book you expect them to identify the 'a' in printed text then link the two objects as being the same?! To their young eyes its a completely different object and you will have to reteach them from scratch as I have had to do with my 4 year old.
However, buying this video is still recommended though, but what I have done to help my child is to have a book with colourful lower case letters close by to show her everytime the capital letter is shown on the video. This same problem of CAPS only is on the entire Leapfrog series, I have 4 of their DVDs. Other than these problems its a brilliant concept, the animation is very entertaining, the repetition is essential to rote learning and most importantly; my child enjoys watching it."