Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory (2003)

Building words is an exciting and empowering experience for young children (and frogs) who have mastered individual letters and their sounds. When young Tad wants to nominate his Dad for a "Best Dad" contest he asks his brother Leap and sister Lily for some help filling out the application. The three young frogs go see Professor Quigley at their Father's Talking Word Factory for a little instruction and get to watch the "Sticky-ick-o-rama" and the "Word Whammer" machines at work. Tad quickly discovers that vowels act as the glue that sticks letters together and then learns to combine individual letter sounds to make three-letter words, use common ending sounds to create rhyming words, and blend letter sounds to make even longer rhyming words. Phonemic awareness, vocabulary building, and rhyming are entertaining and fun thanks to familiar Leap Pad characters, colorful animation, and short songs. An interactive word game challenges young viewers to fill in the missing first letter in a variety of three-letter words. This program is a great next step for graduates of Leap Frog: Talking Letters Factory and children ages 3 to 6. Tami Horiuchi