Cookie-Cutter Phonics Fun with Elmo and Cookie Monster

Are you looking for quality literacy apps for your child or student? The quality of educational apps can vary drastically. Check out our library of phonics reviews at phonics.org to see which literacy app is right for you. 

Read on to see if the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app is a good fit for you and your child!

What is Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen?

Sesame Street has become a learning staple for young children in many households since 1969, making it the longest-running children’s show in American TV history. The original intent of the show was to prepare disadvantaged children for school through television programming. Over the years, Sesame Street has evolved and developed its programs and characters.

The Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app was released in 2015. This app builds on the Sesame Street legacy by continuing to encourage children to learn and grow. The app focuses on these key educational goals:

• Letter Identification
• Letter Sounds
• Decoding (blending sounds to read words) 
• Vocabulary Building
• Kindness and sharing

Overall, the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen aims to provide an engaging platform for young children to learn to read simple words. 

Is Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen Easy to Use?

These factors influence the usability of the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen App. 

Navigation

Navigating the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app is simple and straightforward. Once the app is purchased, getting started is a breeze. The app offers an initial choice between making cookies with Chef Elmo or Chef Cookie Monster. Players can easily switch between these options at any time, making the experience both flexible and engaging. 

A notable limitation, however, is the absence of user profiles. This would be a beneficial feature, allowing different players to personalize their learning experiences on one device. 

Gameplay

The gameplay in Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen is designed to be intuitive and accessible, with directions that are easy for young children to understand. While the app does not offer an option to repeat directions on demand, they are repeated frequently while playing the game.

The app presents two main options for making cookies. Elmo’s game focuses on creating and decorating short vowel cookies (a, e, i, o, and u). Meanwhile, Cookie Monster’s game emphasizes building and reading phonetically simple words. Both modes are designed to be engaging and manageable for young learners, allowing them to play independently and gain confidence in their literacy learning.

App Settings 

The settings in Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen are simple. Parents and teachers have the option to toggle on or off sound effects and character voices. However, the ability to turn off character voices is somewhat puzzling, given that the game relies heavily on the characters’ guidance to make the gameplay understandable and engaging.

Another notable limitation is the lack of customization options for selecting specific letters or word patterns to focus on. Adding this feature would allow for a more tailored learning experience. 

How Engaging is Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen?

These factors influence learner engagement in the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app. 

Engaging Characters

Elmo and Cookie Monster play a significant role in making the app appealing to both children and adults. These beloved and well-known figures bring a sense of familiarity and warmth that enhances the overall experience. Their presence helps maintain players’ interest throughout the various literacy-building tasks.

Rewards

Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen keeps children engaged through its entertaining gameplay, making extra rewards unnecessary. The app includes a fun feature where kids can decorate alphabet cookies. Cookie decorating offers a creative outlet that adds to the enjoyment in the game. This focus on interactive play and creativity ensures that the experience remains rewarding and captivating without relying on external incentives.

Active and Passive Participation

Creative aspects of the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app encourage active participation. For example, cookie decorating or choosing who to share the cookies with requires learners to actively make choices and interact with the app. 

However, some of the more educational aspects of the app are more passive. For instance, children listen to Cookie Monster model how to sound out a word and share its meaning, but don’t actually need to try and sound out a word themselves. Adding more opportunities for children to actively practice sound blending would enhance this aspect of the app and provide a more engaging learning experience.

Literacy Learning With Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen

Does the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app help children on their early literacy journeys? Let’s consider some of the instructional methods within the app. 

Learning About Letters and Sounds

The letter sounds in the app are generally accurate. However, Cookie Monster’s deep monster voice may not be the ideal choice to introduce proper letter sound pronunciation to children. 

The app focuses on using lowercase letters which is another clever choice as these letters are common. Elmo’s role in teaching short vowel sounds is also strategically important. Mastering short vowel sounds is a fundamental and challenging step in learning to read and spell. 

However, the execution of Chef Elmo’s vowel lessons could be improved. Currently, when a child taps on a vowel cookie cutter, Elmo often provides the letter name and sometimes a word associated with the letter, but he does not articulate the letter sound itself. Direct and explicit instruction in letter sounds is highly recommended by literacy experts, and Elmo’s approach would benefit from more frequent and explicit pronunciation of the actual vowel sounds. 

Letter formation or printing of letters is not a goal of the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app. However, accurate printing could easily have been incorporated in the cookie decorating to build this skill. 

Sequential Learning

Phonics experts often recommend teaching phonics skills in a specific, structured order to build a solid foundation. The app assumes that children are already familiar with consonant sounds. It does not seem to follow a particular sequence for introducing these sounds. A more clear progression of skills or options to choose the letter sounds and words practiced would be beneficial. 

Phonemic Awareness 

Chef Cookie Monster’s game involves placing an initial and final consonant cookie letter in a word and letting the player choose the vowel. Once the vowel is chosen, Cookie Monster says all of the sounds in the word, blends these sounds together, and states the word it represents. 

Changing one letter at a time in word building instruction is called chaining. Chaining is an efficient method for building word-reading and spelling skills. This approach also demonstrates final blending, an important skill for decoding words. However, while the modeling is valuable, the learning experience would be enhanced if children were also encouraged to actively participate in blending the sounds themselves. 

Phonics Instruction

Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen utilizes synthetic phonics, a method where individual sounds are combined to read and build words. This approach is supported by research as one of the most efficient ways to learn reading and spelling, making it an excellent choice for the app. By focusing on blending individual sounds together, the app helps children develop crucial phonics skills that are foundational for reading proficiency.

Vocabulary Development

Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen effectively supports vocabulary development through its creative gameplay. After children create dough letters, these are mixed in a bowl to form a new cookie that represents the meaning of a word. Chef Cookie Monster then uses this word in a sentence, which reinforces vocabulary learning and helps children understand new terms in context. 

Additionally, the app occasionally allows learners to create “nonwords” with the chosen vowels. Cookie Monster appropriately sounds out these nonwords and explains that they aren’t real words, encouraging children to try again with choosing a different vowel. 

Is the Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen App Helpful for Kids?

Overall, Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen harnesses the well-known and widely-adored Elmo and Cookie Monster to capture the attention of young learners. The app is generally well-designed, organized, and engaging for young players. The app could benefit from some additional settings and features like the ability to choose which letters and types of words to focus on in the games.

This app is not intended to be a comprehensive literacy program. This app could be helpful for children who already know most of their letter sounds, including short vowels and need practice in blending simple sounds together to read words. The app does a good job of building vocabulary and modeling how to blend sounds together to read simple words. However, the app could improve with Elmo’s short vowel letter sound instruction and encourage more active participation in word reading. 

If you’re looking for more expert reviews on reading apps, check out phonics.org where literacy experts share their honest opinions of today’s popular programs!

Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen: Overall Ratings

Quality of Literacy Instruction: 3.5 / 5

Usability:  4 / 5

Engagement: 4 / 5