The Word Lab

🍎 For teachers — five steps

1. Open the teacher area. Go to thewordlab.app → Teacher area. You'll need the teacher PIN — ask whoever sent you this guide.
2. Create a list. Give it a name (e.g. “Year 2 — Week 5”) and type the words, one per line.
3. Check every word's sound boxes. The app suggests each word's split — tap the · between letters to join or separate sounds, and use the dropdowns to fix any sound. Words wearing the check me tag were auto-guessed and especially need your eye. Tick magic e for split digraphs (m-a_e-k), or tricky word for irregulars like one (students build those letter by letter). Tap 🎙 to record yourself saying the word — otherwise an Australian robot voice covers it.
4. Share with the class. The Share tab shows a five-letter code and a QR code. Students open thewordlab.app on the iPad and type the code (or scan). Bookmark your own page — that private link is how you get back to edit and see results (it also appears under “Your lists” on this device).
5. See how they went. The Results tab shows each student (by their animal) per word: ⭐ right first go, or how many tries it took. You keep your own list of which student is which animal — the app never stores names.

🐨 What students do

1. Open thewordlab.app, type the class code.
2. Tap their animal (you assign these — write your key down!).
3. Tap 🔊 Hear the word, then drag or tap the tiles onto the sound lines.
4. Check ✓ — green stays, red bounces back to try again. After three tries a Show me button appears.
5. The finish screen shows their stars — results reach your Results tab automatically.

🎙 One-off setup worth doing: the Sound library

In the teacher area, open the Sound library and record the 46 speech sounds in your own voice — say the pure sound (“mmm”, not “muh”). Do it once and every word in every list can play real sounds when students tap tiles and lines. Until then, individual sounds stay silent (the robot voice can't say a clean /b/). Recording needs the app on HTTPS or the teacher iPad/laptop mic permission granted.

⚙️ Per-list settings to try

• Distractor tiles — adds wrong-spelling tiles (ai / ay / a_e) so students choose the spelling, not just the order. Good for Years 3–6.
• Syllable boxes — groups sound lines by syllable for longer words (set the breaks in the word editor; use your “spelling voice”: rab-bit).
• Snap back — wrong tiles bounce back instantly instead of waiting for Check. Kinder for Prep–Year 1.