Appletters: Spelling and Word Tile Game By Bananagrams

I use this game with my English Language Learners at school. They love it! We get our small groups on the rug and they play, helping each other find words they can spell and add to the puzzle. It encourages interaction. When a student is stumped and needs to trade a tile for a missing letter, they have to ask one another if they have what's needed. Then the student who has what's needed is allowed to choose what letter he/she can use from the other player's tile. But all of this requires that they use their language skills to ask and receive. Most of my students are shy when it comes to using their English. So this is a great ice-breaker! The tiles are bold, white with red letters. Very solid, I believe they will stand the test of time. My only complaint is the size of the bag. I would like it to be a touch larger. The tiles all fit, but it's quite the feat, getting them to all cooperate! That's a very small complaint. This is a great game that can be used at home or in an educational setting. I would recommend it to any who are looking for a new game to add to the mix!

I am just comparing the tiles between BANANAGRAMS, APPLELETTERS and PAIRSINPEARS for anyone who is curious, as I was. The tiles are different in each game. Banana & Apple tiles are square. They are just under 2 cm on all four sides - 1.8 or 1.9 cm, hard to say. BUT: Apple tiles are thicker than Banana tiles, making them easier to pick up. This might be important for small children and for people with arthritis in their fingers. The Banana tiles are cream color with black letters. The Apple tiles are very white with red letters. The lettering on the Apple & Banana tiles are both easy to read. However, the lettering on the Apple tiles is much thicker (wider, more ink) making the letters APPEAR larger and easier to read for someone with poor vision. The Banana letters are a plain, straightforward basic font. The Apple letters are a fancier font. The Apple tiles, with the apple red ink on white tiles, and fancier font, are very pretty to look at. The Pear tiles are thin like the Banana tiles, maybe even a hair thinner. But the Pear tiles are longer and wider than the Apple and Banana tiles, making them easy to pick up. They are rectangles, 2.7 cm tall and 2.4 cm wide. They are cream colored with black letters. The letters are a basic (non fancy) font, but they are wide (thick) letters. The Pear letters are larger than either of the other two, and thus VERY easy to see. Apple letters are solid red. Banana letters are solid black, though the lines are narrower than Apple. Pear letters are all outlined in black but have have four styles (4 different "fill" inside the outlines) -(1) filled in with solid black, (2) black horizontal lines across the letters, (3) tiny black dots filling in the letters, and (4) black outline with nothing filled in - just the letters outlined, no fill. The APPLE game has 110 tiles: 1 each of J, K, Q, V, W, X, Z. 2 each of B, C, F, G. 3 each of H, M, U, Y. 4 each of D, P. 5 L. 7 N. 8 each of O, R, S, T. 9 I, 10 A, 12 E. The BANANA Game has 144 letter tiles. (Certain Banana games also have 5 "WILD" tiles.) 144 letter tiles: 2 each of J, K, Q, X and Z. 3 each of B, C, F, H, M, P, V, W, and Y. 4 G. 5 L. 6 each of D, S and U. 8 N. 9 each of R and T. 11 O. 12 I. 13 A. 18 E. The PEAR Game has 104 tiles: the entire alphabet in each of the four styles explained above. The game rules are different for each game. But in this review I just wanted to explain the differences in the tiles. I hope this was helpful to you.

Appletters adds a whole new challenge! In comparison to bananagrams where you can make a word anywhere from another word, you can only add word at the beginning or the end of the word. While some people would find this rather limiting to gameplay & word expansion, I think it’s a great way to REALLY work with what you have, and to work around what’s in front of you. Get ALL BANANAGRAMS. I bought this along with bananagrams & pairs in pears. All of them are excellent word games, I highly recommend them for anyone of any age who enjoys a good game. The pouches are cool, you could easily travel with it.

Love this game! Bought Bananagrams, Appletters, and Pears in Pairs for my 5th grade classroom. I just got them in the mail today and am excited to use them in the fall. I like how they come with the different games you can play. This will be a great morning or afternoon dismissal activity for them. I am going to send back the Pears in Pairs game though. It is for ages 3+, and looks too simple for my 10-11 year olds. From a teacher's opinion, if you are looking for a fun, educational, and challenging game for kids 8+, stick with the banagrams and appletters.

Not always the best quality...many letters come with defects, but still fun.

THE TILES ARE SOLID! (purchased from amazon) Appletters is like bananagrams only the tiles are white (like the inside of an apple) instead of yellowish-brown (sorta like the inside of a banana... that is sorta bruised?), the tiles are thicker so they can stand easier and there are 110 instead of 144 tiles. The idea of the game is to create a word worm, to keep with the apple theme. As far as the game goes, I like feeling 3 again when I get to call someone a "rotten apple" for cheating. and when the winner calls out "how'd you like them apples?!" great game for people of all ages. I believe you can play the game like banagrams, only there are fewer letters. I will probably alter the rules so instead of a worm we will construct it like a crossword and use the apple turnover rules... I think that would be a proper collaborative version of bananagrams, a banana turnover if you will.

We have been playing Bananagrams since purchasing it July 2009 and love it so much that we couldn't wait to get this game made by the people. It is so much fun, especially if you love spelling games. More fun than Scrabble and easier. Anyone can play, young and old. Very portable and durable! Appleletters has provided hours of fun for our family this winter!! I suggest both games!!

This was a gift for my daughter’s birthday. It promises to be one of my favorite word games – we have a lot of them. It’s easy to travel with, and versatile enough that you can play other games with these pieces. I highly recommend, and think it could have additional uses with early readers.

very interactive toy for kids that inspires learning - super product

It is a very nice game, super fun, and the apple bag is quite cute, highly recommended. I play with family and friends.

My students love them. Typically I'm able to divide the letters in half and get the students to work in two groups of two. The letters are a little bigger than bananagrams so they get lost less.

Great game Great price. Great for a gift

Just what I was looking for! Great for word work in my class for daily 5. I know the kids are going to be excited to use them. Was not delivered when expected-had yo wait 9 days after it was expected-and was delivered on Sunday!!