Starfall is a great online free software that allows kids to learn to read in English with phonics in a fun way. It has great graphics and activities. The animations and sounds are wonderful. One of the features is the English alphabet where students can learn both the name of the letter and it's sound as well as pictures of words that have that sound in them and even simple games to test what they have learned.
As children learn the different letters they can progress through learning English words with other phonics sounds. For children that are emergent English readers Starfall has simple stories that children can read on their own and for words they can't read or pronounce it gives them the opportunity to click and have the words read to them. Starfall has different sections which children can progress through or can start on depending on their English level. The more advanced section has plays, nonfiction reading, comics and more. The best thing about Starfall is that children enjoy it and if they are having fun they are learning.
My daughter began to use Starfall when she was two when the only language she knew was Spanish. Starfall helped her develop her English vocabulary. By the time she was 6 years old she was reading at 4th grade level (in part thanks to Starfall.) She loved listening to the phonics songs and listening to the phonics books. She still enjoys going to Starfall for its poems and activities.
I used Starfall with my 1st grader English Learners who where having a difficulty with reading and they love it. It gave them a chance to learn new English words and practice reading the words they new how to read while supporting them with those they didn't know. They also loved the animations and the games.
