Author Archives: appydazeblog

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Toca Hair Salon Me

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hair salon meFREE again – Toca Hair Salon Me, the newest addition to the popular Toca Hair Salon apps. Using this app, kids can create a whole new look for themselves and/or their family & friends. They simply import a picture from the camera roll and “the styling” can begin. The salon is equipped with all the right tools to style hair. They can cut it, comb it, make it grow, shave it, color it, etc. They can also wash it, blow it dry, curl it or straighten it. Great sound effects add to the fun! After they finish the styling, they can add fun accessories – glasses, bow, mustaches, etc. They can even use their own photos for the background. Kids or parents can take a photo of the finished creation and save it to their camera roll. What a great springboard for creative writing – give yourself a whole new look and write a story to go with it. What a fun activity for a Wacky Hair Day!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-hair-salon-me/id730873197?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Band

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toca band

Rock on… with Toca Band – Only $.99!  This app for the iPhone/iPad encourages kids to explore music as they mix beats & sounds together to produce a hit song. The 16 characters in this app each have their own sound and rhythm. Kids drag different combinations of performers on stage to create their own musical band. How a character plays depends on where he/she is placed on the stage. Characters can also be chosen to give a solo performance. Even the names of the characters are fun: Bang Bang Chef on the drums, Dancy Nancy on the piano, Shaky McBones on the maracas,etc. Another great app from a developer that makes learning what it should be – fun, creative, and joyful!

Highly recommended!

Toca Band - Toca Boca AB

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Toca Pet Doctor

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toca petOn sale for $.99 – Toca Pet Doctor, another creative app from Toca Boca. The app guides kids (ages 2 – 6) through activities that teach them to care and feel for animals. Fifteen animals need some tender loving care. Kids come to their rescue in a variety of ways. They help to clean & medicate Rascal’s ear, flip over Tarzan the upside down turtle, untie the knotted worm, and more. After the animals  are cured, kids feed them and they go back to sleep. If your child likes the other Toca Boca apps, you’ll want to add this one to your collection today. These apps do not go on sale or free that often. Another great app from a developer that makes learning fun. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-pet-doctor/id808108897?mt=8&uo=4

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This Day in History

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This Day in History

One of my favorite FREE resources…

WORLD BOOK  – This Day in History for iPad is a great FREE resource for the classroom. Historical events for the day are displayed on a calendar page. You can click on links to related media such as articles, photos/illustrations, music, speeches and more! When I was teaching, I had students  do “morning work” (correct punctuation, capitalization, & spelling in two sentences) while I took attendance, did lunch count, etc. This educational app would have been perfect for that daily assignment because I always used information about something interesting that happened that day. After correcting the sentences, the kids and I would discuss the history of that day. I was always amazed at how well kids retained what we had discussed during the opening minutes of every day. Throughout the year they would often remark, “We learned about that in our morning work.” You may want to try making this educational app part of your classroom’s morning routine. 🙂

WORLD BOOK - This Day in History for iPad - Software MacKiev

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Sago Mini Music Box

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sago mini musicOnly $.99 – Sago Mini Music Box, an adorable musical app for young children ages two to four. Kids start their musical journey by choosing one of three familiar songs: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” or “Jingle Bells”. Then they use their fingers to tap their way through the melody. Each tap adds objects to the scenery – clouds in the sky, flowers in the meadow, goats on the mountainside. Kids will discover that they can produce different sounds by tapping different areas. There are also a number of interactions and animations to discover as they play their way through the scenes. Delightful!! 🙂

Direct Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sago-mini-music-box/id734464274?mt=8

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Earth 3D – Amazing Atlas

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earth 3dOnly $.99 – Earth 3D-Amazing Atlas, an educational app about our planet. The interactive globe includes: a relief model of Earth, political and geographic maps, 1,400 geographic objects, and 330 wonders of the world. As kids explore the globe they can tap on places or objects to learn more. Full descriptions are included as well as more than 900 photos. The app is very user-friendly – just a tap along the bottom accesses its different features. Kids can explore Earth by searching for a particular place. The app can be easily be changed from a geographic map to a political map. Latitude and longitude lines can be turned on. Kids can click a button to turn on the weather. The app is full of information! It would be a great addition to any classroom – perfect for projecting on to a Smartboard.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earth-3d-amazing-atlas/id581911397?mt=8&uo=4

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The Three Little Pigs by Nosy Crow

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3 little pigs

Only $1.99 – The Three Little Pigs from Nosy Crow, a fabulous must-have version of the classic tale. Kids 3+ will be delighted with this animated story that is full of interactivity & fun surprises. The story can be enjoyed in 3 modes: read & play, read to me, and read by myself.  As they read, kids can interact with the story in a variety of ways. They can flick the characters to make them jump, spin and/or speak. They can tap to help the pigs build their houses. They can even help the wolf blow down the pigs’ houses! There are so many fun things to try. The artwork & animations are top-notch. The app even has an original soundtrack which features a musical identity for each character. This educational app is an example of digital storytelling at its best. Don’t miss this one – your little ones will love it!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/three-little-pigs-by-nosy/id418543664?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Life Apps on Sale

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toca town

On sale for $.99 – Toca Life: Town, a digital town where kids rule. Toca Town features twenty-one playful characters and seven locations to explore – park, pond, store, police station, restaurant, house, and apartment. As kids move around the town, they choose their own adventures. They can grocery shop, cook thirty different dishes at the restaurant, visit the police station, or just hang out with friends. With a tap of the sun, kids can change day into night – perfect for camping in the dark! The app is full of interactive surprises for kids to discover – presents to wrap, lights that turn on and off, etc. Toca Town is great for vocabulary development and oral story telling. Don’t miss this great app from Toca Boca.

Direct Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-life-town/id871694174?mt=8&uo=6

Other Toca Life Apps that are on sale:

Toca Life: City  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-life-city/id988318940?mt=8

Toca Life: School  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-life-school/id1043579926?mt=8

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Word Wonderland (Primary) and Word Wonderland (Elementary)

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Word Wonderland

FREE for a limited time – Word Wonderland (Primary) and Word Wonderland (Elementary), games that have kids hoping, eating, and shaking their way to the end of a game board as they sort words. Children start by creating name badges – the app permits multiple children to play. In the primary (K – 2) version, kids help to guide a friendly frog through the pond as they sort words by sounds – short vowels. long vowels, r controlled vowels, blends, digraphs, and more. In the elementary (3 – 6) version, kids guide an astronaut crab through the space station as they sort more difficult words by sounds, inflectional endings, Greek/Latin roots, etc. These educational apps provide a fun way for kids to sort words but I am a bit apprehensive about encouraging kids to shake the iPad. Check it out for yourself while the full versions are FREE.

Download links: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-wonderland-primary-full/id611436564?mt=8&uo=4 and https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-wonderland-elementary/id634947932?mt=8&uo=4

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Nighty Night Apps on Sale for $.99

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nighty night On sale for $.99 – sweet bedtime apps for little your little ones.

Over 3 million downloads and counting… Nighty Night is the perfect go-to-sleep app for kids 1 – 4. The app has it all – cute animals, sleepy lullaby music, great narration, and fabulous artwork. The artwork is beautifully done by Heidi Wittlinger, an Oscar nominated artist. The story is perfect for your child’s bedtime ritual. Kids help to put 7 sleepy animals to bed by clicking off the lights around the farm thus setting the mood for their own bedtime. 🙂 Six additional animals can be added to the story with in-app purchases. The story can be switched from the winter version to the summer version and it can be changed to 12 different languages – English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. This educational app is really lovely and it has been successful internationally.  It won App of the Year 2011 in the “books category” in Germany & the U.S. It also reached #1 in iPad books in the US, Brazil, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Australia Switzerland and Austria! Love this app!!

Nighty Night! HD – Bedtime stories – Story book for children - Shape Minds and Moving Images GmbH nighty night circus Nighty Night Circus is also on sale for $.99. In this app kids help put eight circus animals to bed by switching off the lights or blowing out candles. Each circus animal wants to show his tricks off before going to sleep – super cute! The app has all of the same great features as the original – cute animals, sleepy lullaby music, great narration, and fabulous artwork done by Heidi Wittlinger. It’s no wonder that Nighty Night Circus is on Apple’s Best of 2014 list!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nighty-night-circus-bedtime/id931936670?mt=8&uo=4