Author Archives: appydazeblog

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Imagination Box

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FREE for a limited time – Imagination Box, a creative art app for kids. What child doesn’t love creating with play dough? Hours of creative play awaits your child and there is no mess to clean up! It’s perfect for a trip to the doctor, a ride in the car, etc. The app includes 62 pieces of play dough (in 9 colors) including uppercase letters, numbers, and shapes. There are 12 backgrounds available for your child’s creations. Or, you can use your own photos as a background. Make a hat for the family dog or a play dough mustache for grandpa – how fun! There are also 10 markers available in the app adding even more possibilities for creativity. The app could also be used as a take-along “design center” for play dough. Kids could design their creations on the iPad, then actually recreate it with the real stuff. So many possibilities… get it today! 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imagination-box-colors-shapes/id698092635?mt=8&uo=4

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Pepi Doctor

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pepiFREE for  limited time – Pepi Doctor, a role-playing game for preschoolers. Kids get to play doctor and treat 3 different patients – Milo, Amber, or Eva. These patients come to the doctor with one of 5 ailments: an earache, a toothache, a fever, scrapes, or a broken leg. “The doctor” gets to use a variety of tools (20 +) to help the patient and he/she is awarded with smiles & applause when the patient feels better. This educational app is very intuitive, lots of fun, and sure to make your child feel more comfortable about his/her own visit to the doctor. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pepi-doctor/id733788136?mt=8&uo=4

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Math Blast

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math blastFREE for a limited time – Math Blast, a fun math game for kids. The object of the game is to complete missions by answering math questions as quickly as possible. Players need to guide their rockets to avoid comets. If they catch UFOs, their rockets get an extra speed boost to save time. There are two modes of play: mission control or training center. Mission Control has 3 levels of play – easy, medium & hard. Training Center allows teachers/parents to create customized missions for students – an easy way to differentiate instruction. Multiple games can be saved – perfect for sharing devices. These features make Math Blast a great choice for the classroom. After using the app, kids can graph their scores. By doing so, they can track their improvement and learn to collect data in the process. This educational app is perfect for getting kids to practice their facts in a fun way!.

Common Core Standards met:

1.OA.6 – Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.
2.OA.2 – Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.
3.OA.7 – Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-blast/id911803805?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Hair Salon Me

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hair salon meFREE for a limited time – 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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SpeakaLegend, SpeakaZoo & Winston Show

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speakalegend

From the creators of the Winston Show & SpeakaZoo comes a new app called SpeakaLegend which is FREE for a limited time. Kids befriend and speak to 10 different legendary characters: Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster, Mermaid, Fairy, Cyclops, Minotaur, Dragon, Jackalope, Sphinx and Unicorn. The app uses speech recognition technology so that kids can have actual conversations with the characters. They become world explorers on a magical quest to find and speak to the Unicorn. Check out this ingenious and fun app from ToyTalk – great for helping kids with conversational language. Before children can speak with the characters, parents are required to give permission via email. Read more about Toy Talk’s privacy policy at: ToyTalk | Legal | Privacy Policy.
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speakalegend/id908466608?mt=8&uo=4

Here are my earlier reviews of other Toy Talk apps.

speak a zooFrom the creators of the Winston Show comes another FREE app – SpeakaZoo, the only zoo where the animals talk with you. This educational  app is currently featured as one of the “Best New Apps” by Apple. The SpeakaZoo houses 20 different animals from 4 different habitats. Each one has a lot of character – a fast-talking octopus, a porcupine that needs a hug, an angry beaver, a sleepy bear, etc. And each character has a lot to talk about. The animals ask kids questions then “listen” to their answers. The conversation continues when the animal responds to what the child just answered – fun!

Parents are asked to create an account with a valid email address so that they have full control over all account information and content for children under 13. From the ToyTalk privacy policy FAQs: “ToyTalk apps involve characters that interact with users. When children use ToyTalk apps, audio recordings and photographs of such interactions are captured as part of this use. We may add the ability to capture video in the future. In that case, we will update this FAQ to describe how we use those recordings too.” Read more at: http://www.toytalk.com/legal/

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speakazoo/id850553929?mt=8&uo=4

winston

FREE – The Winston Show, an adorable app for kids 6+. Winston (a self-proclaimed, yellow fellow) and his sidekick Ellington have created the first talk show starring you! Special guests include Blackbeard the Pirate, Marie Antoinette, and the Blue Whale. Kids visit 6 different studios within the app. In Studio 1, they become a contestant on a quiz show called Win with Winston. Studio 2 features Fireside Chats on a variety of kid-friendly subjects such as magic and chores. In Studios, 3 kids can choose to become the star in two movies: Squabble Among the Stars or Winston Sly, Private Eye. They battle colorful characters (such as Lewis & Clark) in Studio 4′s You vs., another game show. Studio 5 is the Costume Department where kids can play dress-up in an assortment of costumes. And finally, Studio 6 features the Writing Room where kids choose the path of a story. This app is fabulous for helping kids with conversational language because the characters listen and talk back! It’s quite ingenious and could be really fun – for kids and adults. Adults will love seeing kids interact with Winston and friends. And, they will understand all of the jokes. 🙂 Delightful!!

From the ToyTalk privacy policy FAQs: “Users under 13 are only authorized to use ToyTalk apps under their parent/guardian’s account. As a result, we do not knowingly collect emails or other contact information directly from children under 13. ToyTalk apps involve characters that interact with users. When children use ToyTalk apps, audio recordings and photographs of such interactions are captured as part of this use. We may add the ability to capture video in the future. In that case, we will update this FAQ to describe how we use those recordings too.”  Read more at: http://www.toytalk.com/legal/

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winston-show/id669541931?mt=8&uo=4

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Mad Libs

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The new & improved app, Mad Libs, is now available for iOS 7.0 or higher.

What are Mad Libs? They are stories with words left out. Over 120,000,000 Mad Libs books have been sold to date and MadLibs.com gets 50,000 visitors per month. And now, Mad Libs is a FREE educational app for the iPhone/iPad with over 3.7 million downloads. 21 stories are included with this app. Additional stories are available as in-app purchases.

Here’s how they work: A “reader” selects a story but he/she doesn’t tell the “writers” (other players) what it is about. Then the “reader” calls out the types of words (adjective, noun, collective noun, verb, ing words, etc.) needed to complete the story. The “writers” generate words to fill in the blanks in the story. Once all the blanks have been filled, the “reader” reads the story aloud. The result is usually a silly story which kids LOVE! And to add to the fun, the upgrade permits you to add photos & images to your story. Mad Libs are a great classroom activity when you have 10 minutes before lunch, you’re waiting for a guest, etc. Kids enjoy playing Mad Libs but in order to play, they have to know parts of speech. Who knew learning parts of speech could be so much fun!?!

Mad Libs - Penguin Group USA

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Art Mail

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Artmail

FREE again for a limited time! Add a personal touch to your emails with Art Mail, an app for writing and sending handwritten notes. This app is not billed as an educational app but it could/should be. 🙂 The app features several choices of stationery plus the option of using your camera to create a unique background. The writing is a brush style (similar to a fountain pen) with several color options. But the best part of this app is the scaling feature – which makes this app great for kids. Users can fill up the entire screen and the app automatically shrinks the word/words to fit in a letter format. Subsequent words are shrunk to match the size of the other words. A red cursor can be moved around to change the location of the words. Little hands will be able to write thank you notes to grandparents or to add a note of explanation to a photo. In the classroom, teachers could use it is SO many ways – for good copies of their writing, to communicate with parents, as an exit slip after a lesson, etc. I LOVE that this app preserves the child’s writing!! Very cool app – perhaps an upgrade will include the ability to pull in pictures from the photo library which would make it even better!!

ArtMail - Wen Yun Rong

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Shadow Puppet

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Shadow PuppetThanksgiving is only a few weeks away. Use this app with kids to create and share unique “I Am Thankful” presentations.

Recently updated and still FREE – Shadow Puppet is a photography app which was featured by Apple as a “Best New Apps” about a year ago. Using this app, it’s easy to create “puppets” – recorded explanations of your photos. First you choose your photos and put them in the order. Then you talk about your pictures. Everything is recorded. Finished “puppets” can be shared via email, SMS, Facebook and/or Twitter. There are so many ways for everyone to use Shadow Puppet: to teach something new, to share adventures with friends, to record children talking about their experiences, to tell the story behind old family photos, etc.

The recent updates have added many new features. Now you can include video clips, add music, search the web for images, overlay text/stickers, and more! The FREE version of the app permits you to include up to 10 photos/video clips. For $1.99 you can get Puppet Essentials which allows you to add up to 100 items to each video and have access to more drawing & decorating tools. The update made this great app even better!

The classroom uses for this app are only limited by your imagination: Take pictures of a child’s work and have him/her explain it to parents. Send pictures and voice recordings of the class field trip. Have kids give a step-by-step explanation of what happened in a science experiment. Draw & sequence pictures to retell a story. Make a “talking timeline” by sequencing photos of historical events. Have kids use it to present mini reports on any subject. Have virtual “pet day” – kids bring in pictures/recordings of their pets. Because you can use anything saved to your photo library, you can explain photos from the web, artwork created in other apps, and so much more. The possibilities for using this educational app are endless. For more suggestions go to http://get-puppet.com/education. What a fabulous resource!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shadow-puppet/id700902833?mt=8&uo=4

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3 FREE Poetry Apps from the International Reading Association

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Planning a poetry unit? The International Reading Association has some apps that may help.

Here are three.
They are FREE. 🙂

acrosticAcrostic Poem helps kids learn about and write acrostic poetry. An acrostic poem uses a word as its subject. The word is written vertically so that each letter begins a line of the poem. All lines of the poem describe or relate to the subject word. The poem does not have to rhyme. Acrostic poems are easy to write and great for having kids introduce themselves, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.

The app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app explains an acrostic poem and gives an example. Then the student enters his/her topic word. The app advances to a brainstorming page where the student can enter ideas to help write the poem. Then the app advances to a “write your poem” page. The brainstormed words are displayed to help. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular acrostic poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/acrostic-poems-30045.html. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acrostic-poem/id724841119?mt=8&uo=4

diamanteDiamante Poem helps kids learn about and write diamante poetry. Diamante poems can be written about one central topic or two opposing topics such as day/night. A diamante poem has seven lines and is written in the shape of a diamond. The first and last lines are just one word – nouns. The second and sixth line are two words – adjectives. The third and fifth lines are three words – “ing” words. And the middle line has four+ words – nouns or prepositional phrases. Diamante poems are great for teaching parts of speech and synonyms/antonyms.

The app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app explains a diamante poem and gives two examples – a synonym poem and an antonym poem. Then the student enters his/her beginning and ending topic words. The app advances to a “write your poem” page where the student enters his/her words. The app reminds students which kids of words should be used on each line. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular diamante poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/diamante-poems-30053.html. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/diamante-poem/id724953313?mt=8&uo=4

theme poemTheme Poem helps kids learn about and write theme poetry. A theme poem is sometimes called a shape poem. It is written in the shape of what the poem is about. For example, the apple poem is written in the shape of an apple.

Again, this app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app gives an example of a theme poem. Then the student selects one of 5 themed files – nature, school, sports, celebrations, shapes. Each themed file has 5 – 8 shapes for students to choose. Once a shape is chosen, the app advances to a “think of words” page for the student to brainstorm his/her ideas. Then the app advances to a “write your poem” page. The brainstormed words are displayed to help. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular theme poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/theme_poems/. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/theme-poem/id724978211?mt=8&uo=4

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News-O-Matic

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news

Check out a FREE trial of News-o-Matic, an educational newspaper app for kids 7 – 11 years old. A new edition is published every Monday through Friday. Each edition features 5 articles from the news – sports, science, world news, wacky events, etc. The articles are kid-friendly and age-appropriate. Kids can read on their own or have the articles read to them. Important vocabulary words are underlined and linked to their definitions. The articles also include fun facts, a map for locating where the news is happening, videos, and games. Once registered, kids can connect to the News Room to draw pictures, express opinions, or ask questions about the news. This app helps kids become informed citizens of the world!

The FREE trial lasts for 2 weeks. After that, you must subscribe: yearly – $19.99. monthly – $1.99, or weekly – $0.99. If you subscribe before the end of your free trial, you get a special rate. Teachers, there is also a News-o-Matic School Edition. It comes with a teacher’s guide which includes discussion prompts, comprehension questions, Lexile reading levels, and more. And, it’s a great resource for non-fiction reading!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-o-matic-daily-reading/id578023255?mt=8&uo=4