Category Archives: apps for kids

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Pocketbooth – the photobooth that fits in your pocket

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pocketbooth

FREE today – Pocketbooth – the photobooth that fits in your pocket, an app that turns your iPhone/iPad into a 1950s-era vintage photobooth. Pocketbooth takes a series of photos (a few seconds apart) to create photo strips of your special events. The app includes five photo effects (1975, antique, B&W, color, sepia), two paper types, and two border styles. There are additional filters/borders available as in-app purchases. Pocketbooth can use either the front or the rear facing camera of your device. Photo strips can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, email, or they can be saved to your camera roll. They can  be printed on a wireless printer or you can have them professionally printed/mailed to your friends for an additional charge. Pocketbooth was chosen Starbuck’s App of the Week, featured as “New and Noteworthy” by Apple, and listed as one of 2010’s Hottest Apps – iTunes Rewind. What a fabulous app to have for your next birthday party, family reunion, etc.

And teachers… how cool would it be to have a photobooth in your classroom? It would be perfect for taking pictures of special events – Dr. Seuss Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Wacky Hair Day, Silly Hat Day, etc. The kids could help make the props. 🙂 It would also be great for special projects – animal reports (kids dress as their animal), biographies (kids dress as their person), the 100th day (kids dress as if they are 100 years old), etc. How fun!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocketbooth-photobooth-that/id385145330?mt=8&uo=4

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Tellagami

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Telegami

Currently FREE, Tellagami (rhymes with origami) is a unique storytelling app. Short stories called gamis are easy to create. First you select and customize a character by choosing his/her skin tone, eye color, hair color, and clothing. Then you choose an emotion – happy, sad, surprised, angry, scared, silly. Next you choose a background from the app, from your photo library, or create one by using your camera. You are now ready to create your gami. You can record your gami in you own voice or choose the text button to type in what your character will say  – the limit is 450 characters. Gamis can be shared via email, messaging, Facebook, or Twitter.

This educational app is fabulous!! Its uses are only limited by your imagination!! Kids can use gamis to introduce themselves at the beginning of the year. They can customize gamis to look like themselves and be reporters, scientists, teachers, etc. They can create the character (and setting) from a book they are reading. They can message or email a parent to explain what they are learning in class. Teachers could use gamis as interactive exit slips. The list is endless. Kids will LOVE creating gamis!

Tellagami ™ - Tellagami Inc.

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SlateMath for Kids – Kindergarten and 1st Grade Games

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slate math

SlateMath for Kids – Kindergarten and 1st Grade Games is a FREE educational app with 38 educational activities that prepare kids for kindergarten/first grade math. I found out about this app from one of my readers. Great suggestion – it’s a hidden gem! All of the games are presented in a travel book so kids learn about the world as they complete the varied math activities. They travel to Scotland, Norway, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Russia, Spain, and Sweden – how fun! Skills presented include: counting, writing digits, ordering, addition, patterns, odd/even numbers, and problem solving. Kids are rewarded with fireworks when they answer questions correctly and helped when they miss questions. Written directions can be easily switched to 25 different languages. The app permits multiple users with each user’s progress tracked in his/her travel book. I love the travel theme and the variety of well-developed, age-appropriate activities that this app provides. Check it out! 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slatemath-for-kids-kindergarten/id589371294?mt=8&uo=4

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Weird But True

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weird

Did you know that hippo’s lips are about two feet wide? Get ready to learn all sorts of wacky facts with this app. Just updated and FREE – Weird But True, an e-book from National Geographic Kids. Over 625 kid-friendly, wacky facts are presented in a fun & interactive way. Kids can swipe to move from fact to fact or shake their device to generate a random fact. Sound effects and surprises add to the fun! There is a fact finder which kids can use to locates facts by subject – animals, weather, space, etc. The app also includes a “Weird-O-Meter” which kids can use to rate the level of weirdness for each fact. Additional fact packs are available as in-app purchases –  $.99 each. This app won the Spring 2012 Parents’ Choice Award and was chosen as New & Noteworthy, What’s Hot, & Staff Favorites by Apple. Kids will LOVE this app. 🙂

Highly recommended!

Weird But True - National Geographic Society

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Halftone

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Half Tone

FREE for a limited time – Halftone, a photography app with many educational uses. Named by Apple as a favorite photo app of 2011, Halftone makes it easy to turn your photos into vintage-looking comics that your friends and family will love! It’s simple to add paper styles, captions, speech balloons, graphic stamps, and fonts to your photos. Because it is so easy to use, this app would be great for creating the art to go with classroom projects – stories, book reports, newsletters, etc. Lots of creative uses for this educational app!

Halftone - Juicy Bits

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Alphabet – Educational Letter Bubble Activity Game

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Alphabet Dots

FREE again – Alphabet – Educational Letter Bubble Activity Game from Ellie’s Games (normally $1.99). This educational app uses bright colors and a simple interface to teach young children to recognize the alphabet from A to Z. Kids learn to recognize both upper and lower case letters by popping colorful dots in order. The app has three levels of difficulty – choosing from 4 letters, 9 letters, or 16 letters. Kids can work on all upper case letters, all lower case letters or a mixed letters. There are also settings for sound, hinting, and enabling vibrations (iPhone only). This simple but visually appealing game is sure to help your little one learn the ABCs.

Alphabet Dots - Ellie's Games, LLC

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Math Magician

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FREE for a limited time – Math Magician, an educational math app for elementary students developed by abc teach.com and VLinks Media. Recently updated, the app now has 4 levels – beginning, easy, medium, and hard. Several math concepts are covered within each level. The easy level covers counting 1-120, skip counting by 2 & 5, addition 1-20, subtraction 1-20, and greater/less than 0-20. The medium level covers: skip counting (10 and 100), addition 0-100, subtraction 0-100, add/subtract by 10, greater/less than 0-100, multiplication 1-10, and division 1-10. The hard level covers: addition 100-500, subtraction 50-200, multiplication facts 0-12 and division facts, 0-12. There are 35,000 multiple choice questions in all.

The object of the game is to use the power of numbers to help the magician regain his treasures. Kids do so by solving problems that appear in the Magic Crystal Ball. As they solve the problems, their progress is shown on the Magic Meter Bar. Once they have correctly answered about 20 problems, they unlock one of the treasures. This app provides lots of good math practice wrapped in a magical theme. 🙂

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.

Math Magician - abcteach

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Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words

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handwriting

FREE today – Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words, a fabulous app for teaching kids how to write in cursive. Start by choosing one of the 4 available fonts: Zaner Bloser, D’Nealian, French Cursive, or French Cursive 2. Then kids are ready to start tracing using animated stickers with fun sound effects. They can trace shapes, upper case letters, lower case letters, numerals, or words. The app has two modes: free or 5 stars. In free mode, kids trace the letters with all of the parameters selected. By selecting the “gear” button, the app’s parameters can be  customized to fit each child’s needs – letter size, difficulty, style (stickers or pen), show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, tracing speed, etc. In the 5 star mode, kids trace each letter 5 times – each step is more challenging. Detailed reports are provided showing what kids have completed. Teachers/parents can replay and export tracings to view a chid’s progress – wow! And, the app permits unlimited users – perfect for the classroom.

After teaching cursive writing for 30 years, I know that the biggest challenge is teaching kids to properly connect the letters. This app does a fabulous job!! There is a list of 3-letter words and often confused letters for kids to practice. But the best part of this app is the ability to add new lists. Kids’ names can be added. Lists of words with difficult connections can be added. Weekly spelling lists can be added. There are so many possibilities for meaningful practice of cursive writing. Don’t miss out on this one – it’s the best cursive writing app that I have seen to date!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cursive-writing-wizard-trace/id757843896?mt=8&uo=4

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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 hopping, 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 must admit that 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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Guess How Much I Love You – Interactive Episodes

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Guess How Much I Love You

Guess How Much I Love You – Interactive Episodes is FREE for a limited time. This wonderful educational app from Australia is based on the book Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and inspired by the animated TV series created by SLR Productions Pty Ltd. Guess How Much I Love You is a beautiful story about the love between a parent and a child – one of my all time favorites. Originally published in the UK in 1994, it has sold more than 20 million copies in 37 languages. It was the first book I purchased for my granddaughter – truly a book not to be missed!! That being said, this app conveys the same sweetness that makes the original story so special.

Kids join Little Nutbrown Hare in 2 interactive episodes – “Can You Touch the Stars” and “Snow White Hare.” Designed for 3 – 5 year children to explore with their parents, the episodes are integrated with simple games & puzzles. At the end of each episode, Big NutBrown Hare and Little NutBrown Hare express their love for each other. Don’t miss this one – it is SO sweet!

Guess How Much I Love You - Interactive Episodes - SLR Productions Pty Ltd