Category Archives: apps for kids

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Learn with Homer

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Learn with Homer

Released in August and listed as “New & Noteworthy” – Learn with Homer is an educational reading app for kids 3 – 6. The FREE download includes 30 stories and lessons (18 Learn to Read lessons/stories, 12 Discover the World lessons) as well as access to Homer’s Clubhouse and parent tools. Additional content is available through in-app purchases. BUT… For a limited time, you can go to the shopping cart section of this app and download additional lessons for FREE!! 

Homer, a gray pigeon, resides in an interactive world designed to help kids learn to read. The fun starts in the Hat Shop where kids have photos taken in the “thinking caps” of their choice. From there, kids can proceed to Story Time, Learn to Read, Discover The World, or Homer’s Clubhouse. The Story Time section includes 9 free stories representing 4 genres (rhymes, poetry, folktales, folk songs) as well as Homer stories.  The Learn to Read section teaches the phonemes (sounds) in sequence. Lessons start with sounds & letters, then move to words, and then to sentences. Discover The World is a series of adventures in science, history, art, etc. designed to increase kids’ basic knowledge and vocabularies. Finally, kids can go to Homer’s Clubhouse to draw and record what they have learned. And if that wasn’t enough… there is also a parent website to track your child’s progress and/or download printables  & book recommendations. This educational app seems to have it all – a well designed, comprehensive approach to learning to read with real kid appeal!!

For more information go to Homer: Parent Resources.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-with-homer/id601437586?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Builders

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Toca Builders

FREE again for a limited time – Toca Builders, another wonderfully creative app from Toca Boca. Kids (ages 5+) create things with the help of 6 builder friends: Blox, Cooper, Vex, Stretch, Connie, and Jum-Jum. Each builder has unique skills which kids can control with simple gestures. The builders help move, stack, drop, spray, smash, paint, & lift blocks as kids create/construct new objects.The educational app also has a snapshot feature and an autosave feature to share & save the world that your child has created. If your child can imagine it, he/she can build it with the help of the Toca Builders – creative fun for your budding engineer/builder!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-builders/id652077009?mt=8&uo=4

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Educreations

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Educreations is great FREE app that turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. The app was just updated a few days ago – November 22, 2013. It is simple to use and permits you to build lessons with multiple pages or slides. The editing tools in Educreations allow you to resize and move images as well as create “animated playback” by dragging objects as you record.

Another bonus of this app is that free accounts are available at http://www.educreations.com. There users can share their work as well as look at lessons created by others. This app is being used at all levels of education including the college level. The features of Educreations make it a standout among the recordable whiteboard apps! What a fabulous educational app!!

Highly recommended!

Educreations Interactive Whiteboard - Educreations, Inc

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Math Racer®

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FREE for a limited time – an educational app that  normally sells for $4.99. Math Racer times how fast kids can answer 10, 20, 50 or 100 problems in 7 different games: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, add/subtract, multiply/divide, or all operations. I like kids being able to practice related operations together – it makes them pay attention to operational signs & see connections. The app keeps high scores for all areas. It shows which problems were missed and how long it took to answer each question (to the hundredth of a second). Teachers and parents can use this tracking system to document kids’ progress.

This app provides a simple but fun way for kids to practice their facts. I can’t imagine that they won’t love racing the clock to improve their scores. If it is loaded on an iPhone, kids could easily practice their facts in the car on their way to after-school lessons. 🙂

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.

Recommended!

Math ® - i4software

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Bug Games HD

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bug games

Singing crickets! Bug Games HD is FREE for a limited time. This super cute educational app for preschoolers has 4 sections: Cricket Concert, Bee Word Builder, Ant Tunnel Builder, and Spider Dot-to-Dot. In the Cricket Concert section, kids can select a song to hear the crickets sing together or they can tap on each cricket to play the song on their own. In Bee Word Builder, kids hear the phonic pronunciation of individual letters as they use them to put words together. Ant Tunnel Builder requires kids to rotate puzzle pieces so that the ants can march through a completed tunnel. Spider Dot-to-Dot has kids connecting dots in numerical order. Kids collect sticker rewards along the way. This app has a nice combination of learning games for preschoolers – cute, fun, & engaging! Who knew playing with bugs could be so much fun 🙂

Bug Games HD - by Busy Bee Studios - Busy Bee Studios

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Even Monsters Get Sick

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This interactive story for the iPad is FREE again. Even Monsters Get Sick is a story written for kids 5+ about a boy and his pet monster. Kids can follow along or read on their own as Harry tries to discover what is wrong with his monster. The artwork is appealing and there are animations on every page. It is a nicely done story with a positive message told by Harry, the boy. Perfect 🙂

Recommended!

Even Monsters Get Sick - Busy Bee Studios

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Bogga Alphabet

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FREE today – Bogga Alphabet, an educational app designed by a dad. He created it to be a digital toy that encourages creative play and teaches the alphabet. Your child starts by choosing an upper case alphabet letter.  After the letter is named, your child can paint it one of 6 colors. Once painted, the letter becomes a refrigerator magnet. In “the kitchen” your child can use his/her letters to spell words or short messages. There is a wastebasket to get rid of letters that are not needed. There is also a camera to take a picture of your child’s creation (which is saved in your photos). This option allows you to create a scene that you can then pull into story telling apps such as Art Maker, Story Time, etc. (see earlier reviews). This app is straightforward – it is simple to use and there are no third-party ads or in-app purchases. the latest update includes letter sounds and lower case letters. Nicely done app for little ones. 🙂

Bogga Alphabet - Boggatap

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World’s Worst Pet – Vocabulary

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FREE educational app – World’s Worst Pet – Vocabulary. Snargg, a cute blue pet needs kids to use their vocabulary skills to get him out of trouble. The app’s four games teach context, word sorts, synonyms, & antonyms as they expose kids to over 1000 words across 5 levels: grades 4 – 8. Words are taught in sets of 10 conceptually related words per set. Kids are encouraged to replay each word set to improve their scores. Other features of the app include: clearly explained definitions with examples of how the word is used, multiple exposures to words, writing prompts, and… a really fun narrative with rewards. The app allows multiple players making it perfect for use in the classroom. Teachers can use it to differentiate instruction, as part of a center, for individual or group assignments, as homework, etc. There are so many great things about this app – meaningful content, a fun interface, and it meets CCSS. Fabulous!

Common Core Standards met:
4.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c.Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
5.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/worlds-worst-pet-vocabulary/id730540095?mt=8&uo=4

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The Purple Frog

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Purple Frog2Purple Frog

The Purple Frog is FREE again today. This educational app is a beautiful story about friendship and acceptance. No one wants to play with Purple Frog because he is purple. He is sad until a little green frog becomes his friend. Kids can choose to read the story on their own or have the story read to them. They can also tap individual words in the story to have the word read and spelled for them. The app is nicely done – a beautifully illustrated tale story with an important message!

The Purple Frog - i4software

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Drawing for Kids (step by step)

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FREE for a limited time – Drawing for Kids, an educational app for the iPad. Kids learn to draw 30 different pictures (animals, sports, vehicles) by following the step-by-step instructions. Geared towards 3-8 year olds, each picture has 6 sequential steps with a tracing function – if extra support is needed. Once your little artist has complete his/her drawing, it can be colored using 6 different tools and 30 different colors. The final creation can be saved, printed, or shared via email or messaging. I love how that the tracing function is optional – it allows kids to be creative and add their own touches to their drawings. This app would be great for letting kids create drawings to add to thank-you cards, family albums, emails to grandparents, etc. Fun!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drawing-for-kids-step-by-step/id442410088?mt=8&uo=4