Category Archives: apps for kids

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Let’s Color

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FREE again for a limited time – Let’s Color, another educational app from the makers of Squiggles. And just like Squiggles, Let’s Color encourages creativity! The app includes an animated short in which the characters – Bobu, the monkey  & Miku, the rabbit use their imaginations to turn triangles into a strawberry, a dog, a mountain, etc. Then kids are encouraged to color different things to complete a page: what is coming out of a hose, who is riding in the train, etc. Once the coloring is completed, they press GO and the drawings come alive. There are 17 coloring pages as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. Additional coloring pages can be purchased within the app. Tools included are stickers, markers, paint, chalk, a ketchup bottle, as well as 10 colors & a mystery color wheel. Work can be saved into the gallery of the parents’ section by pressing the piggy bank. This app is super cute!! Just like Squiggles, it encourages children to be imaginative & creative 🙂

Highly recommended!

Let's Color! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

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Bitsboard – Education, Games, and Flashcards for Learning Reading, Spelling, and more

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Bitsboard

Bitsboard is a FREE app for education with so many uses – it’s ideal for teaching languages, vocabulary, sight words, spelling, and more. This educational app comes with three games: Flashcards (10,000+ free flash cards with fully customizable settings), Explore (reviews all flashcards), and Photo Touch (spot the correct item game). There are 7 additional games available as in-app purchases. Bitsboard is easy to use and fully customizable so you can use it to create games for whatever you are teaching. And as an extra added bonus, you can see what other people have created – the app includes FREE access to the Bitsboard catalog which includes thousands of flashcards with lessons covering a variety of topics. If all of that hasn’t convinced you that you need this app, this feature certainly will –  Bitsboard supports multiple users and keeps track of their progress!!

Recommended – a great app with loads of potential!!

Bitsboard - Education, Games, and Flashcards for Learning Reading, Spelling, and more - GrasshopperApps.com

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Space Cakes

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Space CakeSpace Cakes (an educational app) is FREE – thanks to the support of Eli’s Cheesecake in Chicago. Kids use number sense and early math skills to complete intergalactic baking missions. They find themselves in a bakery filled with alien ingredients. They must follow a recipe to add the correct amount of each ingredient. Then they choose a 3D shape for their levitating batter and bake it. Next a topper, frosting, and sprinkles are added to finish their creations. Time for delivery – they steer the cake delivery spaceship back to Earth. Finally they celebrate their safe arrival with starburst, fireworks, and colorful confetti!  Kids can snap a photo of their creations to share them via email, save them in a gallery, or use them to inspire creative writing – descriptive paragraphs using math terms, a story about an intergalactic cake baking contest, etc. There is a section for parents/teachers which explains the educational value of the app and how it meets the CCSS. This app provides a fun way to work with math concepts AND a wonderful springboard for creative writing.

Space Cakes - Kids Bakery Game with Math and Numbers - Mrs. Judd's Games, LLC

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BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr.

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BrainPOP has been around for more than a decade as an educational website. The site features short animated movies – 750+ lessons covering science, social studies, math, art & music, etc. The content is geared for grades 4 and above but I found that many movies were also suitable for third graders. When I was in the classroom, it was one of my favorite online resources.

Now you can download the BrainPOP Featured Movie, the educational app for FREE! Your child can learn something new every day. After watching the daily movie there is a short interactive quiz. And… if your child can’t get enough of this app, there are two subscription options: $1.99 per month/ 4 movies & quizzes a day OR $6.99 per month/full access.

Teachers could add the BrainPOP movie of the day to their daily routine. Watch it at a transition time – right before lunch, after lunch, while waiting for buses to called, etc. Interesting and educational!!

Highly Recommended!

BrainPOP Featured Movie - BrainPOP®

Also available for FREE is BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week, another educational app. Every week Annie and Moby (two lovable characters) help 5 to 9 year olds learn about a different subject. There is also a quiz and activities to accompany each animated movie. BrainPOP Jr. has been on the web since 2006 delivering content for younger students in science, social studies, reading, writing, math, and more.

Again, teachers could add the BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week to their routine. Start your Monday off with the “Movie of the Week” or use it on Friday. BrainPOP gives teachers another way spark kids interest in learning!

Highly recommended!

BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week - BrainPOP®

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Mad Libs

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Over 120,000,000 Mad Libs have been sold to date. 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. Mad Libs are stories with words left out. 21 stories are included with this app. A reader selects a story but doesn’t tell what it is about. Writers (the other players) give words to fill in the blanks in the story. The reader calls out the type of word needed for the blank  –  adjective, noun, collective noun, verb, verb ending with ing, etc. Once all the blanks in the story have been filled, the reader reads the story aloud. The result is usually a silly, funny story. Kids love Mad Libs and in order to play, they have to know parts of speech. Mad Libs are a great classroom activity when you have 10 minutes before lunch, at the end of the day, waiting for a guest, etc. Who knew learning parts of speech could be so much fun!?!

Mad Libs - Penguin Group USA

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On This Day

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On This Day

FREE for a limited time – On This Day, an educational app that let’s you view historical events, births, & deaths for any day of the year. There are hundreds of entries for every date linked to related Wikipedia articles which open right within the app. When I was teaching, I had students correct punctuation, capitalization, & spelling in two sentences every morning while I took attendance, did lunch count, etc. This educational app would have been helpful because I always used information about something interesting that happened that day. After correcting the sentences, we would talk about that day’s history. You may want use this educational app as part of your classroom’s morning routine. It would also be fun to see what famous people share birthdays with your students!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/on-this-day…/id317064309?mt=8&uo=4

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Disney Creativity Studio

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Disney

FREE for a limited time – Disney Creativity Studio, an educational app that turns an iPad into an artist’s studio. There are 4 sections of this app: Learn to Draw, Activities, Draw Your Own, and My Artwork. In the Learn to Draw section, Disney artists teach kids how to draw favorite Disney characters with step-by-step instructions. The activities section includes tracing, connecting dots, and coloring pages. The Draw Your Own section provides kids with blank pages for drawing & creating. Or, your child can use the app’s fun backgrounds & Disney character stickers to create their own scenario! Finally, the My Artwork section automatically saves anything created in the app. For an additional $.99 you can purchase a stylus that magically interacts with the Creativity Studio App. If your child is a Disney fan who loves to draw, you may want to check out this app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/disney-creativity-studio/id557238273?mt=8&uo=4

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Wubbzy’s Dance Party

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Wubbzy

FREE today – Wubbzy’s Dance Party, a storybook app featuring Wonder Wubbzy and Flower Power Daizy. This educational app was developed by Cupcake Digital in partnership with the producers of the Emmy® Award-winning Nick Jr. TV series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!®.

 Kids dance and read along with Wubbzy and his pals as they plan the most Wubbtastic Dance Party ever! Along the way kids will discover animations & interactivity on every page! The app also has educational games and sing-along music videos. The Grown Up’s Corner has 2 sets of questions about the story. The questions address literal understanding of the story (thin questions) as well as extended meaning (fat questions). Also included in the Grown-Up Corner is information about the Common Core Standards addressed by this app which are predominately kindergarten standards. Print-outs and activities to supplement the story are available online at cupcakedigital.com. What is not to love about this educational app? – Cute story packed with interactivity, educational games, sing-along videos, standards-based, and a guide for adults!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wubbzys-dance-party/id635871029?mt=8&uo=4

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Rainy Days and Rainbows

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Raiiny Days

FREE for a limited time – a Stella & Sam educational app: Rainy Days and Rainbows. Stella and Sam apps are based on the television show and the bestselling picture book series by Marie-Louise Gay. The books have been translated into fifteen languages & have sold over one million copies. In Rainy Days and Rainbows, the kids and their dog Fred paint, dig through leaves looking for treasures, and have a pine cone race across Puddle Lake. Beautifully done apps for preschoolers!

Other Stella and Sam Adventures have been reduces on iTunes to $1.99 each. Titles include: Backyard at Twilight, Into the Snow We Go, Cocoons and Caterpillars, Go There Square, and Draw Along with Stella and Sam. Or, you can purchase the Stella and Sam Story Pack which includes 5 titles for only $3.99. All Stella and Sam apps are supported in English and French. You can easily change from English to French/French to English in the app’s settings. Download Rainy Days and Rainbows to see what the apps are like. If you like what you see, take advantage of the reduced prices. 🙂

Rainy Days: A Stella and Sam Adventure - zinc Roe

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Apps for “Talk Like a Pirate Day”

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Arrrggg… it’s “Talk Like a Pirate Day” so here are some educational apps to enjoy with your kiddos.

Toontastic Jr. Pirates

Ahoy Matey…. Toontastic Jr. Pirates is FREE again for a limited time. This storytelling app, from the creators of Toontastic, has kids creating their own pirate cartoons. They start by choosing a beginning, middle, and ending. Then they animate the story by moving the characters and recording their voices at the same time. The educational app features 12 story starter videos and a cast of characters to get kids started. If kids would like to create a story with friends or family, they can utilize StoryShare, a new feature in Toontastic Jr. which is very cool! It enables kids to talk & create stories with friends or family anywhere in the world! Yo, ho, ho – how fun is that??

Toontastic Jr. Pirates - for iPad - Launchpad Toys

Ahoy Matey! Jake’s Never Land Pirate School for the iPhone/iPad is FREE from Disney. Kids 3+ join Jake and his crew (from Never Land Pirates TV) for pirate classes which include sailing, pirate band, map & spyglass, and pixie dust. In pirate school, kids practice listening & following directions, counting, tracing shapes, and more. You can import your child’s picture and create a pirate – very cute!  Kids can keep track of the levels they have completed and the badges they have earned in the Captain’s Log. This is a fun educational app  – especially for young fans of the show!

Jake's Never Land Pirate School - Disney

This iPhone/iPad app was FREE when I downloaded it but is now $3.99. Designed for 4 – 7 years olds, it introduces math concepts (such as counting, ordering, addition, subtraction, shapes) using a pirate theme. Kids earn and collect rewards for their treasure chest as they progress through the 700 math tasks included in this app. More than one child can be added to the program and parents or teachers can monitor their children’s progress. The statistics section shows what tasks have been completed and which were completely correctly on the first attempt. Nicely done app!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K.CC.2 – Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.
  • K.CC.4 – Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
  • K.OA.1 – Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.
  • K.G.2.  – Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

Love to Count by Pirate Trio - Next is Great

Pirate's Treasure

Pirate’s Treasure is FREE for a limited time. It’s a pirate-themed memory game for two players. Cute – with sounds and music to create the perfect pirate atmosphere!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pirates-treasure-memo-game/id449449296?mt=8&uo=4