Category Archives: apps for kids

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Apps for Shark Week!

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It’s Shark Week – a week of TV programs dedicated to sharks on the Discovery Channel now broadcast in 70+ countries. Here are some FREE educational apps that I found about these creatures who capture the interest of so many people – young and old! Education is about teachable moments – take advantage of them when you can!

Shark Goes to the Doctor

 

SeaWorld: Ruckus Reader presents – Shark Goes to the Doctor, an engaging story that follows a sand tiger shark as it is checked by vets. Kids learn interesting facts about sharks’ lives.

Download link for SeaWorld: Ruckus Reader: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seaworld-ruckus-reader/id515220048?mt=8&uo=4

Shark tank

Sea TV is a collaborative effort between Adobe and Monterey Bay Aquarium (a highly ranked U.S. aquarium) to bring its Open Seas Exhibit to your mobile device! The Open Sea is a million gallon exhibit with a 90-foot window. You may see sharks speed past, sardines swimming in glittering schools, and/or sea turtles on the live video stream. You can also watch videos on demand.

Download link for Sea TV: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sea-tv/id530529039?mt=8&uo=4

shark track 1

shark track 2

Global Shark Tracker lets you follow the navigational pattern of sharks that have been tagged with satellite tracking technology.  The purpose of this tracking is for shark conservation and the collection of data on the health of sharks. Very cool!

Download link for Global Shark Tracker:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/global-shark-tracker/id570772231?mt=8&uo=4

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KIDS DISCOVER – Constitution and Galaxies

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Constitution

Galaxies

2 more Back to School Specials: Constitution by KIDS DISCOVER and Galaxies by KIDS DISCOVER are FREE for a limited time! KIDS DISCOVER has been creating award-winning content for kids for over 20 years. Get the interactive, digital versions of these books for FREE. 🙂

Download links:

Constitution  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/constitution-by-kids-discover/id668593395?mt=8&uo=4

Galaxies  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/galaxies-by-kids-discover/id593605368?mt=8&uo=4

 

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Miku’s Picnic and Squiggles – apps by Lazoo

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Miku's Picnic

FREE for a limited time – Miku’s Picnic, an adorable interactive story designed to to support creative thinking. Kids join Bobu, the monkey & Miku, the rabbit on a chase after some jumping beans. The two need help capturing the beans before they bounce away! Along the way kids learn about using their imaginations and creative problem solving as the Bobu & Moku use “Squiggles” to… make a car go faster, make springs to get to the top of a tree, make binoculars to look for the beans, make a rocket zoom to the moon, and more. There are 2 reading modes – “Read to Me” and “Read it Myself” as well as an option to record your own voice as the narrator. The story ends with a link to the FREE Squiggles app for kids so kids can “take a turn” drawing. Super creative and super cute!

Download link for Miku’s Picnic: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lazoo-mikus-picnic/id652945863?mt=8&uo=4

Squiggles – This FREE app for the iPad is adorable! Kids are encourages to draw squiggles to create: rain clouds (to water flowers), waves (to help fish swim), wool on sheep, cotton candy, etc. Once the squiggles are drawn, they press GO and the drawings come alive. The app includes an interactive storybook and an animated short which introduces the characters – Bobu, the monkey  & Miku, the rabbit. It also includes 14 drawing pages (just add the squiggles) as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. 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!! It encourages children to be imaginative & creative – one of my favorites 🙂

Highly recommended!

Squiggles! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

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KIDS DISCOVER – Cells and Ancient Greece

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Cells

Ancient Greeece

Educational apps – Back to School Special: Cells by KIDS DISCOVER and Ancient Greece by KIDS DISCOVER are FREE for a limited time! KIDS DISCOVER has been creating award-winning content for kids for over 20 years. Get the interactive, digital versions of these books for FREE. 🙂

Download links:

Cells https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cells-by-kids-discover/id593624778?mt=8&uo=4

Ancient Greece

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ancient-greece-by-kids-discover/id643330967?mt=8&uo=4

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Pic Collage

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Pic Collage

FREE with in-app purchases – Pic Collage, a fabulous app for creating collages! With PicCollage you easily create creative collages with your pictures and/or pictures from the internet. You can change photos into backgrounds, clip them into cutouts, apply filters, add borders, and more! You can also add stickers and text.  So many fun uses of this app for education – have students make a Pic Collage to introduce themselves at the start of the year, send students on a scavenger hunt of geometric shapes then have them make a Pic Collage of what they found, add a PIc Collage to a science report, Make a Pic Collage representing the main character of a book, etc. The list is only limited by your imagination! I LOVE educational apps like this – open-ended with great potential for creativity! WOW!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic-collage/id448639966?mt=8&uo=4

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Learn with Homer

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Learn with Homer

Released on August 1 and already 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.

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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Geo-Me!

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Geo-Me

FREE for a limited time – Geo-Me!, a geography app for elementary-aged students. Kids are introduced to world geography by “Geo-Me”s (cute rounded avatars) who live all over the world! This educational app has music & animations to capture the interest of younger students but it also has multiple types of maps (normal, anthrome, climate, population, & elevation) and lots of interesting facts for older students. Using  the iPad’s location, the app creates a “Geo-Me” to represent the user. Children can then use their “Geo Me” avatars to compare and contrast their location on Earth to other avatar’s locations. There are many opportunities to use the information in this app for a variety of lessons – making a table, Venn diagrams, math word problems… the list goes on! This first version of the app introduces 6 residents of the “Geo-Me!” world – their video stories are included. More characters will join them in the near future. Check it out… Geo-Me! helps kids recognize their location’s uniqueness from and similarities to other locations!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geo-me!/id654772729?mt=8&uo=4

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Alien Buddies

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Alien Buddies

Alien Buddies is FREE for a limited time. Formerly listed as one of Apple’s “New & Noteworthy” and geared towards kids ages 3 – 7, this educational app features 4 different activities (matching, puzzles, dot-to-dot, and stickers) with varying levels of difficulty. Matching can be played in 2 modes (visual or audio) to reinforce colors, shapes, numbers and letters. Puzzles can be set to contain 4, 6, or 8 pieces. In the sticker section, kids add out-of-this-world stickers to 8 different space scenes.  All activities are well done but I especially like the dot-to-dot activity which has a “please help” or an “I can do it myself” button. Kids need to visually recognize the order of the numbers to connect the dots and the app counts as the dots are connected – love it! The app is cute, colorful, and sure to appeal to kids!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alien-buddies-preschool-learning/id469461540?mt=8&uo=4

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The Tree I See

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FREE for a limited time – The Tree I See, a storybook app for iPhone/iPad. Geared towards toddlers, this educational app tells a story about a little boy who spends time with a tree that willingly gives and shares with wilderness friends. The Tree I See is a beautifully animated story about sharing and what it means to be a friend  🙂

The Tree I See - Interactive Storybook - Aridan Books

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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