Category Archives: educational apps for kids

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ABCSounds Lite

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abc sounds

ABCSounds Lite for the iPhone/iPad was FREE the day I downloaded it. It is now $.99. The app was developed by Barbara Milne, an early childhood educator. It’s based on her song” Apple, Apple, AAA” and it introduces kids to the sounds of the alphabet. The music is soothing and repetitive making it easy for little ones to sing along. Her approach is multi-sensory. For each letter of the alphabet, the child hears & sees the letter and a word beginning with that letter. The letter is also hidden in a picture which has been chosen because it looks similar to the letter – great for helping kids make connections. Nicely done for little ones – would be great for preschool & kindergarten classes!

Keep reading my blog to find out when apps like this one, become FREE again.

Recommended!

ABCSounds-Lite - Tender Learning Concepts Inc

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Phonics Tic Tac Toe Interactive Game

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tic tac toe

FREE for a limited time – Phonics Tic Tac Toe for the iPhone/iPad. This game reviews letter sounds (vowels, vowel combinations, consonant, consonant combinations) and syllables in a tic, tac, toe format. There is a lot of great phonics practice in this app. I really like that the app varies the placement of the missing sounds – at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word. I also like how the app uses words with the same letters making different sounds. Since there is no sound, kindergarten/first graders might need help reading the questions. However, it would be perfect for independent practice for most second/third graders. Teachers could use it in a learning center, as independent seatwork with a friend, for small group intervention, etc. I only wish it had the option of having the questions read aloud for younger students. That being said, this app is definitely worth downloading!!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K. RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Associate the short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
  • 1.RF.3/2.RF.3/3.RF.3/4.RF.3/5.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe Interactive Game - Lakeshore Learning Materials

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Fiete

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Fiete

FREE today only – Fiete, an interactive picture book for 1 – 3 year olds. 15 interactive scenes are included in this app. Kids help Fiete with his everyday tasks as they put tires on a car, pop a balloon with a pin, plant a seed, load a ship, etc. There are also 3 memory games based on the tasks in the app. The app is very intuitive – little ones can easily figure out how they are supposed to help Fiete. The cute, hand-drawn illustrations & animations are accompanied by relevant sound effects. This app is ad-free and does not contain any in-app purchases or external links. It is perfect for the youngest iPhone/iPad users!!

Fiete - Wolfgang Schmitz

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Spatter and Spark

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spatter & spark

Just released yesterday and FREE  – Spatter and Spark, a cute interactive book from Polk Street Press. Spatter (an artistic porcupine) and Spark (an inventive fox) team up to figure out how to get a look at Hubert, the baby crow, so that Spatter can paint Hubert’s picture. Kids are invited to help as Spatter & Spark problem solve their way through the story. There are 10 interactive scenes within the app. Each scene is beautifully illustrated by Luciana Navarro Powell, the illustrator of Goodnight Safari (another wonderful FREE app from the same developer  – see my August 28th review). The story, primarily for 4 – 6 year olds, is very cute with purposeful interactivity that adds to the story. Spatter and Spark could also be used with older students to encourage them to think and write about their own inventions. An activity pack (with 4 additional activities) is available as an in-app purchase. Very nicely done – recommended!!

Spatter & Spark - Polk Street Press LLC

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Jellytoons Birthday Countdown

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FREE again for a limited time –Jellytoons Birthday Countdown for toddlers (18 months +). It’s Bobo’s birthday and his friends – Flo, Inky, Max, Noodles, Pip and Rex are invited to his party. Kids have to help all of the friends get to the party on time by… waking up Max, feeding Rex, helping Flo down from the sky, finding Pip, helping Noodles wrap a present, and cheering up Inky. The activities help develop fine motor skills, shape matching, and logic & observation skills. The characters are happy, googly-eyed little blobs – just looking at them makes you smile. The animations are colorful and cleverly done. I think little ones would enjoy this app  – a prequel to Jellytoons: Bobo’s Birthday Challenge (see review Sept. 16).

Jellytoons Birthday Countdown - Mindshapes Limited

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Artkive

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As featured on THE TODAY SHOW, Artkive makes it easy to digitally store, share, and print your children’s artwork/schoolwork.  Originally released on August 11, 2012  – this app for the iPhone/iPad is FREE again for a limited time. It is very easy to use…. First you create an account. Then enter the first names of your children. Take photos of their artwork/schoolwork or upload existing photos from your camera roll. Tag the photo with a child’s name, age or grade, the date, and a title. So simple! You can then share their art with family & friends. You will also be able to have Artkive create digital books & other products with your child’s artwork/schoolwork. Artkive makes it easy to collect and store your children’s artwork in one place.

What a great idea! As a parent, you can use it to create books for your children, of any age. I plans to make gift books for my adult children of their art/work that I have saved!  As a teacher, you could use it to create digital portfolios of children’s work. Lots of possibilities…. try it yourself while it is free 🙂

To learn more @ http://www.artkiveapp.com/

Recommended!

Artkive - The Kive Company

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Oh No Fractions!

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on no fractrions

Oh No Fractions! is a great FREE iPhone/iPad app for comparing and exploring fractions. The app is simple to use – kids just swipe to the right or the left to indicate whether one fraction is “greater than” or “less than” the other. After the child answers, there is an opportunity to “prove it” – see above picture. The “prove it” section of the app is fabulous because it allows the child to visualize his/her answer. I would love to see the developer add an “equal to” option to this app to make it even better!

Common Core Standards met:

3.NF.3 – Explain equivalence of fractions and compare fractions by reasoning about their size. Understand two fractions as equivalent (equal) if they are the same size. Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3).

Recommended!

Oh No Fractions! - Curious Hat Lab - Curious Hat

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Teacher Clicker – Socrative / Student Clicker – Socrative

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Still FREE , so powerful! This website and app are unbelievably cool – they turn any device with a web browser (iPhone, iPad, laptops) into a student response clicker. If a teacher has access to any kind of wireless lab, he/she can engage the entire class in a game or quiz and watch the results in real-time. Teachers begin by using their teacher app or logging into t.socrative.com with their email and password. Once logged in, teachers are assigned a room number to share with their students. Students log in using their student app or at m.socrative.com and enter the “virtual room number” provided by the teacher. Teachers initiate an activity and students respond on their devices. Multiple choice and short answer quizzes are easy to create – types of questions can be mixed. Teachers can also choose to run the quiz as a Space Race game. The students’ responses are visible to the teacher in real-time. Teachers can see what each child answered individually as well as what the group answered collectively. And the best part is… the app grades, graphs the results, and generates a report as an Excel spreadsheet or an email.

What a powerful tool for teachers – a short quiz at the end of a lesson can pinpoint what students understand and what needs to be retaught. Hours of grading and analyzing test results are done immediately. Every student is involved – wow!

Highly recommended!

Teacher app Teacher Clicker - Socrative - Socrative           Student app Student Clicker - Socrative - Socrative

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All About Shapes by Tiny Tapps

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all about shapes

All About Shapes by Tiny Taps is FREE for a limited time for the iPhone/iPad. In this app, a genie and her magic lamp helps your preschooler learn about 13 shapes through activities such as songs, tracing, puzzles, and games. This app has a nice variety of practice. I especially like the shape section of the app because each shape is named/spelled and two examples are given. One caution about this app – the cone is not drawn as a 3D object. The other 3D shapes (cube, pyramid, cylinder) in the app are drawn as 3D shapes. Hopefully the developer will correct this in the next upgrade 🙂

All About Shapes by Tinytapps - Altaf rehmani

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Learn the States with Flat Stanley FREE

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flat stanley

If your kids LOVE Flat Stanley (and who doesn’t) you may want to check out the FREE version of this iPad app  – Learn the Sates with Flat Stanley FREE. This FREE version of the app features states in the west coast region. The full version is $1.99 and it features all 50 states.

A mail truck has lost its cargo! Kids slingshot Stanley to the proper state so that he can help deliver letters to students. Kids must identify each state by its location and shape. The app uses colored stars to indicate how many states were identified correctly on the first try. If your class is involved in the Flat Stanley project, or reads the Flat Stanley books, you may want to take a closer look at this app.

Learn The States With Flat Stanley Free - Flatter World, Inc.