Category Archives: educational apps for kids

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Geoboard by Math Learning Center

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From The Math Learning Center (a nonprofit organization dedicated to K – 12 education) comes this FREE app that turns your iPhone/iPad into a virtual geoboard. Geoboards can be used as tools to teach mathematical concepts such as polygons, perimeter, area, line segments, angles, congruent shapes, symmetry, fractions, etc. Shapes are created by stretching bands on the geoboard’s pegs. There are 5 colors of bands in the iPhone version and 8 in the iPad version. There is also a tool to fill in shapes. On the iPad version, you can switch from the standard 25 peg board to a 150 peg board to create more complex shapes. This is a great app with the potential to be used in so many ways.

Highly recommended for your virtual math tool kit!

Check out my August 12 review of Virtual Manipulatives for another great app to add to your virtual math tool kit.

Geoboard, by The Math Learning Center - Clarity Innovations

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MeeGenius

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MeeGenius is a virtual store of e-books for young children. You can use it as a website, with the FREE app for iPhone/iPad or with Google TV/Google Chrome Web Store. The app comes with 9 FREE books. You register with your email address after you download it. Books can be read to you or read on your own. Words are highlighted as the narrator reads them in the read-along version. The books are nicely done – colorful, cutely illustrated, and age-appropriate.

Hundreds of additional books from dozens of categories are available as in-app purchases. Here is a link to the website where you can learn more about the titles/categories offered. You can also preview books before you purchase them: https://www.meegenius.com/store/featured

Worth downloading!

MeeGenius! Kids' Books - MeeGenius!

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eggzoo

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FREE for a limited time – eggzoo an iPhone/iPad app for toddlers.Kids tap the screen to interact with 4 egg-shaped animals called eggmals. Kids learn the meaning of verbs as they touch, talk to, and sing with the eggmals. Verbs taught are smell, shake, sleep, catch, hit, chase, laugh, jump, spin, play, eat, and fly. The eggmals teach the verbs by acting them out. After three times, kids can record their voice saying the verb and the eggmal responds appropriately. Kids do not have to pronounce the verb exactly to trigger a response. There is also a song for each character that incorporates all three verbs taught by that character. The app is cute for very young kids but it only teaches 12 verbs so it is very short.

eggzoo - CJ Educations

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Marbleminds Phonics

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In this app for the iPhone/iPad (which normally costs $2.99) kids practice phonics in four different ways: picture to letter (choose the beginning letter for a picture), letter to picture (find the pictures that start with a letter), memory (match letters to pictures), and sounds like (choose the letter for the sound). In the game mode, all four methods are mixed and kids earn marbles as they play. This app provides some good practice for kids with letters/sounds for over 150 pictures.

Be aware of a few issues that will hopefully be addressed in the next update. The sounds of c and k can be the same. When c is followed by a,o, or u it makes a k sound. In the app when looking for words that start with the k sound, the correct answers were kettle, kangaroo and kettle but other choices included cat and candy cane – too confusing!  Also, vowels can be tricky. When looking for the short i sound, one of the correct answers was iron which is incorrect because it has a long i sound. When looking for the short o sound, two of the correct answers were orange and onion – neither make the short o sound. Even though this app has some mistakes, it is better than many of the other phonics apps that I have seen.

Common Core Standards met:

  • K.RF.3 –  Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.a.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.

Keep reading my blog to find out when apps go FREE. There is a lite version of this app that you can try.

Marbleminds Phonics - Iskandar, Inc.

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TimePairs

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This app for the iPhone/iPad gives kids practice matching times on an analog clock with times on a digital clock in a “memory style” card game with a pirate theme. Clocks can be set as 12-hour clocks or 24-hour clock. Kids can take their time and choose the practice mode or get 30 seconds to match the cards in the “defeat the captain” mode. When the cards are matched successfully, the pirate cries – which I grew tired of very quickly but kids may think is funny. I played several games and the difficulty of the game did not seem to increase as I advanced – very basic, no time to the exact minute. Within the game there were also several cards with pictures only to match. All in all, this app seems more like a matching game than a telling time game.

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Jellytoons: Bobo’s Birthday Challenge

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FREE for a limited time – Bobo’s Birthday Challenge for toddlers (18 months +). It’s Bobo’s birthday and his friends – Flo, Inky, Max, Noodles, Pip and Rex come to his party. Before he can open a present, he has to choose 1 of the 6 games to play. The games help develop fine motor skills, shape matching, color matching, and logic & observation skills. Your child’s performance for each skill is tracked within the app. The characters are happy, googly-eyed little blobs dressed in party hats. Just looking at them makes you smile. The animations are colorful and cleverly done. I think little ones would enjoy this app.

Jellytoons Toddler Skills: Bobo's Birthday Chal... - Mindshapes Limited

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Froobles Phonics

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This phonics app for the iPhone/iPad was FREE the day I downloaded it but is currently $.99. In the first two activities, kids line up the same three pictures to spell 3-letter words or to find words with the same short vowels. In the third activity, kids line up pictures of words from the same word family – a bit more challenging. There is a reward chart with the ability to set goals. The app is simple to use and colorful but there is limited sound in the app – a swiping sound, a “yeah” when a match is made. A phonics app without sounds seems like a missed opportunity to me. The letter sounds are not pronounced. The word is not pronounced after it is completed. Perhaps an update will included more sound.

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ABC Mouse.co – Ham with Jam, Hen in the Pen, Big Pig & Little Pig, To Run is Fun

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These apps for the iPhone/iPad are from the ABC Mouse word family beginning reader series. I chose to downloaded The Hen in the Pen to review the series. Each story emphasizes words from a particular word family. There are also easy sight words in the stories. There are several ways that the books can be read: Read to Me, Read with Pause, I Can Read It, and Hear the Words. I really like the Hear the Words option. It allows the child to read alone but tap any word that he/she gets stuck on. There are parent tips on the title page that explain word families and sight words for beginning readers. There are also parent tips throughout the books. The illustrations are colorful and support the text so that kids can use picture clues as they read. The story lines are very simple. But, that is not a negative thing because these apps are more about the process of reading than the actual story. When my son was an early reader, he loved books like these because he could read them “all by himself” and that alone makes them worth downloading 🙂 And…. they are currently FREE.

Common Core Standards met:

K.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Recommended!

ABCmouse.com Ham and Jam - Age of Learning, Inc. Ham with Jam     ABCmouse.com The Hen in the Pen - Age of Learning, Inc. Hen in the Pen     ABCmouse.com Big Pig and Little Pig - Age of Learning, Inc. Big Pig & Little Pig     ABCmouse.com To Run is Fun - Age of Learning, Inc. To Run is Fun

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Toca Store

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Turn you iPhone or iPad into play store for your preschooler and a friend with this app. This app permits your child to choose which items to sell (34 choices), set prices for the items, invite a friend to shop, count money, bag the items, etc. It’s a very cute simulation that teaches: taking turns, cooperation, and basic counting.  Toca Boca apps are very popular and usually sell for $1.99. Toca Store is FREE today 🙂

Recommended!

Toca Store - Toca Boca

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Kids Zoo

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Kids Zoo introduces your child to 45 different animals from 4 different categories: wild, farm, birds, and water. It is very easy to use – just tap. First tap the category you want to explore, then tap an animal. A photo of the animal appears. You can tap the photo for another photo of the same animal. Tap the speaker next to the animal’s name and it is pronounced. Tap the sound icons to hear the sound that the animal makes. There are two sound icons for each animal (one blue and one pink) but no explanation of the difference. The most interesting thing about this app is that there are connections to 30 LIVE  webcams at zoos all around the world. You can see the polar bear at the San Diego Zoo, the tiger at the London Zoo, etc. if you connect at the right time. Since these zoos are all over the world, the animals may be sleeping, the time zones may not match up, etc. Another potential issue is the speed/quality of your connection. I was able to connect to several webcams but was not fortunate enough to see any real action. Interesting to explore – if you have a great connection!

This app for the iPhone/iPad is FREE for a limited time.

Kids Zoo - Zhan Tian