Category Archives: educational apps for kids

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Toca Doctor HD

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toca doctor

FREE for a limited time – Toca Doctor HD, another fantastic app for toddlers from Toca Boca. Kids get to be a doctor for the day with this app that introduces kids to the medical field. There are 21 puzzles/mini games in all. Kids will love the fun sounds and animations that accompany the tasks! If your child likes the other Toca Boca apps, you’ll want to add his one to your collection today because these apps do not “go free” that often. This is another great app from a developer that makes learning what it should be – fun, creative, and joyful!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-doctor-hd/id430807533?mt=8&uo=4

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FunSlides – Make HD videos from photos

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FREE for a limited time… FunSlides – Make HD videos from photos, an easy-to-use photography app which could be a fabulous tool for the classroom. Photos from your camera roll are easily arranged into sequence. Then customized text can be added – a variety of fonts, colors, and sizes are available. The app also includes seven transitions and thirteen built-in musical themes. You can also add music from your personal music library or record a voice over to go with your slideshow. Completed slideshows are easily saved to videos in your photo library. From there they can be shared in a variety of ways. Kids could use this app to create timelines, document a field trip, record science experiments, retell a story, etc. There are so many creative uses for this fabulous educational tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/funslides-hd-make-hd-video/id590225705?mt=8&uo=4

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Brainy Bugs Preschool Games

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bug gamesSinging crickets! Brainy Bugs Preschool Games 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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Winky Think Logic Puzzles

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imageFREE for a limited time – Winky Think Logic Puzzles by Spinlight Studio. This educational app feature 180 different puzzles. Kids slide shapes and match colors through three levels of puzzles that become increasingly more difficult. As they play, kids must use reasoning, observation, and spacial cognition to advance to the next level. Winky Think is a fun app that makes kids think!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winky-think-logic-puzzles/id923072172?mt=8&uo=4

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Marco Polo Ocean

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marco polo

This Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner is FREE for a limited time. Marco Polo Ocean is a fun & educational app for preschoolers. Kids learn about Earth’s oceans through build & explore activities (puzzles) or through free play. There are 5 build and explore activities: coral reef, killer whale, herring, boat, and submersible. As kids add parts to each puzzle, they build their vocabulary and learn fun facts. During free play, kids can: explore from the shore to the sea floor, steer their vehicles through ocean waters, add creatures to the water to see how they interact with each other, and more. Marco Polo Ocean uses self-directed discovery to expose kids to STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) in a fun, engaging way. Kids will learn about the ocean structure, the species that live there, characteristics of the fish/marine mammals, etc. It’s no wonder that Marco Polo Ocean was named App Store Editors’ Choice in 15 Countries!! Do not miss this one. It’s learning and fun rolled into one! 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marcopolo-ocean/id797157312?mt=8&uo=4

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American History Time Line

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FREE again for a limited time from McGraw Hill – American History Timeline. Kids can navigate the timeline to read about the hundreds of important people, places, and events that have shaped American history. When kids tap on a thumbnail photo, this educational app brings up a larger image and an explanation of the person, place, or event. The majority  of the drawings/photos used are from Library of Congress. There are 7 categories (such as women, inventors, constitution, etc.) that can be turned on and off so kids can see figures and/or events specific to that category. World events are also included on a parallel timeline. Two games are included: Time Line Scramble and Memory. Kids sequence events in the correct order with the Time Line Scramble Game. In the Memory Game, they match the correct date with the correct event or person.

I really like the design of the app – the ability to customize what categories you want to look at, the authenticity of the drawings/photos, the parallel world history timeline for comparison. It would be great for teaching kids read or create timelines.

American History Time Line - McGraw-Hill School Education Group

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Toca Mini

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FREE for a limited time – Toca Mini, another creative app from Toca Boca. With this app kids can create silly monsters, imaginary animals, or playful friends. Toca Minis can become whatever you want them to be. To start, kids add colors to the mini’s body, arms, & legs. Then they add details using a wide variety of stamps – bows, hats, buttons, polka dots, etc. Next, kids add facial features which brings their minis to life – they, ooh, ah, sneeze, smile, blink, and more.  Kids can also add hair, eyebrows, beards, mustaches, etc. With 60 different colors and 78 different stamps, there are thousands of possible combinations. When kids finish creating their own unique mini, they can take a snapshot and save it to the camera roll. Then they can print it, share it, pull it into a story writing app, and more. Creating a mini could be a great springboard for creative writing – descriptive paragraphs, a story about their created character/creature. Toca Boca has created another open-ended, creative app!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-mini/id718082838?mt=8&uo=4

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Celebrate Pi Day with 3 FREE Apps (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)

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equivalent fractionsFrom the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics comes a FREE app called Equivalent Fractions. Kids create equivalent fractions by dividing and shading squares or circles. Circles can be divided into 24ths. Squares can be divided into 144ths. In the play mode, a fraction is shown and kids must create 2 additional fractions that are equivalent. All 3 fractions must have different denominators. The app also places the fractions on a number line – a great visual for comparing! There is also a “build your own” mode which would be fabulous to use for guided exploration & practice. Kids could also use this section as a virtual manipulative when working independently. This app is an excellent resource for the classroom!

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, or the same point on a number line. Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3). Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

Equivalent Fractions - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Pick a PathPick-a-Path is another FREE math game from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Kids help Okta the octopus reach a target number by choosing the best path from the top maze to the bottom of a maze. There are 7 different levels with 7 puzzles in each level. The puzzles start with basic operations then move to fractions, negative numbers, decimals, and other more difficult skills. Kids have to plan out a strategy to reach the target which can be a specific value, a minimum value, or a maximum value. This app provides a lot of good skills practice. And… as an extra added bonus, kids have to think of a strategy!

Pick-a-Path - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Math concentration

Math Concentration was developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics for students from preschool through fifth grade. It’s a classic matching game that can be played by one or two players. There are six levels of play – numbers 1- 6, numbers 1 – 10, shapes, multiplication, fractions, and percentages & fractions. In all levels, numbers are represented in different ways – written names, digits, pictures, etc. The game also has two modes – a transparent board (for younger students) or a fully covered board. The game is simple to play and kids earn socks for completing all of the matches on the board. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-concentration/id458437534?mt=8&uo=4

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Picture Math

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picture mathFREE for a limited time – Picture Math, another great educational app from Brainingcamp. Kids (ages 5 – 12) learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division while solving picture puzzles. Each level begins with a narrated lesson. As kids solve math problems, they earn clues to the picture puzzle. The app features four hundred questions (fifty levels) complete with visual models. There are fifteen addition lessons, nine subtraction lessons, seventeen multiplication lessons, and nine division lessons. The progression of the lessons is well-designed. Kids must complete a level before moving to the next. This app is nicely done for elementary math students!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/picture-math/id951115848?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Train

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imageFREE today – Toca Train, another educational app for preschoolers from Toca Boca. With no experience necessary, kids become the train’s engineer. They explore the six stations of the island in a steam-powered train – complete with smoke, whistles, and more. There are passengers and cargo that need loaded, delivered, and unloaded. Kids will find that the controls are intuitive, no written instructions are necessary. With a push or a pull, they’re off. Thanks, Toca Boca for another imaginative app!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-train/id521640355?mt=8&uo=4