FREE for a limited time – the FULL version of DoReMi 1-2-3: Music for Kids. Cute characters teach kids learn how to play familiar tunes. Kids learn by listening and repeating what they hear. There are two modes in this app – song mode and free mode. In song mode, kids can choose to play one of 6 different songs. In free mode, kids can create their own recordings. Very cute app with great auditory training!
FREE again – for a limited time. Funny Alphabet is an easy to use, interactive app for toddlers which teaches the alphabet. Each letter has its own page showing the upper and lower case letter as well as four objects that begin with that letter. When you touch the arrow next to each item on the page, the object is named. The animations in this app are very cute – most objects have an interactive sound or movement. Also included in this app is a soap-bubble game that feels like the electronic equivalent to playing with bubble wrap 🙂
Please note that at the beginning and the end of the app have links to the FB page for the app – easy for your child to click on and end up in Facebook.
The app was last updated on September 3 and a quiz was added as an in-app purchase.
FREE for a limited time – iLuv Drawing People HD. Kids learn to draw 20 people by tracing over step by step templates. After finishing the drawing, your child can color it, add a background, stickers, etc. The editing tools (eraser, undo, redo, start over) make this app easy to use! There are also blank pages so that your child can create his/her own drawings. Finished works can be saved, printed, or shared via email. Drawings saved into the drawing book can be edited later. Use this app to have your child create cards, greetings for loved ones!
FREE for limited time – Sight Word Hangman. This app helps kids learn 300 common sight words – broken into 40 manageable lists. The app is simple to use. First select a list of words. Then choose a mode – game mode or flashcard mode. In game mode, the word is pronounced and the child has to touch the correct word to prevent the hangman from appearing. Pretty easy! But… the best part of this app is results section. It shows you which lists were mastered, the child’s overall score, and the date mastered. It even shows specific words the child has missed. I love apps that gather data for teachers/parents!! Too bad there is not a way for it to be printed or shared via email – maybe in an update?
WOW – here’s one you don’t want to miss!! FREE again for a limited time – Cookie Next Door-Rainy Days. This app was a choice in the “New & Noteworthy” section of the app store in early February. Kids become storytellers in this animated adventure. Their speech, songs, and rhymes bring Cookie and his friends alive. The app includes a Creative Comic Book, a Voice Over Studio, and an Animated Stage Projector. Creative Comic Book utilizes storyboards to guide kids through the storytelling experience. In the Voice Over Studio, kids can change the pitch of the characters’ voices. As kids tell the story their speech, singing, etc. is transformed into the voices of the characters. Once the story is complete, the Animated Stage turns it into a play with dancing props! This app is very creative, very fun and it’s great for developing oral language skills. I am looking forward to more adventures of Cookie and friends!!
FREE again – Jack and the Beanstalk, an app for the iPhone/iPad – this interactive read-along is a humorous, modern version of a classic tale. The app has 2 options: Read by Myself or Read to Me. The words are highlighted as they are read to help the emerging reader. The animations & illustrations are delightful with interactivity on every page. Teachers could use this app to compare and contrast this modern version to the classic version! This app is really cute and definitely worth downloading!!
The National Parenting Publication Awards: Honors winner in the Children’s Media/Virtual category.
FREE again- Shrinky Kid’s Boogie Box by Mindshapes. This app features 4 stories about Shrinky and his magic shoebox – the first story is unlocked and the other 3 are available as in-app purchases. Strictly Hoofer is a story about a horse who is sad because he has lost his dancing music. His friends cheer him up with the help of the Boogie Box. The Boogie Box is an interactive music making app with over 500 possible combinations of instruments! Kids can jam with the band to create their own music after reading the story. Teachers could use this story to as a springboard to creative writing. Have kids create shrinky-dinks of themselves and write their own adventure 🙂
Very cute, very creative, very fun – check it out: Mindshapes Ltd – YouTube
Hickory Dickory Dock for the iPhone/iPad is FREE again for a limited time. Your child can learn to read a clock to the nearest hour while playing with an adorable, purple mouse. Kids begin by setting the time on the clock. For each hour there is an exploration that sends the lovable little mouse bouncing, springing and sleeping his way through the nursery rhyme accompanied by catchy music, sounds effects, and fun animations. The explorations in Hickory Dickory Dock simulate principles of physics – gravity, collision, friction, weight, etc. as kids play pinball with the mouse, balance weights on a set of scales, and bounce the mouse off the walls of the clock. Very cute for preschoolers – a fun way to learn how to tell time with some physics slipped in as a bonus 🙂
This app makes me smile!! It’s an adorable (for the iPhone/iPad) and it’s FREE again for a limited time. Kids 2+ can play their own nursery rhymes (7 included) & holiday tunes (9 included) by tapping the animals as they pop out of holes in the ground. The app has 3 modes: baby mode (plays the tune correctly no matter which animal is tapped), play mode (tap the animals in the order that they pop up), and freestyle mode (tap the animals in any order to create your own tune). There is an option of changing to a keyboard when you feel your child is ready to make that transition. There are also 9 instrument options – piano, accordion, clarinet, acoustic guitar, xylophone, drum, harmonica, harp, and animal noises! When a tune is completed, all of the animals pop out of their holes to dance as the tune replays. The result is sheer happiness!
Recommended!
FREE again – The Opposites for the iPhone/iPad. Designed for kids 7+, this app requires the matching of increasingly difficult pairs of opposite words. There are two sections of the app: dictionary and play. In the dictionary section, words are listed next to their opposites. To learn the meaning, students just tap on the word and a definition appears. There are 10 levels with 100+ words per level. In the play section, words are pronounced by a boy or a girl as they appear in bubbles and float towards the top of the screen Kids are to tap pairs of opposites as they appear – which makes the words turn a color then pop. The goal is to match 12 sets of opposites – which completes the level. A bonus round then appears in which the student has 20 seconds to match up an entire board full of opposites. This app starts off simply but becomes quite challenging in the later levels. It could be used for differentiating a lesson and/or for helping students grow their understanding of antonyms.
Common Core Standards met:
Recommended!
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