Category Archives: FREE apps (for a limited time)

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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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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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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

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Comic Book

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Comic Book

FREE today only – Comic Book. This app was named Best Photo App of 2011 and was the App of the Week in 12 different countries! Using the app’s selection of image filters, comic fonts, customizable captions, classic comic graphics and page layouts, you can easily change your photos into comics. So many creative uses for the classroom!! Download now, brainstorm later – don’t miss this one.

ComicBook! - 3DTOPO Inc.

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Professor Garfield Fact or Opinion

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professor garfieldProfessor Garfield Fact or Opinion is a FREE educational app. The comic teaches kids why it is important to know difference between fact and opinion, especially when using the internet. Garfield’s friend, Nermal, gets an F on his report about goats because it includes facts & opinions. With the help of Professor Garfield, Nermal learns that not all information on the internet is true. He learns that fact is “something that can be proven to be true” and an opinion is “something that someone believes but cannot be proven.” Nermal learns how important it is to read with a questioning mind. After reading the comic strip, kids practice what they have learned by helping Nermal write a report about school lunches and by feeding facts to the Fact-Bot. I love this app! Kids start learning about fact vs opinion in second/third grade but many of them struggle with the concept. This app presents the content in a fun way then gives students the opportunity to apply what they have learned. It does a fabulous job of teaching kids an important element of critical reading – in my opinion. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/professor-garfield-fact-or/id401257010?mt=8&uo=4

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Earthlapse

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earthlapse

FREE for a limited time – Earthlapse, an app that turns your iPad/iPhone into a window aboard the International Space Station. The app comes with 7 views of Earth (aurora borealis, a tropical storm, Canadian arm of the ISS, the cupola of the ISS, Earth & clouds, Canada & northern USA, and aurora australis) captured by NASA astronauts. It also has 8 relaxing space soundtracks. Love the music! When you touch the screen, you can control what you see with your finger. You can also enable a clock and/or worldwide weather – a nice feature if you want to use it as a screen saver. It would be great to Airplay this app on a big screen in your classroom when kids were doing creative writing about space, living on the ISS, etc. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earthlapse/id522003167?mt=8&uo=4

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Toca Hair Salon

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FREE again today – Toca Hair Salon, one of my favorite educational apps for toddlers! Kids go into the salon to groom 6 different characters. They can use the tools in the salon to style their hair – cut it, comb it, make it grow, shave it, color it, etc. Great sound effects are also included in this fun app. Kids or parents can take a photo of the finished creation and save it to their camera roll. If parents wish, creations may be posted on the Toca Boca Facebook page. The developers have also built-in options to turn off sounds, pictures, and news. What a great springboard for creative writing – give a character a whole new look and write a story to go with it. What a fun writing activity for a Wacky Hair Day!!

Toca Hair Salon - Toca Boca AB