Category Archives: FREE apps (for a limited time)

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Petting Zoo

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Petting

FREE again – Petting Zoo, an adorable app for kids and adults who are kids at heart. 🙂 This educational app combines the charm of Christoph Niemann’s humorous animations with state of the art technology as one scene morphs into the next. The app is simple to use – just swipe and tap the 21 animals to see how they react. The results are delightfully surprising! Kids will discover what an elephant would do in the bathroom, if a dog can breakdance, how monkeys play soccer, and more. This app is suitable for kids of all languages because there are no spoken words. It’s perfect for discussion and predicting what will happen next. It would also be great for story writing. A really fun storybook app – creative, silly, and sure to delight!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/petting-zoo-animal-animations/id602773895?mt=8&uo=4

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Math Animations Grades (1 – 8)…

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math animations

FREE for a limited time – Math Animations (Grades 1-8): Includes numbers, decimals, fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry (perimeter and area of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids), measurement, algebra. Elementary and Middle School Mathematics. The title says it all! The purpose of this app is to show kids how math works – visually. The app features 55 animations that explain everything from counting to beginning algebra. There are no words used. Math concepts are visually explained in step-by-step illustrations. If you have kids that need to “see” how things work, you may want to add this app to your list of teaching resources!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-animations-grades-1-8/id579825429?mt=8&uo=4

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Sharing With Duckie Deck and Duckie Deck With Teeth

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Duckie DeckFREE for a limited time – Sharing With Duckie Deck. This happy & colorful app features six educational activities for preschoolers: food sharing, toy sharing, matching, deductive reasoning, cake decorating, and drawing. As they play the games, kids collects stickers and badges in their special drawer – adding to the fun! The games focus on the positive feelings that are associated with sharing. A cheerful, developmentally appropriate app with a great lesson on sharing – how perfect!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sharing-duckie-deck-6-in-1/id574861323?mt=8&uo=4

with teethAlso FREE for a limited time – Duckie Deck With Teeth, another fun app for preschoolers. This educational app teaches kids to brush their teeth in a fun, unique way. First kids design their set of teeth. Then they use those teeth to eat all kinds of tasty treats. Soon it’s time to brush away the goo and grime. Kids brush until their teeth until those teeth are sparkly clean!!  They are rewarded at the end with happy mouth! Super cute!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duckie-deck-with-teeth/id880552257?mt=8&uo=4

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Bug Games HD

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bug games

Singing crickets! Bug Games HD 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 that playing with bugs could be so much fun! 🙂

Bug Games HD - by Busy Bee Studios - Busy Bee Studios

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Word Games: Brain Chain & Hollow Words

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brain chainFREE today – Brain Chain, fun rhyming puzzles for kids of all ages. Each puzzle graphically represents two words that don’t necessarily go together; but, they rhyme. The letters needed to solve the puzzle are shown along the bottom. Just tap the letters in the correct order to solve the rhyme. Points are awarded for each puzzle that is completed correctly. If a player needs a hint, he/she can buy one with points. The first two puzzle sets are free. Additional sets can be unlocked with the player’s points or with in-app purchases. Kids will discover that some rhyming words look-alike (because of their spelling) and some rhyming words only sound alike. It would be fun to use these puzzles with kids then have them make up some of their own. 🙂 They remind me of hinky-pinky riddles which were always great for teaching kids about rhyming & syllables.
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brain-chain/id680239315?mt=8&uo=4
hollow wordsAlso FREE today – Hollow Words, another fun puzzle game from the same developer. Each puzzle graphically represents a common word or phrase. As the puzzles are correctly solved, points are awarded. Hints can be purchased if a player becomes stuck. The first two puzzle sets are free. Additional sets can be unlocked with points or with in-app purchases. I LOVE these kinds of puzzles. They’re fun and make kids think. I wish the app permitted you to go back and revisit the completed sets. It would be fun to review them and discuss what the different phrases mean. Then kids could take other common phrases and try to come up with some of their own. 🙂
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hollow-words/id689596858?mt=8&uo=4

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Interactive Alphabet ABCs

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Interactive Alphabet ABCsStill FREE – Interactive Alphabet is one of the best alphabet apps that I have seen for babies, toddlers, & preschoolers. It’s so cute and well designed! To start you choose an accent (American or British) and a mode. It has 3 modes for your developing child – baby, explore, and trace. The baby mode takes your child on a guided, touchable tour of the alphabet. The explore mode lets children discover the sights & sounds of the alphabet at their own pace. It features fun activities that kids will want to explore multiple times. In the trace mode, kids learn to properly trace letters (lower case, upper case, or mixed) and words. The app keeps track of your child’s progress by starring the letters & words that are traced most often. The app can also be personalized by adding your own words and pictures. Your child can learn to trace his/her own name as well as the names of other family members, family pets, etc. This educational app truly lays the foundation for reading and spelling! Fabulous – this developer seems to have thought of everything!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/interactive-alphabet-abcs/id383967580?mt=8&uo=4

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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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Miximal

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miximal 2FREE for a limited time – Miximal, another cute educational app from the makes of Drawnimal. This fun app is a digital version of a traditional flip book. Kids mix and match tops, middles, and bottoms of animals. In the process they create silly and unique creatures. The app features over 1000 animal combinations with accompanying animations and fun sounds. The app also generates a three syllable name for each new creature that is created.  Kids can take a screen shot of their new creature and write a story about it. Teachers could use this app for a group lesson on syllables because there is a logical pattern. The app can also be switched to five different languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Check it out. It’s another fun app from Yatatoy and Lucas Zanatto!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/miximal/id829623705?mt=8&uo=4

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Monki Animal Builder

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animal builderFREE again – Monki Animal Builder, a creative & fun app for kids. Kids use their imaginations to build unique animals. They start cracking open one of 6 eggs. Inside each egg is a different character – each having its own personality. There’s Hairy Ball who is grumpy, Pear who loves to be ticked, Slug who is dreamy, and 3 other interesting animals. Then kids add body parts (over 30 to choose from) and accessories (15 in all) such as a pirate hat, sunglasses, a sombrero. Animations bring everything to life. Kids can save their animals to play with later or share them with kids around the world. They can also save a picture to their device. Saved pictures can be printed and use for creative writing – descriptions, stories, compare/contrast, etc. Whether kids use this app to create, play, save, share, and/or write, it’s sure to bring smiles!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monki-animal-builder/id836529548?mt=8&uo=4

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7 Great Preschool Apps from Piikea Street – FREE!!

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FREE for a limited time – 7 GREAT apps for preschoolers from Piikea Street LLC.

Counting Bees

Kids lead bees to flowers and learn to count (to 20) using Counting Bees, an educational app for preschoolers. Counting is taught in ranges of increasing difficulty: 1-5, 1-10, 1-15, and 1-20. Using this app, kids also can learn to count in multiple languages – English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, and Japanese. Simple to use and nicely done!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/counting-bees/id481053635?mt=8&uo=4

Memeory TrainMemory Train is fun game of concentration and focus for preschoolers and primary students. Kids hop on the train with Spacey the elephant to help him remember what he sees on his way to the circus. They earn stars, badges, and peanuts (of course) as they advance through 10 different levels. This educational app includes slots for 4 players so that friends & family can join the fun. There are no words spoken (just music) so this app can be used by children of all languages. Another excellent educational app from Pi’ikea!

Download Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/memory-train/id465224643?mt=8&uo=4

Mask Jumble AnimalsMask Jumbled Animals is a fun educational app for kids. It turns their faces into animal faces! Kids look into the app’s mirror and animal parts will appear on their faces. They tap to match the ears, nose, chin, and hair in order to complete 1 of 20 different animal masks. When the mask is complete, kids catch strawberries in their mouths to unlock a new mask. The mask puzzles are really cute for preschoolers who will be delighted to be an elephant, a lion, a panda, etc. But… the best part of this app is the ability to take pictures of kids in their masks which makes this app a fabulous resource for creative writing! Pull those pictures into a story writing app and off you go. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mask-jumble-animals/id548763608?mt=8&uo=4

Also available is Mask Jumble Halloween. It works the same way as Mask Jumbled Animals but with 10 Halloween masks.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mask-jumble-halloween/id564777575?mt=8&uo=4

photo boboPhoto Bobo is an adorable photo browsing app for babies & toddlers. Bobo the monkey swings in and out of photos, drops bananas, and plays funny tricks as little ones browse through pictures. It is safe to let kids browse through camera roll pictures with this app because there is no edit, share, or delete button. That being said, young kids can still tap out of the app so it’s best to supervise. 🙂 When Bobo adds sunglasses, a hat, or a mustache to a pic, they seem to end up in the correct spot which is pretty amazing. Really cute – check it out!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-bobo/id722364512?mt=8&uo=4

Interactive Alphabet ABCsInteractive Alphabet is one of the best alphabet apps that I have reviewed for babies, toddlers, & preschoolers. It’s so cute and well designed! To start you choose an accent (American or British) and a mode. It has 3 modes for your developing child – baby, explore, and trace. The baby mode takes your child on a guided, touchable tour of the alphabet. The explore mode lets children discover the sights & sounds of the alphabet at their own pace. It features fun activities that kids will want to explore multiple times. In the trace mode, kids learn to properly trace letters (lower case, upper case, or mixed) and words. The app keeps track of your child’s progress by starring the letters & words that are traced most often. The app can also be personalized by adding your own words and pictures. Your child can learn to trace his/her own name as well as the names of other family members, family pets, etc. This educational app truly lays the foundation for reading and spelling! Fabulous – this developer seems to have thought of everything!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/interactive-alphabet-abcs/id383967580?mt=8&uo=4

xylophoneAnd last but not least… Xylophone from Interactive Alphabet, a toddler friendly xylophone that helps kids play nine different songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Doe a Deer, Happy Birthday, Ode to Joy, Old MacDonald, Row your Boat, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Kids just follow the helping hand to play – how fun!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xylophone-from-interactive/id486202429?mt=8&uo=4