Category Archives: FREE apps (for a limited time)

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PlaySquare presents WordWorld’s Happy Birthday Dog

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FREE for a limited time – PlaySquare is billed as Touchable Television. Children (ages 3 – 6) play and learn words and letters as the play in Word World. In the first episode, Happy Birthday Dog, Dog thinks that everyone has forgotten his birthday. Kids are engaged in the story as they help gather things for a birthday party to surprise Dog.

There are so many wonderful things about this app. It is colorful and engaging. Early literacy skills (letter recognition, letter sound, word building, word recognition) are developed throughout the story. The characters are funny and lovable. But the best part is of the app is how the developers (media experts from Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, LeapFrog, and MIT) have used the letters of the word to form the object being spelled – very clever! I LOVE this app!!

Watch the video from the developers @ http://playsquare.tv/

Highly recommended

PlaySquare presents WordWorld's Happy Birthday Dog - PlaySquare, LLC

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Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flop Farm

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FREE for a limited time – Flip Flap Farm an educational app inspired by an original storybook. What do you get when you cross a dog with a turkey? A durkey. A sheep with a pig? A shig. Kids swipe through halves of animals and choose 2 of them to create a new animal. The result is 121 different combinations that will make preschoolers giggle. The app features original artwork and poems for each new creature which can be enjoyed in two modes – Read and Play or Read Myself. Little ones will have lots of fun with this creatively silly app. Teachers of older students might want to use this app to inspire kids to write their own creative books – Flip Flap Jungle, Flip Flap Desert, etc. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/axel-schefflers-flip-flap/id681875831?mt=8&uo=4

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Curious George at the Zoo

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Curious George at the Zoo is currently FREE (again) for iPhone/iPad. Designed for preschoolers, this educational app has kids helping Curious George wake, clean, and feed animals in the zoo. Introduced by the Man with the Yellow Hat (of course), the app then asks your child where he/she would like to go. But, buyer beware  –  there is only one section of zoo (Sunny Safari) included with the initial purchase of the app – normally $.99.

There are 5 animals for kids to learn about in this app – the hippo. giraffe, lion, parrot, and elephant. First they wake the animal up, then they clean it and feed it – fairly simple activities. Also included are age-appropriate video clips about each animal. Kids can play a game (Safari Showers) and collect stickers.

I have always loved Curious George books – the stories are timeless and can be enjoyed by kids from preschool through first/second grade. The simplicity of this app makes it most appropriate for Curious George’s youngest fans (2 – 3 year olds). I am disappointed that kids are given “a choice” of where they would like go in the app when there is only one area available without additional purchases. Choices are presented in a cute pop-up book but 3 out of 4 pages are covered by a huge “tap here to purchase” button. It feels similar to having the candy in the checkout line of the grocery story. That being said, if you have a 2 – 3 year old that loves Curious George, you may want to download this app.

Curious George at the Zoo for iPad - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Animal Game Show – Whose Toes are Those? – Matching Fun for Kids and Family – Ultimate Edition

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toes

FREE again – the full version of Whose Toes are Those, a very cute app for preschoolers. The app has a game show host, music, and an audience. Kids (contestants) have to identify which animal/person is behind the curtain by their toes. If the child chooses correctly, the animal/person does a silly dance – really cute and sure to bring some giggles! Little ones will have fun building their matching skills with this app!!

Animal Game Show - Whose Toes are Those? - Matching Fun for Kids and Family - Ultimate Edition - Eggroll Games LLC

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Pan: The Fearless Beribot and Pan: Chasing the Keeper

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Pan: The Fearless Beribot and Pan: Chasing the Keeper, are FREE for a limited time. These e-books are the first two books in a series about Pan, a sweet purple panda on a quest to find her family. Both apps are beautifully illustrated and full of animations & interactivity. Kids can tap, swipe, and tilt their way throughout the story to uncover many interactive surprises. Highlighted text helps early readers. Also, pictures of the characters appear next to the text to indicate who is speaking. The app is professionally narrated with great sound effects and original music. No wonder the first Pan book was named as “New & Noteworthy” by Apple – these apps are beautifully done!!

Download links:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pan-the-fearless-beribolt/id648998642?mt=8&uo=4

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pan-chasing-the-keeper/id729686081?mt=8&uo=4

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Shadow Puppet

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Shadow Puppet

FREE for a limited time – Shadow Puppet, a photography app that was featured by Apple as one of the “Best New Apps” for 4 weeks in a row! Using this app, it’s easy to create “puppets” – recorded explanations of your photos. First you choose your photos and put them in the order. Then you talk about your pictures. Everything is recorded. Finished “puppets” can be shared via email, SMS, Facebook and/or Twitter. There are so many ways for everyone to use Shadow Puppet: to teach something new, to share adventures with friends, to record children talking about their experiences, to tell the story behind old family photos, etc.

And… the classroom uses for this app are only limited by your imagination: Take pictures of a child’s work and have him/her explain it to parents. Send pictures and voice recordings of the class field trip. Have kids give a step-by-step explanation of what happened in a science experiment. Draw & sequence pictures to retell a story. Make a “talking timeline” by sequencing photos of historical events. Have kids use it to present mini reports on any subject. Have virtual “pet day” – kids bring in pictures/recordings of their pets. Because you can use anything saved to your photo library, you can explain photos from the web, artwork created in other apps, and so much more. The possibilities for using this educational app are endless. What a fabulous resource!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shadow-puppet/id700902833?mt=8&uo=4

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The Opposites

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FREE again – The Opposites for the iPhone/iPad. Designed for kids 7+, this educational 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:

  • 4.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c.Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
  • 5.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words.

Recommended!

The Opposites - Mindshapes Limited

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Counting Dots

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Counting Dots

FREE again today – Counting Dots, an educational app for young iPad users. Kids learn to recognize/count numbers by popping colorful dots in this simple but visually appealing game. The app has three settings – counting by one, fives, or tens. There are also settings for sound, hinting, and enabling vibrations (iPhone only). The app is advertised as helping kids count from one to a million. I counted by ones to 20 and by tens to 100  – didn’t quite make it to a million. 🙂 This app is by the same developer that did Rain Dots (see my March 1 review). Recommended!

Counting Dots - Helping kids count from one to one million! - Ellie's Games, LLC

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Bugs and Buttons 2

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FREE and just named App of the Week on the iTunes Store – Buttons and Bugs 2, an educational app for preschoolers. Bugs and buttons are featured in 18 visually appealing activities. Kids count them, sort them, match them, etc. in a variety of ways. As they do so, they are learning about colors, shapes, letters, numbers, and more. The activities integrate learning into a collection of activities – a fun way to play with bugs!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bugs-and-buttons-2/id686968315?mt=8&uo=4

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Happi and the Pirates

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Pirates

FREE for  limited time – Happi and the Pirates, an educational app from Happi Pappi. Kids use their spelling skills to solve word puzzles. They are presented with picture clues and a grid printed on a piece of treasure map. Kids have to use their knowledge of word structure & word building to spell the words and place them in the correctly on the grid. When they complete the puzzle, they earn keys to treasure chests. The more accurately and quickly they complete the puzzle, the more keys they earn. As they game progresses, they earn the tools and map pieces that lead them to the pirates’ treasure. While this app is primarily a word game, it also requires kids to use logic and deductive reasoning. I love the way this app is designed – it’s appealing to kids but it requires them to think. 🙂 The timer can be disabled for younger students to give them more “think time” and/or to allow teachers to use the app for a lesson on problem solving. This educational app has been featured by Apple in New & Noteworthy in USA, UK, Ireland. It was awarded the Editor’s Choice Award by the Children’s Technology Review in 2013.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happi-pirates-spelling-math/id622075576?mt=8&uo=4