Category Archives: FREE apps (for a limited time)

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Toca Builders

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Toca Builders

FREE for a limited time (and for the first time) – Toca Builders, another wonderfully creative app from Toca Boca. Kids (ages 5+) create things with the help of 6 builder friends: Blox, Cooper, Vex, Stretch, Connie, and Jum-Jum. Each builder has unique skills which kids can control with simple gestures. The builders help move, stack, drop, spray, smash, paint, & lift blocks as kids create/construct new objects.The educational app also has a snapshot feature and an autosave feature to share & save the world that your child has created. If your child can imagine it, he/she can build it with the help of the Toca Builders – creative fun for your budding engineer/builder!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-builders/id652077009?mt=8&uo=4

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Zachy the Robot: The Leaning Tower of Robocity

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Zachy the Robot

FREE again for  limited time – Zachy the Robot: The Leaning Tower of Robocity, episode 1 of an interactive cartoon series for kids ages 3-7. The series was developed and tested in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University Children’s School. It introduces basic STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) concepts to kids. In this first episode, kids are introduces to basic engineering concepts when Zachy and his friends, the Repairbots, are called in to fix a skyscraper that is leaning. Kids will love watching this animated adventure and helping the Repairbots solve the problem. This educational app was a winner of a Parents’ Choice Recommended Award in 2011 – a well-deserved honor! It exposes kids to STEM concepts in a fun & engaging way!

Zachy the Robot: The Leaning Tower of Robocity - GenevaMars, LLC

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ABCmouse.com – Ham with Jam, Dan & Jan, Hen in the Pen, Big Pig & Little Pig, To Run is Fun, Big Bug & Little Bug

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FREE for a limited time – 6 beginning reading apps!! These educational apps for the iPhone/iPad are from the ABC Mouse word family beginning reader series. I chose to downloaded The Hen in the Pen in order to review the series. Each story emphasizes words from a particular word family. There are also easy sight words in the stories. There are several ways that the books can be read: Read to Me, Read with Pause, I Can Read It, and Hear the Words. I really like the Hear the Words option. It allows the child to read alone but tap any word that he/she gets stuck on. There are parent tips on the title page that explain word families and sight words for beginning readers. There are also parent tips throughout the books. The illustrations are colorful and support the text so that kids can use picture clues as they read. The story lines are very simple. But, that is not a negative thing because these educational apps are more about the process of reading than the actual story. When my son was an early reader, he loved books like these because he could read them on his own. That alone makes them worth downloading – not to mention that they are FREE.

Common Core Standards met:

K.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Recommended!

ABCmouse.com Ham and Jam - Age of Learning, Inc. Ham with Jam    ABCmouse.com Dan and Jan - Age of Learning, Inc. Dan and Jan

ABCmouse.com The Hen in the Pen - Age of Learning, Inc. Hen in the Pen     ABCmouse.com Big Pig and Little Pig - Age of Learning, Inc. Big Pig & Little Pig

ABCmouse.com To Run is Fun - Age of Learning, Inc. To Run is Fun   ABCmouse.com Big Bug and Little Bug - Age of Learning, Inc. Big Bug and Little Bug

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Mask Jumbled Animals

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Mask Jumble Animals

FREE again – Mask Jumbled Animals is a fun educational game 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

 

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Homework+

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Homework+

FREE again, for a limited time – Homework+, a simple to use homework/test planner. This educational app is geared towards older students who are taking multiple classes. It could also be used with younger kids as an electronic assignment book. It’s never too early to teach kids how to be organized. 🙂

To set up the app, first edit the subject list & category lists to reflect what you are studying. After that, it is very easy to add assignments to the calendar – just give the assignment a title, choose the subject & category, put in the due date, choose a level of priority, and save. As you finish an assignment, mark it as complete and the app moves it to the finished list. App badges show you how many assignments you have and how many you have finished. Notifications can be set (1 or 2 days before) to remind you of an upcoming assignment. The app also keeps track of overdue assignments. Very slick and intuitive – great for teaching kids to be organized!!

Homework+ - Chijang Huang

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Kids Academy · ABC Alphabet Phonics App HD

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Montessori 2Montessori ABC for Kids HD

FREE for a limited time – Kids Academy · ABC Alphabet Phonics App HD. This educational app has two sections: animated flashcards (to teach kids the letters/sounds) and traceable worksheets (to teach kids how to write the letters). The flashcard section has cute animations to teach kids letters & sounds in a fun way. The writing section has two modes (right-handed and left-handed) to teach upper and lower case letters. The app is designed to have multiple users and parents can track their children’s progress. Nicely done!!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K.RF.1 – Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Montessori ABC for Kids HD: Learn and Trace Alphabet Letters - Kids Academy Company

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Tickle Finger Under the Sea

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Tickle

FREE for a limited time – Tickle Finger Under the Sea, an interactive e-book for toddlers. Kids join Tiny Tinga the monkey for a funny underwater adventure in this educational app. Tiny Tinga explores the world under the sea as he searches for his yellow submarine. KIds help him tickle “the baddies” that he encounters along the way! Kids will also discover secret sounds and events as they read or listen to the book. This cute story is sure to have kids giggling along with the sea creatures – so fun to be silly!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tickle-finger-under-the-sea-hd/id516020483?mt=8&uo=4

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The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

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The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

FREE again – The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare, an updated version of the classic fable for 4 – 8 year olds. This fun rendition of the Tortoise and the Hare is set in modern times and told in rhyme. The app has two modes – Read to Me and Read by Myself. The Read to Me mode is professionally narrated. In either mode, kids will enjoy Christina Forshay’s colorful illustrations which fill the pages of this groovy tale. The story also features animations, sound effects, and background music – very nicely put together!

This book would be great to use in a classroom. You could compare and contrast this modern version to the classic tale. The story is also rich with rhyming words. You could use the book full group and identify rhyming twins (look-alike & sound-alike) and rhyming cousins (sound-alike only). Rich in vocabulary, it also makes a great choice for story time! Download it today. 🙂

The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare - BelugaBloo

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Sound Touch

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Sound Touch

FREE for a limited time – the full version of Sound Touch, an educational app for toddlers. Kids see images and hear the sounds for dozens of animals, vehicles, musical instruments, and household items. There are 6 pages with 12 cute cartoons per page. When your child taps a cartoon, the real-life photo of that animal/item appears accompanied by its sound. When the picture is tapped again, it disappears. There are 5 picture/sound combinations for each cartoon – 360 in all! The app can be set so that will pronounce/display the spelled text of the animals/items in 32 languages: English, Afrikaans, Arabic, Bokmål, Norwegian, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish! Just go to your device’s settings: “Settings” > “SoundTouch” > “Speech” on. This app was on Apple’s “New and Noteworthy” list. It’s sure to delight your little ones!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sound-touch/id348094440?mt=8&uo=4

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Flat Stanley

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Flat Stanley

FREE for a limited time – Flat Stanley. Teachers around the world have been using the Flat Stanley Project since 1995 to help children learn about travel, cultures, and the love of books. This educational app makes creating, sharing, & sending Flat Stanleys easier and safer for teachers, kids, and parents. Kids start by creating their own Flat Stanleys/Flat Stellas with different shirts, pants, and shoes etc. Then Flat Stanley/Stella is ready for adventure! Kids can send, receive, and share their favorite photos and Flat Stanleys. Teachers and parents will be happy to know that any content uploaded through the app is the monitored and approved by the “Flatter World” team members. If you have ever participated in the Flat Stanley project, you will want to check out this app. Kids LOVE being involved in this project – it’s really fun!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flat-stanley/id382161936?mt=8&uo=4