Category Archives: FREE apps for kids

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MathLands – Kids Logic Game & Brain Builder for Math and Critical Thinking

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MathLands

All I can say is WOW! MathLands is a completely FREE educational math app that makes kids THINK! Kids have to use logic, problem solving skills, and critical thinking to solve multiple levels of 6 different puzzles. Each puzzle is timed, has hints available, and has a section that tells the history of the puzzle. Kids can choose to start over. They can try again to get a better score or they can try again to get the BEST score. The app reveals the best possible score for each puzzle and challenges kids to achieve at that level. There is also a Math Comics section – problems are written in comic strip form. Kids solve the word problems by using the interactive manipulatives on the page. In a word full of math apps that stress practice and drill, this app is like a breath of fresh air. LOVE it!!!!

MathLands - Kids Logic Game & Brain Builder for Math and Critical Thinking - Mamanijo

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Bill Nye The Science Guy

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Bill Nye The Science Guy

Great FREE educational app – Bill Nye The Science Guy. 2013 was Bill Nye’s 20th Anniversary and Disney celebrated with the release of this educational app. Kids scan their thumbs to gain entrance to Nye Labs – a scientifically fascinating place. There they can play games, watch clips from their favorite shows, try some experiments, and more. When I was still teaching, I frequently used Bill Nye’s materials. My students loved his energetic, fun videos and often begged to watch them again! It’s no wonder he is the winner of 38 Emmys. This app takes kids to a place where science rules!!

Bill Nye The Science Guy - Disney

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PBS KIDS Video

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PBS KIDS Video is a FREE app for the iPhone/iPad allows kids to watch video clips/some full episodes of their favorite PBS Kids television series from anywhere in the U.S. that has a 3G or Wifi connection. The app features more than 1,000 videos from over a dozen of the top PBS KIDS series – Fetch, Thomas & Friends, Sid the Science Guy, Word World, and more!  Every week there is a “Weekly Pick” – a set of fun educational videos based around that theme. For example, this week’s theme is “Do It Yourself Projects” from Design Squad. In the Parent Information section, parents can learn about the TV series – the intended ages & learning goals. What’s not to love? PBS KIDS Video provides quality programming in a safe, child-friendly environment.

PBS KIDS Video - PBS KIDS

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ClassDojo

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ClassDojo is a FREE & fabulous tool that helps improve classroom behaviors. Rewarding good behavior in real-time is easy – all it takes is a click. To use ClassDojo, you only need one device (computer, smartphone, a laptop, or a tablet) and an internet connection. It is very easy to set up. Each student on your class list is assigned a cute, monster-like avatar. Kids earn points for positive behaviors and lose points for negative behaviors. ClassDojo is also fully customizable so you can delete behaviors from the original list and/or add your own behaviors. As you use it, it automatically logs any data that you input. This data can be used to generate behavior reports to share with parents and administrators. How awesome is that? You can go into a meeting/conference with reports in hand! And now, parents can check online to see what kind of day their child is having.

If I were still in the classroom, I would enter my class list twice – once for data on work/study habits and the other for data on behaviors. I would make my habits/behaviors match exactly what was on my report cards. Then as I used the app, I would also be gathering data for my report cards. At the end of the grading period, I would just print out the date and enter it on the report cards – how easy!  I would also have the data (in a printed report) to be able to back up any grade on the card.  “As you can see Mrs. Doe, Jane only turned in her homework 56% of the time.”  Instant data would also be available for the RTI process, IEPs or any other team meeting on a child. What a powerful tool for teachers! An educational app that has the ability to positively impact the learning environment – LOVE it!!

Check out the website for more information: www.classdojo.com

Highly recommended !!

ClassDojo - Class Twist Inc

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Teacher Clicker – Socrative / Student Clicker – Socrative

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Still FREE and now even better – Socrative, an app that turns any device with a web browser into a student response clicker.

Socrative has added two additional quiz features: # 1 – Teachers can now add images to their questions. #2 – The system can now grade short answer questions. Teachers just input the acceptable answers and the system does the rest. 🙂

This website and app are unbelievably cool – they turn any device with a web browser (iPhone, iPad, laptops) into a student response clicker. If a teacher has access to any kind of wireless lab, he/she can engage the entire class in a game or quiz and watch the results in real-time. Teachers begin by using their teacher app or logging into t.socrative.com with their email and password. Once logged in, teachers are assigned a room number to share with their students. Students log in using their student app or at m.socrative.com and enter the “virtual room number” provided by the teacher. Teachers initiate an activity and students respond on their devices. Multiple choice and short answer quizzes are easy to create – types of questions can be mixed. Teachers can also choose to run the quiz as a Space Race game. The students’ responses are visible to the teacher in real-time. Teachers can see what each child answered individually as well as what the group answered collectively. And the best part is… the app grades, graphs the results, and generates a report as an Excel spreadsheet or an email.

What a powerful tool for teachers – a short quiz at the end of a lesson can pinpoint what students understand and what needs to be reviewed. Hours of grading and analyzing test results are done immediately. Every student is involved – wow!

Highly recommended!

Teacher app Teacher Clicker - Socrative - Socrative           Student app Student Clicker - Socrative - Socrative

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Moose and Zebra. Africa – Magazine for Kids

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FREE – the first issue of a new interactive magazine for young children, Moose and Zebra Africa. Kids join Moose and Zebra on a trip to Zebra’s homeland to learn facts about the region. This educational app includes 14 activities that reinforce skills such as counting, spotting differences, completing a pattern, sequencing, and more. There is also a hint mode for kids who need extra help. As kids complete each activity they are rewarded with a stamp. Cute characters and great pencil-drawn illustrations add to the appeal of the app. If your kids fall in love with Moose and Zebra, Moose and Zebra Sweden (issue 2) is available for $.99.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moose-zebra.-africa-magazine/id709195913?mt=8&uo=4

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Smart White Board HD

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super white board

FREE – Smart White Board HD, an educational app that is super simple to use! One finger writes, 2 fingers erase, 3 fingers clears all. Press the save button or shake your device to save an image. Writing can be done in black, blue, or red with 3 Width choices. The app also includes a simple voice recorder. Just press record, talk, stop & name your file, and it is saved to a list. You can then email your recording if you wish to share it. Teachers can get rid of their classroom whiteboards, markers, and erasers! Have kids show their work, explain their thoughts, etc. with this simple educational app!

Smart White Board HD - Pad read

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Trading Cards

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trading cards

Fabulous educational app!!! ReadWriteThink’s Trading Cards is powerful FREE app developed by the International Reading Association. This educational app provides a unique way for kids to share their understanding of topics, generate their own study aids, create a fictional world to use in their writing, make their own trading cards, and more. There are 7 categories of cards available within the app: fictional person, real person, fictional place, real place, object, event, and vocabulary. Kids start by choosing a category and typing in the title of the card. Each category has specific questions which help kids create information-rich trading cards. Images can be added by using the device’s camera or by accessing pictures in the photo library. Kids can also sort their cards into collections such as characters from a book, heroes or villains, landmarks, the 50 states, vocabulary by subject, etc. The possibilities are endless! Cards can be shared via email, saved to the photo library, or printed on a wireless printer. And… the kid appeal is tremendous. Kids will LOVE trading their cards with their classmates 🙂

Highly recommended!!

Trading Cards - International Reading Association

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Fetch! Lunch Rush

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From our friends at PBS comes Fetch! Lunch Rush, a very unique FREE math game app for iPhone/iPad.  In this multi-player game, it is the students’ task to keep up with the lunch orders from Ruff Ruffman’s movie crew. The challenge is to keep track of how many pieces of sushi everyone wants by adding and subtracting. Before the game begins, game pieces have to be printed from the PBS website and distributed around the room. As the sushi orders come in, students have to find the game piece with the correct answer to the problem. Using the camera lens on their device, they focus in on then tap the sushi. The sushi pieces magically move to the table in front of their character (as seen above). Students have to think fast and keep moving to fill all of the sushi orders before their friends do. What a fun educational app!

Common Core Standards met:

  • 1.OA.6 – Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.
  • 2.OA.2 – Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

Highly recommended!

FETCH! LUNCH RUSH - PBS KIDS

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12 FREE Christmas Apps

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toca

From the developers of Toca Boca apps comes this FREE gift for the holidays: Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift. Kids can go into the salon to groom Santa and/or his favorite Christmas tree, Topzy. They can use the tools in the salon to style their hair – cut it, comb it, make it grow, shave it, color it, and drag decorations into it. 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 Santa a whole new look and write a story to go with it. Thanks to the developers for a gift that inspires kids to be creative. 🙂

Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift - Toca Boca AB

‘Twas the Night Before Jasper’s Christmas is FREE e-book for the iPhone/iPad. Jasper the dog and Smiley the cat are the stars of the classic tale. Kids can read the book to themselves or read along as it is narrated. In the read along mode, chimes let kids know when to advance to the next page. Background music (We wish You a Merry Christmas) can be turned off or on. The pages are not interactive but they are cutely & colorfully illustrated – appealing to kids. And, at the end of the story is a matching game. Beware – there are ads at the top of each page that are easy to click and will take your child to the app store. Cute FREE book – worth downloading. 🙂

Twas The Night Before Jasper's Christmas (FREE) StoryChimes - Siena Entertainment, LLC

friendly Christmas

FREE – Friendly Christmas from the developers of Friendly Shapes. Preschoolers will enjoy meeting Oval, Heart, Triangle, Rectangle, & Square in this cute Christmas story. Kids use shapes to help build a snowman, build musical instruments, help elves in Santa’s workshop, and more. There are three modes: auto-play, read-it-to-myself and play. The app also has puzzles, coloring pages and games. So how can it be FREE? Well, this app has ads placed at the bottom of each page between the backward and the forward arrows. For $.99 you have the option of removing the ads.There are also options to purchase additional puzzles and coloring pages – $1.99 per pack. All in all, this is a nicely done app for little ones to learn shapes, colors, left/right, etc.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/friendly-christmas-funny-shape/id562847602?mt=8&uo=4

gingerbread

Gingerbread  Crazy Chef Cookie Maker  – Kids can virtually bake and decorate their own gingerbread cookies. An in-app purchase of the full version is available. There are also ads along the bottom. TabTale Books has several other free holiday titles that you can download when you open this app if you are comfortable with their model of delivery – ads, upgrades, etc.   Gingerbread Crazy Chef - Cookie Maker - TabTale LTD

boo

Boo, Where Are You?  –  a darling e-book for toddlers about a dog named Sammy and his friend, Boo the cat. Kids tap-the flaps in the story to try to find Boo. Really cute – read on your own story. 🙂 Boo, where are you? - Fleur van Zuilen

Where is Santa Lite – Santa Tracker is FREE for the iPhone/iPad. The app keeps track of where Santa is and how long it will be before he arrives at your home. When using the “Where is Santa” page, it scans the world every 60 seconds to locate Santa and report on his activities. For instance, “Santa is in the North Pole and he is helping Mrs. Claus in the kitchen.” When using the “My Home” tab, it shows the location of your house and tells how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds it will be before Santa arrives. Beware – there are ads at the bottom of this app that are easy to click and will take your child to the app store. Teachers could use the app to make up math problems with the information given. Have kids convert days into weeks, days into hours, figure out the exact time he is scheduled to arrive, etc. Kids could write a story about what Santa is doing on a particular day, illustrate a timeline of what Santa has been doing for a week, etc. – lots of cute possibilities. Parents can use this app with kids to check on Santa daily – cute way to count down the days to Christmas!

Where is Santa Lite - Santa Tracker - Super Kiddo Studio

Elf

FREE for a limited time – Elf Dance by Jib Jab. This app is incredibly easy to use. Just upload up to 5 pictures of yourself, family, or friends from your device’s camera roll or Facebook. They’ll be transformed into dancing elves in no time and results are super cute! Videos can be shared via email with family and friends. When I was teaching I turned my students into elves and played the videos as class motivators. The kids LOVED them!! Last year, I made the family dog into a dancing elf. 🙂 Spread some fun holiday cheer!!Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elf-dance-by-jibjab-starring/id723967141?mt=8&uo=4

Santa's home
“He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.”  Now you can see what Santa is doing with Santa’s Home, a FREE app. The app is a “LIVE” feed of Santa’s house – the bedroom, the kitchen, the living room, his office/workshop, and the outside grounds. I checked in on Santa a little after 11 PM and he was already in bed snoring. The app even displays the date and time to make it seem more realistic. The app also gives adults the option of can subscribing to Santa’s newsletter. Adults can also help kids send Santa one of their drawings that he will display in his workshop. CUTE!!
Teachers – This would be a fun one to use for creative writing!! It would also be fun for teaching prediction. 🙂
christmas eve
Does this Santa look familiar? That’s because this app is from the same developer as Santa’s Home (see previous review). Christmas Eve is the story of a young girl named Nina who decides to prove to her mother that Santa really does exist. At the end of the story you can enter your email address to access Santa’s pictures. This app was featured in the holiday section of Apple’s App Store.

Night Before

FREE for a limited time – The Night Before Christmas presented by 100 Robots. The Night Before Christmas was written by Cement Clark Moore in 1822 and it has become one of the most popular pieces of Christmas literature. Christmas would not be complete without a reading of this classic. This educational app is beautifully illustrated by Bill Ledger and the animations are enchanting. The quality of the graphics is amazing – kids will be delighted when Santa stuffs himself down the chimney and arrives inside all covered with soot! Check out this delightful rendition of a holiday classic!

Teachers – It would be fun to compare and contrast this contemporary version of the story with a more traditional version. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/night-before-christmas-presented/id405581736?mt=8&uo=4

Tiny dentist holidays

FREE for a limited time – Tiny Dentist Holidays: Christmas. Too many cookies for Santa has landed him in the dentist’s chair! Kids get to be the dentist for a day with the holiday version of this educational app. Like Tiny Dentist, this app teaches about dental treatments and the instruments that dentists use to keep teeth healthy. 24 patients with dental problems need fixed. The “dentist” has the tools to: remove cavities & fill in the hole, remove plaque, use water & air sprays, remove decayed teeth, put on braces, and more! He/she also has 36 fun braces, 18 hair styles, and 6 unusual kinds of toothpaste to use. The app was developed to help alleviate children’s fear of the dentist. Another fun feature of the app is the ability to take before and after pictures of the patient. The app is rated by Apple as 9+.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-dentist-holidays-christmas/id722921745?mt=8&uo=4

talking Santa Carl

FREE for the holidays – Talking Santa Carl. Kids can talk to him and he will repeat what they say. Santa Carl can be poked, tickled, swiped, etc. to make him move, grumble, or laugh out loud. He will help kids make their Christmas list then cleverly save it into your Photo Library so you can find out what they want. Kids can also use Santa Carl to send holiday greetings  to friends and family. Talking Santa Carl even says goodbye.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talking-santa-carl/id480758740?mt=8&uo=4