Category Archives: FREE apps for kids

6

Brain Quest

|

Brain Quest

36 million kids can’t be wrong!  Brain Quest® started as a series of flashcards that quizzed kids on academics – language, science, math, and more. Kids, parents, and teachers have loved it since its release. Their motto – It’s Fun to Be Smart!® still rings true 20 years later! And now, Brain Quest has been released as an educational app! Kids join Casey, Jake, and Gizmo on their quest to learn. The app covers 5 grade levels and includes 100 questions per level for FREE. Additional questions can be unlocked as in-app purchases. The game is fun for the whole family and permits the tracking of scores for up to 3 kids. We took Brain Quest® flashcards with us on many family vacations – it’s perfect for a long road trip! It also works well in the classroom when you have a few minutes to spare at the end of the day, before lunch, etc. Check out the FREE questions and see for yourself.

BRAIN QUEST - Workman Publishing Company, Inc.

0

WWF Together

|

wwf

Apple Design Award 2013 Winner and named by Apple as 1 of 10 Apps That WOW – WWF Together. This beautifully designed, FREE educational app for the iPad was originally released in January by the World Wildlife Federation. The app features 8 endangered species – giant pandas, marine turtles, polar bears, elephants, tigers, bison, whales, and snow leopards. The unique and engaging features of this app includes: stories about these endangered animals with playful interactive elements, fabulous high-definition videos and image galleries – featuring photos by renowned environmental photographer Morten Koldby, cool facts about each animal, and a 3D interactive globe that tells how far you are from 60 different animals around the world. Everything about this app is wonderful – including the music. You will fall in love with the magnificent creatures presented in this app.  Additional stories about other species will be added regularly – AWESOME app !!

Highly recommended!

WWF Together - World Wildlife Fund

1

Color Uncovered & Sound Uncovered

|

Color Uncovered

Sound Uncovered

Two FABULOUS & FREE educational apps from the Exploratorium!! Both interactive books contain illusions, articles, and videos. These apps make science fun by answering questions like – What color is a whisper? Are there secret messages in music played backward? Kids will love the illusions and you won’t believe these apps are FREE! Very interesting –  for kids AND their parents/teachers.

Color Uncovered   Color Uncovered - Exploratorium          Sound Uncovered   Sound Uncovered - Exploratorium

0

ABCmouse.com – A-Z Music Videos

|

a to z

FREE – A to Z Music Videos. This educational app has 26 animated videos  – one for each letter of the alphabet. As kids watch the videos, they earn tickets to unlock other videos. There is also an option to purchase tickets to unlock videos more quickly. The videos are top-notch! They help children learn letter names and sounds AND develop vocabulary. Every video is produced in a different musical style, so kids are also introduced to a wide variety of musical genres. This app is a must-have for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers – a perfect introduction to the letters of the alphabet!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K. RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Associate the short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

ABCmouse.com 26 A-Z Music Videos - Age of Learning, Inc.

0

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

|

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 5 levels of 5 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 tells what is the best possible score). I love that this app challenges kids to be the best!! 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

0

ScreenChomp

|

ScreenChomp is a powerful tool that can be used in so many ways and it’s FREE!! It is basically turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. You can use it to sketch out and record ideas for yourself or to share with others. Teachers can send tutorial videos home with kids. Kids can create videos to help each other. The possibilities for this educational app are only limited by one’s imagination.

Here is a link to a You Tube video that explains how it works: What is ScreenChomp? The iPad app to Record. Sketch. Share! – YouTube.

Highly recommended!

ScreenChomp - TechSmith Corporation

0

Khan Academy

|

Khan 2

Khan Academy

Khan Academy – an amazing FREE educational app! Whoever said the best things in life are FREE was absolutely correct. With Khan Academy you can learn almost anything and the app is completely FREE! It has a library of over 4,100 videos which covers a wide range of subjects such as K – 12 math, biology, chemistry, the humanities, and more. You can use the app to review a subject that you have already studied or to learn something completely new! You can watch the videos online or you can download  them to watch offline at your own pace. The videos are subtitled so that you can read along, skip ahead, or go back. If you log in with your Khan Academy account, you can track your progress. The app gives you credit for watching the videos and allows you to see your achievements. Badges and points are earned for learning. Teachers can access their students’ data – as a class or individually. Khan Academy is an incredible resource for all kinds of learners – students, teachers, principals, home-schoolers, adults returning to school, and anyone committed to be a lifelong learner. It is truly one of the best educational apps available – at any price!

Khan Academy - Khan Academy

0

Record of Reading

|

Record of Reading

Record of Reading by Clemson University is a FREE educational app that was most recently updated on April 24, 2013. The app provides an electronic form for taking running records (an assessment of oral reading developed by Marie M. Clay). The teacher still needs to do the coding and the analysis of the child’s reading. But… the app has formulas for accuracy and self-corrections embedded in it so that there is no need for a calculator!! The app also records the student’s voice as the teacher is taking the record. After the running record is completed, it can be saved and/or emailed! If you are an elementary school teacher who regularly uses running records, you are going to want to check this educational app out. 🙂

A fabulous tool for elementary teachers – thank you Clemson!!

Record of Reading - Clemson University

0

Trading Cards

|

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

0

Teacher Clicker – Socrative / Student Clicker – Socrative

|

Still FREE and now even better!! Socrative has just 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 retaught. 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