Category Archives: handwriting apps

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Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters

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Writing

On sale for limited time – Writing Wizard for Kids, a fun educational app that teaches kids to write manuscript letters. The app teaches kids to print letters using 9 common fonts including Zaner-Bloser,  D’Nealian, and Handwriting Without Tears. Kids start by tapping a letter. That letter is named and its sound is given. The app then demonstrates how to trace the letter. Then kids trace the letter using animated stickers with sound effects. After tracing the letters, they can interact with them. The app can be customized for the child’s level in a variety of ways – letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc. It also provides detailed reports for teachers/parents which include the ability to replay and export the child’s tracings to view kids’ progress! But the BEST part of this app is the ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) – a perfect way to practice spelling and handwriting at the same time! This app is fantastic for so many reasons – highly recommended!

Direct Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writing-wizard-for-kids/id631446426?mt=8

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Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters

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Writing

FREE for a limited time – Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters, a fun educational app that teaches kids to write manuscript letters. The app teaches kids to print letters using 3 of the most common handwriting styles – Zaner-Bloser,  D’Nealian, or Handwriting Without Tears. Kids start by tapping a letter. That letter is named and its sound is given. The app then demonstrates how to trace the letter. Then kids trace the letter using animated stickers with sound effects. After tracing the letters, they can interact with them. The app can be customized for the child’s level in a variety of ways – letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc. It also provides detailed reports for teachers/parents which include the ability to replay and export the child’s tracings to view kids’ progress! But the BEST part of this app is the ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) – a perfect way to practice spelling and handwriting at the same time! This app is fantastic for so many reasons – highly recommended!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writing-wizard-kids-learn/id631446426?mt=8&uo=4

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Art Mail

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Artmail

FREE again for a limited time! Add a personal touch to your emails with Art Mail, an app for writing and sending handwritten notes. This app is not billed as an educational app but it could/should be. 🙂 The app features several choices of stationery plus the option of using your camera to create a unique background. The writing is a brush style (similar to a fountain pen) with several color options. But the best part of this app is the scaling feature – which makes this app great for kids. Users can fill up the entire screen and the app automatically shrinks the word/words to fit in a letter format. Subsequent words are shrunk to match the size of the other words. A red cursor can be moved around to change the location of the words. Little hands will be able to write thank you notes to grandparents or to add a note of explanation to a photo. In the classroom, teachers could use it is SO many ways – for good copies of their writing, to communicate with parents, as an exit slip after a lesson, etc. I LOVE that this app preserves the child’s writing!! Very cool app – perhaps an upgrade will include the ability to pull in pictures from the photo library which would make it even better!!

ArtMail - Wen Yun Rong

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Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words

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handwriting

FREE today – Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words, a fabulous app for teaching kids how to write in cursive. Start by choosing one of the 4 available fonts: Zaner Bloser, D’Nealian, French Cursive, or French Cursive 2. Then kids are ready to start tracing using animated stickers with fun sound effects. They can trace shapes, upper case letters, lower case letters, numerals, or words. The app has two modes: free or 5 stars. In free mode, kids trace the letters with all of the parameters selected. By selecting the “gear” button, the app’s parameters can be  customized to fit each child’s needs – letter size, difficulty, style (stickers or pen), show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, tracing speed, etc. In the 5 star mode, kids trace each letter 5 times – each step is more challenging. Detailed reports are provided showing what kids have completed. Teachers/parents can replay and export tracings to view a chid’s progress – wow! And, the app permits unlimited users – perfect for the classroom.

After teaching cursive writing for 30 years, I know that the biggest challenge is teaching kids to properly connect the letters. This app does a fabulous job!! There is a list of 3-letter words and often confused letters for kids to practice. But the best part of this app is the ability to add new lists. Kids’ names can be added. Lists of words with difficult connections can be added. Weekly spelling lists can be added. There are so many possibilities for meaningful practice of cursive writing. Don’t miss out on this one – it’s the best cursive writing app that I have seen to date!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cursive-writing-wizard-trace/id757843896?mt=8&uo=4

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Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters

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Writing

On sale for only $.99 – Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters, a fun educational app that teaches kids to write manuscript letters. The app teaches kids to print letters using 3 of the most common handwriting styles – Zaner-Bloser,  D’Nealian, or Handwriting Without Tears. Kids start by tapping a letter. That letter is named and its sound is given. The app then demonstrates how to trace the letter. Then kids trace the letter using animated stickers with sound effects. After tracing the letters, they can interact with them. The app can be customized for the child’s level in a variety of ways – letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc. It also provides detailed reports for teachers/parents which include the ability to replay and export the child’s tracings to view kids’ progress! But the BEST part of this app is the ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) – a perfect way to practice spelling and handwriting at the same time! This app is fantastic for so many reasons – highly recommended!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writing-wizard-kids-learn/id631446426?mt=8&uo=4

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Little Writer – The Tracing App for Kids

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FREE again – Little Writer is a letter writing app for the iPhone/iPad that is designed to teach 3 – 6 year olds how to write upper & lower case letters, numbers, shapes, and words. It starts by showing the shape of the letter and naming it. The child traces along lines to write the letter. Then the child is praised and told what letter, number, shape or word he/she has just written. When writing a word, the letters are presented one at a time with the full word shown in the upper right-hand corner. When the word is finished, a picture pops up with the child’s writing underneath it.

There are a lot of great things about this app. I like the size of the letters  – nice and big for little hands. I also like that there are subtle dotted lines on the page. But, the best part of this app is the ability to customize it. You can turn items on or off in order to introduce letters, numbers, etc. slowly. You can record your voice or your child’s voice pronouncing the names of the letters, numbers, etc. You can add in your own pictures & words so that your child can learn to write his/her own name and names of family members or whatever you wish! You can add additional letters for foreign words so that you can use it to teach simple words in another language. SO many possibilities……

Common Core Standards met:

  • K.RF.1 – Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Highly Recommended!

Little Writer - The Tracing App for Kids - Innovative Mobile Apps

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Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words

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handwriting

FREE today – Cursive Writing Wizard – Trace Letters & Words, a fabulous app for teaching kids how to write in cursive. Start by choosing one of the 4 available fonts: Zaner Bloser, D’Nealian, French Cursive, or French Cursive 2. Then kids are ready to start tracing using animated stickers with fun sound effects. They can trace shapes, upper case letters, lower case letters, numerals, or words. The app has two modes: free or 5 stars. In free mode, kids trace the letters with all of the parameters selected. By selecting the “gear” button, the app’s parameters can be  customized to fit each child’s needs – letter size, difficulty, style (stickers or pen), show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, tracing speed, etc. In the 5 star mode, kids trace each letter 5 times – each step is more challenging. Detailed reports are provided showing what kids have completed. Teachers/parents can replay and export tracings to view a chid’s progress – wow! And, the app permits unlimited users – perfect for the classroom.

After teaching cursive writing for 30 years, I know that the biggest challenge is teaching kids to properly connect the letters. This app does a fabulous job!! There is a list of 3-letter words and often confused letters for kids to practice. But the best part of this app is the ability to add new lists. Kids’ names can be added. Lists of words with difficult connections can be added. Weekly spelling lists can be added. There are so many possibilities for meaningful practice of cursive writing. Don’t miss out on this one – it’s the best cursive writing app that I have seen to date!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cursive-writing-wizard-trace/id757843896?mt=8&uo=4

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Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters

|

Writing

FREE for a limited time – Writing Wizard – Kids Learn to Write Letters, a fun educational app that teaches kids to write manuscript letters. The app teaches kids to print letters using 3 of the most common handwriting styles – Zaner-Bloser,  D’Nealian, or Handwriting Without Tears. Kids start by tapping a letter. That letter is named and its sound is given. The app then demonstrates how to trace the letter. Then kids trace the letter using animated stickers with sound effects. After tracing the letters, they can interact with them. The app can be customized for the child’s level in a variety of ways – letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc. It also provides detailed reports for teachers/parents which include the ability to replay and export the child’s tracings to view kids’ progress! But the BEST part of this app is the ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) – a perfect way to practice spelling and handwriting at the same time! This app is fantastic for so many reasons – highly recommended!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writing-wizard-kids-learn/id631446426?mt=8&uo=4

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Art Mail

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Artmail

FREE again for a limited time! Add a personal touch to your emails with Artmail, an app for writing and sending handwritten notes. This app is not billed as an educational app but it could/should be. 🙂 The app features several choices of stationery plus the option of using your camera to create a unique background. The writing is a brush style (similar to a fountain pen) with several color options. But the best part of this app is the scaling feature – which makes this app great for kids. Users can fill up the entire screen and the app automatically shrinks the word/words to fit in a letter format. Subsequent words are shrunk to match the size of the other words. A red cursor can be moved around to change the location of the words. Little hands will be able to write thank you notes to grandparents or to add a note of explanation to a photo. In the classroom, teachers could use it is SO many ways – for good copies of their writing, to communicate with parents, as an exit slip after a lesson, etc. I LOVE that this app preserves the child’s writing!! Very cool app – perhaps an upgrade will include the ability to pull in pictures from the photo library which would make it even better!!

ArtMail - Wen Yun Rong

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Cursive Writing HD

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FREE again – Cursive Writing HD normally sells for $.99. This educational app shows kids how to write in cursive utilizing three modes. In the abc mode, both upper case and lower case letters are taught. Kids are shown how to trace each letter using the proper stroke sequence. This section of the app is very well-done.

In the word mode, kids are shown how letters combine to form 234 words. Then in the sentence mode kids can practice writing one of the 3 sentences provided. Or, they can type in their own sentence which is converted to cursive. What a great idea! But… the letter style (in both the word mode and the sentence mode) is not the same as the letter style of the abc mode. For example, the lower case o and b become very loopy. Many of the upper case letters are formed in completely different way than they were taught in the abc mode. Many words are not started on the base line.

After teaching cursive writing for 30 years, I know that the biggest challenge is teaching kids to properly connect the letters. This app does a nice job of teaching the individual letters in the abc mode but I have some concerns about the letter style in the word mode & the sentence mode.

Cursive Writing HD - Jiwoo Studio