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Kid in Story Book Maker

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Kid in Story

Just went FREE about 10 minutes ago and does not stay free for long! – Kid in Story Book Maker, great app for creating personalized stories that support your child’s learning and social monitoring. It’s easy to make your child the star of the story with this app. One-of-a-kind technology (Locolens™ image detection ) makes it easy to superimpose your child onto the story backgrounds – similar to “green screening.” The app includes 8 story templates for you to customize with your own images, text, and narration. You can also create your own original stories by using the “Blank Story” template. Story templates included are – Faces I Make, Let’s Get a Haircut, Are Monsters Hiding in My Room?, A Day at the Movies, At the Playground, What Will I See in San Francisco?, and When Is It Time to Wash My Hands? The app also makes it super easy to share your creations via email and/or Dropbox. Parents, teachers, and/or language therapists – this app would be fabulous to support early literacy, establish routines, model social behaviors & emotions, and more! Most kids love being the star of their own story!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-in-story-book-maker/id594403164?mt=8&uo=4

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The Tree I See

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FREE for a limited time – The Tree I See, a storybook app for iPhone/iPad. Geared towards toddlers, this educational app tells a story about a little boy who spends time with a tree that willingly gives and shares with wilderness friends. The Tree I See is a beautifully animated story about sharing and what it means to be a friend.  🙂

The Tree I See - Interactive Storybook - Aridan Books

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Sandbox Web Browser & RabbleBrowser from Float Mobile Learning

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FREE for a limited time – 2 great web browsing/sharing tools from Float Mobile Learning. Check them out while they are FREE. 🙂

sandbox

Sandbox Web Browser allows teachers/administrators to customize the appearance of the user interface on students’ devices. By using Sandbox, teachers can restrict students to a predetermined list of websites (called a whitelist) – perfect for classroom research. Bookmarks for approved sites can also be added. A passcode is set to prevent students from changing the settings. Sandbox also returns to a preset home page when the device goes idle. This app can be used to configure an individual device or it can be used to configure multiple devices by using a property list file. The app includes extensive instructions for configuring Sandbox to meet the specific your needs. It also includes instructions for restricting access to Safari, the App Store, You Tube, and other built-in apps through your device.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sandbox-web-browser/id562054411?mt=8&uo=4

rabble

RabbleBrowser is a collaborative web browsing and file sharing tool. A teacher or student leader can facilitate a shared web-browsing/file-sharing experience with an unlimited number of locally connected others in their group. Other features of this app include: integrating chats, saving bookmarks, sharing of personal files, social sharing via email/Facebook/Twitter, and printing. This app looks fantastic for teacher collaboration – meetings, professional development days, college classes, etc.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rabblebrowser/id432616026?mt=8&uo=4

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Oscar Finds a New Home

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image Educational app, FREE for a limited time – Oscar Finds a Home,a “You Tell Me” story. In this story, a cute little dachshund named Oscar finds himself in a dog shelter waiting to be adopted. Oscar gets more and more worried as other dogs are chosen. Just when the shelter is about to close, little Joey comes along and takes Oscar home. Cute story!

“You Tell Me” stories are designed with some special features: 1. They incorporate WordWinks into the story. WordWinks are questions and comments written in red italics. To maximize children’s understanding of the story, teachers often add comments/questions as they read aloud. WordWinks are meant to model that teacher voice. 2. They have a “Retell, Record & Share” section. Kids are asked to order 4 scenes from the story then record their own version of the story to share with grandparents or friends. the app is nicely done! If you have a preschooler or early reader, check out this e-book. I love that it emphasizes “thinking about reading.”

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oscar-finds-a-home/id671135618?mt=8&uo=4

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North Pole and Africa – Animal Adventures for Kids

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North pole

FREE today – North Pole – Animal Adventures for Kids. Have kids check out the animals in Santa’s neighborhood! This educational app features 3 interactive settings: the arctic, an iceberg, and eternal ice. Kids tap the animals in each scene to discover their sounds and hear interesting facts about them. Facts for each animal in are narrated in 12 different languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish, Dutch, and Italian. The app features cute artwork and is sure to delight little ones.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/north-pole-animal-adventures/id716696933?mt=8&uo=4

Also FREE today – Africa – Animal Adventures for Kids.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/africa-animal-adventures-for/id695120934?mt=8&uo=4

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Literacy Leveler

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To celebrate NEA’s Read across America Day, Literacy Leveler is FREE for a limited time. Using this tool, teachers can easily level the books in their classroom collection. Just scan the book’s ISBN and the app tells you its reading level according to Lexile, DRA, & Guided Reading systems. The app can also be used to search for books by title, author, or reading level. This app sounds like a fabulous tool for any teacher grade K – 8. I am working “on the road ” this week so I did not have the opportunity to try myself but I do not want you to miss it while it’s free. Download and try it – sounds like a fabulous time saver!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/literacy-leveler/id739836039?mt=8&uo=4

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Reading Rainbow

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Reading Rainbow is a library of over 200 books and videos for kids ages 3 – 9. This educational app is FREE to download but requires a subscription ($9.99 per month or $29.99 for 6 months) for full access. Once you subscribe, your children (up to 5 per family) will have unlimited access to the interactive books and video trips. This app is similar to the award-winning Reading Rainbow television series that was on PBS from 1983 – 2006. It even features the same host – Grammy winner, LeVar Burton. In less than a year, over 2.5 million books/video field trips have been viewed with this app!

After installing the app, kids fill out their profile (name, age, kinds of stories they like to read) and may choose one free book from one of the 6 themed island in the sky. The books are professionally read and feature “Read to Me” or “Read on My Own” options. They are lightly animated and include interactive activities that add to the story. A sticker rewards program motivates kids to read. There is also an individualized tracking system so parents can see books selected and minutes read for each child.

I must admit, I downloaded this app because of nostalgia. My kids grew up watching Reading Rainbow and we all loved it. I am happy to say that the appeal of Reading Rainbow today is the same as it was almost 30 years ago – Reading Rainbow provides kids with quality authentic literature. If I had a child/ grandchild (ages 3-9) or if I were still in the classroom, I would subscribe without hesitation. What a fabulous resource!

Highly Recommended!

Reading Rainbow - Reading Rainbow

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Color Uncovered & Sound Uncovered

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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

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Tiny Firefighters

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firefighters

Just named as Apple’s App of the Week and FREE for a limited time – Tiny Firefighters, an interactive seek & find book. Toddlers tap their way through interactive scenes (full of fun sounds) to help firemen and policemen do their work. They can help firefighters to put out a house fire, rescue a cow from a pond, rescue a cat from a tree, and more. In the police scene, kids help policemen direct traffic, catch a wanted burglar, escort a celebrity, etc. Kids will also love the fun “extras” in each scene  – the jewelry-stealing bird, the flying helicopter, the flying superboy, and more. The app has another fun feature – snow can be turned on/off to change the look of the 2 scenes. The app features lots of detail – great for talking with your child about what is going on in each scene and/or storytelling.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-firefighters/id632012899?mt=8&uo=4

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Wee Kids Math

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wee kids math

FREE for a limited time – Wee Kids Math, an educational app that features a variety of activities for beginning math students. There are 20 activities in all – each activity presented in a new brightly colored scene. Kids can order numbers on a caterpillar, match number words/numerals/pictures on ocean liners, practice addition on a farm, practice subtraction in the ocean, etc. A definite strength of this app is its variety. Number skills (0 – 20) included are matching, counting, ordering, identifying equalities & inequalities, identifying > & <, adding, and subtracting. The app jumps right into each activity without any sort of instructions. Most of the activities are fairly intuitive. But if kids can’t figure what they are supposed to do, they can go back & press the help button. Then they will find visual instructions for each activity. This app would be a good one to use WITH your child. There is no progress tracking so you will want to see what your child understands. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wee-kids-math/id638457112?mt=8&uo=4