ABC ZooBorns

February 5, 2014 | appydazeblog

ABC ZooBorns for the iPhone/iPad is FREE for a limited time. The educational app is geared towards 3 – 5 year olds to teach them about 50+ baby animals. The app opens to a grid arranged in ABC order. Kids can tap on a letter to bring up baby animals that begin with that letter or they can tap on a specific baby animal. As a baby animal’s photo appears, a child’s voice says the initial letter then reads the name of the baby animal which appears in writing at the bottom of the screen. A little cartoon person drops down on the left hand side of the screen with a link to a video clip about that baby animal or an interactive scene for your child to explore. They can also scroll to the left for additional pictures & videos about each animal. If your child taps the exclamation point on each page, he/she will learn an interesting fact about the baby animal pictured.

This app needs an internet connection to work because the 100+ videos are actually links to You Tube videos. They are chosen by Peapod Labs and checked to be interesting and safe for kids. Kids cannot link from this app into other You Tube content. This app is nicely done and the facts make it interesting for adults too!

Highly recommended!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-zooborns/id543646069?mt=8&uo=4

Walter’s Flying Bus

February 5, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Walter’s Flying Bus, a story inspired by the real-life dreams of Walter and his friends (orphaned, special needs children in Uganda.) Walter finds an abandoned bus. With his friends and a little work, the engine soon roars to life! This e-book is inspirational – a celebration of the talents & beauty of every child. It is narrated in English, Spanish and Luganda (a primary language of Uganda). The educational app also includes mini-documentaries of the real-life children featured in the book. According to the developer – “ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of after-tax profits from App sales go to efforts helping orphans with special needs, including advocacy, care, and adoption assistance grants.” Nice story with a great message!

ICDL (International Children’s Digital Library) – Free Books for Children

February 4, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE – ICDL (International Children’s Digital Library) – Free Books for Children. This app brings thousands of free children’s books from 60 different countries to the iPad – it’s truly a worldwide collection of books at your fingertips. Books can be searched in a variety of ways – by age appropriateness, length (short, medium, long), genre, ratings, awards, picture vs chapter, and more. You may register if you wish, but it is not necessary. Some advantages to registering include – saving favorite books on a personal bookshelf, returning to the last page that you were reading, and selecting the language you prefer to use.

The feature that I really like is the “Browse Exhibitions” section. The exhibitions are theme based collections of books from around the world. Examples of some current themes are: Celebrating Differences, Everyone Needs Water & Water Needs Everyone, and Forever Friendship. Within each exhibition is an overview of the theme, links to the books included, descriptions of why the books are included, and related activities (in pdf format). As the world becomes more mobile, school systems are facing language barriers. For example, Chicago Public Schools has over 70 languages spoken by their students. What an awesome resource to promote worldwide citizenship and understanding!

The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children.

Grammar Wonderland (Primary) & Grammar Wonderland (Elementary)

February 3, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE today – the full versions of Grammar Wonderland (Primary) & Grammar Wonderland (Elementary). In both games kids lead their characters through different adventures as they practice nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. The primary version is for younger children – the words are read and some levels include pictures. The app does not teach the parts of speech but it provides lots of practice for kids in a fun game-like environment. After teaching a lesson about parts of speech, teachers can have kids show what they know with this app. Practice is provided for the following: common nouns, proper, nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, possessive nouns, pronouns, action verbs, present-tense verbs, past-tense verbs, future-tense verbs, linking verbs, adjectives, articles, comparative/superlative adjectives, and more! Many parts of speech are taught in both apps – perfect for differentiating your instruction for a variety of reading levels. Both also apps permit multiple player – great for the classroom!

Recommended!! – Download them today 🙂

Grammar Wonderland Primary

Grammar Wonderland Elementary

The Winston Show

February 3, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE – The Winston Show, an adorable app for kids 6+. Winston (a self-proclaimed, yellow fellow) and his sidekick Ellington have created the first talk show starring you! Special guests include Blackbeard the Pirate, Marie Antoinette, and the Blue Whale. Kids visit 6 different studios within the app. In Studio 1, they become a contestant on a quiz show called Win with Winston. Studio 2 features Fireside Chats on a variety of kid-friendly subjects such as magic and chores. In Studios, 3 kids can choose to become the star in two movies: Squabble Among the Stars or Winston Sly, Private Eye. They battle colorful characters (such as Lewis & Clark) in Studio 4’s You vs., another game show. Studio 5 is the Costume Department where kids can play dress-up in an assortment of costumes. And finally, Studio 6 features the Writing Room where kids choose the path of a story. This app is fabulous helping kids with conversational language because the characters listen and talk back! This app is quite ingenious and it’s really fun – for kids and adults. Adults will love seeing kids interact with Winston and friends. And, they will understand all of the jokes. 🙂 Delightful!!

HIghly recommended!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winston-show/id669541931?mt=8&uo=4

Sandbox Web Browser & RabbleBrowser from Float Mobile Learning

February 3, 2014 | appydazeblog

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

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

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

Pocket Toons – YouTube for Kids

February 2, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Pocket Tunes, an app which puts a selection of classic cartoons literally in your pocket via your iPhone/iPad. Over 100 cartoons are available each time you open the app. The list changes periodically so that there is always new content. Check it out – you may enjoy it more than your kids do. 🙂

Teachers – the app also permits you to add your own YouTube educational playlists. There are step-by-step, visual directions available. Just press the i button next to Add Playlist to begin. I was able to go into Safari and add the whole School House Rock playlist (53 educational videos) into the Pocket Toons app. Your students can have access to these videos and you don’t have to worry about the other things they might find.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-toons-youtube-for-kids/id406165193?mt=8&uo=4

Wubbzy Loves You

February 1, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Wubbzy Loves You, a storybook app featuring Wonder Wubbzy and Flower Power Daizy. This educational app was developed by Cupcake Digital in partnership with the producers of the Emmy® Award-winning Nick Jr. TV series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!®.   Wubbzy and Daizy spread some Wuzzleburg love as they help the mailman deliver friendship cards and save Friendship Day! The app has 3 modes: read to me, read & play, or just a book. Kids will discover animations & interactivity on every page of the first two modes. The app also has educational games, painting pages, and sing-along music videos. Print-outs and activities to supplement the story are available online at cupcakedigital.com. What is not to love about this educational app? – Cute story packed with interactivity, educational games, sing-along videos, and a supplemental activities. Download it now for Valentine’s Day!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wubbzy-loves-you/id599433395?mt=8&uo=4

My Story Time

January 31, 2014 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited – My Story Time, an educational app that makes your child the main character in the underwater story entitled If I Were a Scuba Diver. To begin, you or choose or take 2 photos (faces) to put into the story. The app makes it easy to align and scale them. Time to read! Children can read the story on their own or there is a narration button on each page. The story is told in rhyme, brightly illustrated, and the characters appear to be swimming if you tilt some of the pages. 🙂 The story is cute. But… it’s write-up describes it as a fairy tale and “technically” it is not. The developers hope to add additional stories but at this time there is only the one. Kids LOVE being the start of a story. It might be fun to create this story before/after a trip to the beach!

Little Fox Music Box

January 30, 2014 | appydazeblog

Old MacDonald

Mr. Fox’s Sound Studio

Little Fox Music Box, an educational app for 2 – 6 year olds, is currently FREE. The app has been downloaded over a million times and was featured as Apple’s App of the Week. The artwork design is from Heidi Wittlinger, an Oscar nominated artist. The app includes 3 children’s songs: Old MacDonald, London Bridge, and Evening Song. Kids can also visit Mr. Fox’s sound studio which is full of 100+ interactive surprises. The app includes a Karaoke mode and it can be switched from English to German. Kids will be delighted with this adorable app!

Highly recommended!

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