Tag Archives: apps for kids

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Math Duel

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Math Duel

FREE for a limited time – Math Duel-2 Player Mathematical Game.This educational app pits two players against each other on the same device which makes it perfect for sharing iPads in the classroom. The app has a split screen interface – students sit facing each other on either end of the iPad. As kids answer math equations, the app keeps separate scores for each student. The best thing about this app is that it is fully customizable (on both sides) which makes it a fabulous tool for individualizing instruction for a wide range of students. Equations can be set with 1 – 5 terms. Largest numbers possible can be from 1 – 100. Negative numbers can be turned on/off. Kids can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or any combination of these operations. Fabulous and fun for daily classroom math practice in multiple grades!

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.
  • 3.OA.7 – Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-duel-2-player-mathematical/id495077699?mt=8&uo=4

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Sparky & The Case of the Missing Smoke Alarms

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sparky

FREE – Sparky & The Case of the Missing Smoke Alarms, an interactive book from Cupcake Digital. This educational app is perfect for Fire Prevention Week (October 5 – 11) because this year’s theme is Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives. Kids read along to help Sparky the Fire Dog® and his friends solve the mystery of Aunt Dottie’s smoke alarm. As they read, they will learn about the importance of working smoke alarms, what to do when a smoke alarm sounds, and how to plan an escape. There are also fire safety tips and fun interactions woven through the story. The story is narrated with highlighted text for emerging readers. The narration can be muted for kids who want to read the story on their own. The app also includes a game and a sing-along music video.

At the end of the story, there are resources for adults. There are two sets of questions about the story. The “Let’s Talk About” questions address literal understanding of the story. The “Let’s Think About” questions address extended meaning. The Parents’ Page connects adults to a collection of fire safety resources. The Teacher Page gives suggestions for using the app in the classroom. There is a page with information about the Common Core Standards addressed by the app. Print-outs and activities to supplement the story are available online at Sparky Home | Sparky The Fire Dog. What is not to love about this educational app? It seems to have it all – a cute story packed with interactivity, a great message about fire safety, a game, a sing-along video, connections to CCSS, and a guide for adults!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sparky-case-missing-smoke/id869373998?mt=8&uo=4

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Love to Count by Pirate Trio

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This iPhone/iPad app is FREE today. Designed for 4 – 7 years olds, it introduces math concepts (such as counting, ordering, addition, subtraction, shapes) using a pirate theme. Kids earn and collect rewards for their treasure chest as they progress through the 700 math tasks included in this app. More than one child can be added to the program and parents/teachers can monitor their children’s progress. The statistics section shows what tasks have been completed and which were completely correctly on the first attempt. Nicely done app!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K.CC.2 – Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.
  • K.CC.4 – Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
  • K.OA.1 – Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.
  • K.G.2.  – Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

Love to Count by Pirate Trio - Next is Great

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Ocean – Animal Adventures for Kids

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ocean

FREE for a limited time – Ocean – Animal Adventures for Kids, an educational app for preschoolers. Kids will become sea life experts as they explore 3 ocean scenes – a coral reef, a shark reef, and the deep-sea. The app has two modes – one for tapping/interacting with the creatures and the other for listening to/learning facts about them. Kids will learn fun facts about 30+ animals and they will be delighted with the 60+ animations. The app is narrated in 12 languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Turkish, Dutch and Italian. Check out this cute interactive book for your preschooler today. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ocean-animal-adventures-for/id819165012?mt=8&uo=4

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Grid Diary

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grid diary

FREE for a limited time – Grid Diary – Questionnaire Diary, Gratitude Journal, Private, Secret and Simple. This educational app was featured by Apple in New & Noteworthy and What’s Hot. Grid Diary is a unique way of keeping a learning journal, health journal, gratitude journal, etc. The app is made up questions/prompts that are arranged in a grid. You can customize the number of questions/prompts and the content of those questions/prompts. Students can use Grid Diary to reflect on their thoughts or on their learning. They could jot down what they know, what they want to know, what they learned – a personal KWL chart! They could reflect on their understanding of the day’s lessons. They could ask questions that they still have. Teachers could use this app to get feedback from their students on what they learned each day – a daily grid of exit slips. 🙂  Students can email or print their entries one at a time. They can also screen shot their grid to email or print all of their entries at once. Teachers could also use this app as a teaching journal about their lessons, students, etc. Grid Diary could be used in the classroom in so many ways. Check it out this FREE version today.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grid-diary-questionnaire-diary/id597077261?mt=8&uo=4

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3 FREE Poetry Apps from the International Reading Association

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Planning a poetry unit? The International Reading Association has some apps that may help.

Here are three.
They are FREE. 🙂

acrosticAcrostic Poem helps kids learn about and write acrostic poetry. An acrostic poem uses a word as its subject. The word is written vertically so that each letter begins a line of the poem. All lines of the poem describe or relate to the subject word. The poem does not have to rhyme. Acrostic poems are easy to write and great for having kids introduce themselves, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.

The app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app explains an acrostic poem and gives an example. Then the student enters his/her topic word. The app advances to a brainstorming page where the student can enter ideas to help write the poem. Then the app advances to a “write your poem” page. The brainstormed words are displayed to help. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular acrostic poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/acrostic-poems-30045.html. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acrostic-poem/id724841119?mt=8&uo=4

diamanteDiamante Poem helps kids learn about and write diamante poetry. Diamante poems can be written about one central topic or two opposing topics such as day/night. A diamante poem has seven lines and is written in the shape of a diamond. The first and last lines are just one word – nouns. The second and sixth line are two words – adjectives. The third and fifth lines are three words – “ing” words. And the middle line has four+ words – nouns or prepositional phrases. Diamante poems are great for teaching parts of speech and synonyms/antonyms.

The app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app explains a diamante poem and gives two examples – a synonym poem and an antonym poem. Then the student enters his/her beginning and ending topic words. The app advances to a “write your poem” page where the student enters his/her words. The app reminds students which kids of words should be used on each line. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular diamante poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/diamante-poems-30053.html. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/diamante-poem/id724953313?mt=8&uo=4

theme poemTheme Poem helps kids learn about and write theme poetry. A theme poem is sometimes called a shape poem. It is written in the shape of what the poem is about. For example, the apple poem is written in the shape of an apple.

Again, this app is perfect for a classroom where devices are shared because each student creates his/her own profile. The app gives an example of a theme poem. Then the student selects one of 5 themed files – nature, school, sports, celebrations, shapes. Each themed file has 5 – 8 shapes for students to choose. Once a shape is chosen, the app advances to a “think of words” page for the student to brainstorm his/her ideas. Then the app advances to a “write your poem” page. The brainstormed words are displayed to help. Work can be saved in progress – reinforcing the elements of the writing process. Finished poems can be saved to the device’s camera roll or emailed. This app mirrors ReadWriteThink’s popular theme poem web-based interactive: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/theme_poems/. Students can send their editable poems to an email address and then open them in the online tool!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/theme-poem/id724978211?mt=8&uo=4

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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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Labo Drawing Lessons

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labo

FREE for a limited time – Labo Drawing Lessons. This educational app has 3 different modes: drawing lessons, free drawing, and PK. In the lesson mode, your child will learn to draw 40 different things from 5 categories: animals, plants, vehicles, monsters, people. The app utilizes a step-by-step teaching method then scores (from A+ to D-) the drawing after it has been completed. In the free drawing mode, kids work on a blank canvas and draw their own creations. They are not scored in this mode. They can choose from 3 tools (pencil, crayon, brush) and 18 different colors. They can also pull in photos from the camera roll to use as a background. In both modes, kids can take pictures of their drawings, redo them, or trash them. If they take a picture, the creation is stored in the photo gallery and saved to the device’s camera roll. Once a drawing is on the camera roll, it can be shared, printed, or pulled into other apps. Finally, there is a PK mode which permits a child to compete with their parents or friends to see who can draw faster. Check out this YouTube video to see how this app works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/labo-drawing-lessons-3y+/id879834557?mt=8&uo=4

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My Story – Book Maker for Kids

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story maker

One of my favorite writing apps – FREE today.

My Story – Book Maker for Kids is a great writing app for the iPad. The cost is normally $3.99 but it Is currently FREE. Kids can easily create then read an unlimited number of their own e-books using this app. Upgraded in March, the design has been simplified to make it easier for writers of all ages. Kids create their books one page at a time by typing in their text and adding their artwork. They can use a variety of mediums for their art –  stickers, drawings (with pencils, paints or markers), camera photos, or pictures saved in the photo library. They can also record themselves reading their books. Finalized stories can read directly from the app, be published to iBooks, and/or shared via email with anyone who owns an iPhone or iPad.

Watch the video and learn more about this app here: My Story – Book Maker for Kids.

What a great medium for your child to share his/her life experiences with grandparents and other loved ones – take photos of your day (at the zoo, in the park, etc.) and let your child narrate the experience! The voice recordings remain intact when the book is shared. The words can be typed in after your child has provided the narration so that kids learn that the words in books are really just “talk written down.”

My Story is perfect for the classroom because teachers can add multiple authors and sync it across multiple iPads! Kids can share their stories with friends through iBooks, write and present digital reports, keep ongoing vocabulary books and/or journals etc. What a fantastic tool to encourage writing! Don’t miss this one!!

My Story - Book Maker for Kids - HiDef Web Solutions

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Number Line, by the Math Learning Center

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number lineNumber Line, by the Math Learning Center is a fantastic FREE app that will help kids visualize number patterns and understand number operations. The app is well-designed with several useful features. The number line can be set by ones, twos, fives, tens, twenty-fives, and hundreds. It can also be customized to show multiples of any whole number from 1 to 100. This feature is perfect for skip counting and/or for visualizing multiplication. The app permits kids to add and manipulate forward & backward jumps – a great feature for teaching addition & subtraction. This feature also helps kids visualize multiplication as repeated addition of the same number and division as repeated subtraction of the same number. Teachers are able to hide or reveal numbers on the number line. This feature can be used to challenge kids to apply what they know in order to figure out the missing number/numbers. Teachers can also use this feature to teach kids how to solve more difficult patterns that are missing several numbers; such as 4, __, __, 16.  Kids can use the drawing tools to show what they know. They can write equations and expressions with the text tool. They can screen shot their work and use it as an exit slip after a lesson. Add this one to your virtual toolkit today – “seeing math” helps kids understand it. 🙂

Download Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/number-line-by-math-learning/id751816884?mt=8&uo=4