Tag Archives: apps for kids

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Miku’s Picnic, Let’s Color, and Squiggles – apps by Lazoo

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Miku's Picnic

FREE again for a limited time – Miku’s Picnic, an adorable interactive story designed to support creative thinking. Kids join Bobu, the monkey & Miku, the rabbit on a chase after some jumping beans. The two need help capturing the beans before they bounce away! Along the way kids learn about using their imaginations and creative problem solving as the Bobu & Moku use “Squiggles” to… make a car go faster, make springs to get to the top of a tree, make binoculars to look for the beans, make a rocket zoom to the moon, and more. This educational app has 2 reading modes – “Read to Me” and “Read it Myself” as well as an option to record your own voice as the narrator. The story ends with a link to the FREE Squiggles app for kids so kids can “take a turn” drawing. Super creative and super cute!

Download link for Miku’s Picnic: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lazoo-mikus-picnic/id652945863?mt=8&uo=4

Also FREE again for a limited time – Let’s Color, an educational app that encourages creativity! The app includes an animated short in which the characters – Bobu, the monkey & Miku, the rabbit use their imaginations to turn triangles into a strawberry, a dog, a mountain, etc. Then kids are encouraged to color different things to complete a page: what is coming out of a hose, who is riding in the train, etc. Once the coloring is completed, they press GO and the drawings come alive. There are 17 coloring pages as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. Additional coloring pages can be purchased within the app. Tools included are stickers, markers, paint, chalk, a ketchup bottle, as well as 10 colors & a mystery color wheel. Work can be saved into the gallery of the parents’ section by pressing the piggy bank. This app is super cute!! It encourages children to be imaginative & creative. :)

Highly recommended!

Let's Color! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

squiggles

Squiggles – This FREE educational app for the iPad is adorable! Kids are encourages to draw squiggles to create: rain clouds (to water flowers), waves (to help fish swim), wool on sheep, cotton candy, etc. Once the squiggles are drawn, they press GO and the drawings come alive. The app includes an interactive storybook and an animated short which introduces the characters – Bobu, the monkey  & Miku, the rabbit. It also includes 14 drawing pages (just add the squiggles) as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. Tools included are stickers, markers, paint, chalk, a ketchup bottle, as well as 10 colors & a mystery color wheel. Work can be saved into the gallery of the parents’ section by pressing the piggy bank. This app is super cute!! It encourages children to be imaginative & creative – one of my favorites. 🙂

Highly recommended!

Squiggles! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

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Happi Spells – Crossword Puzzles for Kids from Happi Papi

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Happi Spells

FREE for a limited time – Happi Spells – Crossword Puzzles for Kids from Happi Papi. This educational app has 60 crossword puzzles – 5 levels with 12 puzzles in each level. The puzzles are made of intersecting words. Picture clues are given and necessary letter tiles are placed around the puzzle. Kids practice spelling as they tap and drag the tiles to their correct places in the puzzle. If a tile is dragged to its correct spot in the puzzle, it will stick. Tiles dragged to the wrong spot return to the perimeter of the puzzle. Kids earn snails for working the puzzle accurately. This app was featured by Apple in “New & Noteworthy” and is nicely done. I wish the app named the letters and/or gave the letters’ sounds as the tiles are moved into place… perhaps in an update. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happi-spells-crossword-puzzles/id464675842?mt=8&uo=4

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Hiding Monsters

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Hiding Monsters

FREE for the month of October – Hiding Monsters, an interactive book for kids 2+ for the iPhone/iPad. Kids play hide and seek with a group of friendly monsters in this interactive e-book. Narrated by Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) and illustrated by Melanie McCall, this book is adorable! Your child will love reading through the story and finding where the monsters are hidden. And the best part is that the hiding places change every time you read the story. Really cute!!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiding-monsters/id527412776?mt=8&uo=4

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Magic Stickers!

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Magic stickers

FREE for a limited time – Magic Stickers!  This educational app is the latest from Lazoo, the creators of Squiggles & Let’s Color. Magic Stickers includes 8 animated scenes plus 50+ animated stickers that move and interact with the scene. A bread roll or a bus? Sandwiches or mountains? Ice cream cones or flying creatures? Kids are encouraged to be imaginative and creative. After putting together a scene, kids hit the “Go” button to watch the scene come alive. The app also features a sticker-making tool that allows kids to create and save their own stickers. Magic Stickers is based on Lazoo’s “Hands On! Mind On!” curriculum – designed to support and celebrate creative thinking. Another GREAT educational app from Lazoo – a brand that encourages the imagination of children!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic-stickers!/id653471372?mt=8&uo=4

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A StoryBots Halloween

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StoryBots

A StoryBots Halloween is currently FREE! Cast up to 5 members of your family in this cute & catchy animated Starring You® Video. It’s easy to cast your family members as a vampire, a ghost, a werewolf, a mummy, or Frankenstein’s monster. Just take or upload a photo, position the face, then name your character. In no time you and your kids will be dancing with the StoryBots like the “Boogie” Man! If you’d like, you may share your final creation via email, Facebook or Twitter. VERY cute and fun!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storybots-halloween-starring/id701184040?mt=8&uo=4

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Find the Synonym

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FREE  – Find the Synonym is an app designed for the iPhone/iPad. It is listed as a game app rather than an educational app but it would be great for kids in upper elementary school/junior high. A word is shown with its part of speech and definition. You are challenged to create a 4 – 7 letter synonym of that word using the letters provided. Points are awarded based on the length of the word, the time involved, whether clues are used, and/or if any mistakes are made. Badges are earned as the game is played. It’s simply designed  – not a lot of bell & whistles but it is heavy on content. There are a total of 1600 synonyms in the app. After you find 250 of them, the antonyms are unlocked. There are 700 antonyms in the app.

I realize that this app was not necessarily designed for kids but it is educational. More flexibility in the settings would make it more suitable for classroom use. I could not find a way to restart the game. The game picks up where it left off & points are cumulative, so only one person can play. Also, having access to both synonyms and antonyms would be a plus. Regardless, I am sure that teachers will come up with creative ways to use this resource. 🙂

Recommended!

Find The Synonym - FreshLogo

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Zoola Baby Animals

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zoola

What does the fox say?

Find the answer to that question with Zoola Baby Animals, a FREE educational app for babies. Your child will learn to recognize 30 different adult animals and their babies. The app names the adult animal (only) but it gives the sounds for the adult & the baby (when their pictures are tapped.) It’s easy to use for little ones – they just tap the arrows to move back and forth. Or, they can tap the grid and see thumbnails of all the animals in the app. Adorable pictures that little ones are sure to enjoy!  The full version (400 photos/sounds of mommy, daddy, and baby) is ad-free and available for purchase.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zoola-baby-animals/id471706389?mt=8&uo=4

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Sushi Monster

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Sushi Monster is a FREE educational app for the iPhone/iPad developed by Scholastic. It helps kids practice, reinforce, and extend their knowledge of math facts. There are 12 levels of play – 7 addition levels and 5 multiplication levels. A chef places numbered plates of sushi on the counter. Kids have to combine the numbers on the plates to reach the target number (worn by the sushi monster). If the combination is correct, the monster gobbles up the sushi. If it is wrong, the monster throw a tantrum. Each round has 14 target numbers. Successfully completing one level unlocks the next. As kids progress through the levels they are expected to extend their thinking beyond the basic facts. At each level a strategy is provided to help kids succeed. This educational app provides a lot of practice and kids will love the silly sushi chef!

Common Core Standards met:

  • 3.OA.7 – By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.
  • 3.NTB.3 – Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range 10–90 (e.g., 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.

Great for math fluency – highly recommended!

Sushi Monster - Scholastic

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Spelling Millionaire 2

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Spleeling Millionaire

FREE for a limited time – Spelling Millionaire 2, a fun spelling game for the entire family. This educational app challenges players to spell check 15 rounds of words. The app’s look is similar to the TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It includes a host, an audience, a money board, fun graphics & animations, music, and sound effects. The words become increasingly difficult with each round. The more answers you get right, the higher you climb on the money panel. The app features: 4 game modes, more than 2,000 (British & American) words grouped by difficulty, definitions for every word, lifelines – ask the audience and extra time, and more. Kids can play to get a taste of what it would be like to be on a TV game show – a great educational app to make spelling fun for older kids!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spelling-millionaire-2/id681055403?mt=8&uo=4

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Dinorama

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Dinorama

App of the Week and FREE for a limited time – Dinorama, an educational game app. Kids learn about money and time management as they build and maintain their own dinosaur theme parks. They start with one dinosaur and a few visitors. As they earn money, kids can add additional dinosaur displays, a popcorn stand, a photo booth, etc. They are in charge of everything – buying food, keeping the park clean, selling popcorn, hiring employees. Kids learn to save for unpredictable events: rainstorms that affect ticket sales, crop shortages that raise food prices, and flat tires that maroon valuable tourists. Interactive features include: feeding the dinosaurs with your finger, hiring a tour guide to learn more, popping popcorn, inflating balloons, photographing visitors, and more. There are many fun things to do! There’s even a virtual bank where kids can earn interest. It’s no wonder that this educational app was named New & Noteworthy by Apple, an Editor’s Choice of USA Today, an Editor’s Pick of Common Sense Media, and rated 5/5 Awesome by MacLife Magazine. Very cool, very fun, and educational!!

Teachers – this app would not only be be great for math but you could also use it to encourage journalling. Have kids keep “the books” and write daily entries about the status of their parks. They also could make up ads for their parks. There are lots of possibilities for integrated learning. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dinorama/id611016610?mt=8&uo=4