Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
Chalk Box Story by Don Freeman (author of Corduroy) is FREE today! Cleverly done – this app encourages kids to participate by using the box of chalk to help create the story’s setting and characters. The bonus section of the app lets kids can tap & drag 8 interactive items into the story’s final scene. Very cute!!
Currently FREE, Tellagami (rhymes with origami) is a unique storytelling app. Short stories called gamis are easy to create. First you select and customize a character by choosing his/her skin tone, eye color, hair, and clothing. Then you add emotion – happy, sad, surprised, angry, scared, silly. Next you choose a background from the app, from your photo library, or by using your camera. You are now ready to create your gami. You can record your gami in you own voice or choose the text button to type in what your character will say  – the limit is 450 characters. Gamis can be shared via email, messaging, Facebook, or Twitter.
The app is fabulous!! Its uses are only limited by your imagination!! Kids can customize their characters to look like themselves and be reporters, scientists, teachers, etc. They  create the character and setting from a book they are reading. They could message or email a parent to explain what they are learning in class. Teachers could use gamis as interactive exit slips. The list is endless. Kids will LOVE creating gamis!
Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
Today’s FREE book is Mitzi’s World by Deborah Raffin –  a seek and discover book. Kids follow Mitzi the spotted dog through 15 different scenes of town & country drawn by American folk artist Jane Wooster Scott. Along the way, they look for Mitzi and 150 other items such as 4 small red birds, a snowman, 13 dogs, etc. Kids can zoom in for a closer look or get a hint when they cannot find an item. This app provides hours of fun for kids as they count, differentiate colors, built vocabulary, and learn about the seasons. If you loved the “Hidden Pictures” page of Highlights magazine when you were young, you will love this app for your kids 🙂
Links to a few FREE Easter apps that I have found – enjoy!!
Bunnyfur’s Easter Eggs – an interactive book for toddlers. Kids help decorate eggs, find hidden eggs, etc. Short but cute!
ClickySticky Easter is a creative app for kids that lets them decorate eggs, fill Easter baskets, hide eggs in the yard, and more!
Jasper in The Great Easter Egg Race is another adventure of Jasper & Smiley. Fluffy the bunny has hidden eggs all over the house for an Easter egg hunt. The first one to find 5 eggs wins!
Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
FREE today – The Trees Grin Beside Me based on the book by Michelle Macdonald. In this book a young girl compares herself to the trees around her in a beautiful story that explores our connection to nature. Peaceful and poetic – a great addition to anyone’s digital library!
FREE for a limited time! Add a personal touch to your emails with Artmail, an app for writing and sending handwritten notes. 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!! Â Very cool app – perhaps an upgrade will include the ability to pull in pictures from the photo library which would make it even better!!
Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
FREE today – Miko Goes on Vacation by Brigitte Weninger. Miko, a cute little mouse, goes on his first trip to the beach with his mother. He is concerned about leaving his little friend Mimiki alone when he goes into the water. So, he elicits the help of a little girl named Mia. Milo soon discovers that the best thing about going on vacation is making new friends. Like other apps from this developer, the story can be personalized by having your child narrate it – a super option for kids who are learning to become more fluent readers.
This book is the sixth book app featuring Miko and Mimiki – a wonderfully sweet series of books for young children. The apps normally sell for $1.99 each so make sure you download this one today 🙂
Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
FREE today – Rowdy Raccoon and the Turtle Who Wanted to Fly, a cute story about a raccoon and a turtle who wish they could fly. The two friends make themselves wings and a tail so that they can fly and be special like their friend Scissor, the bird. Things do not go smoothly and Tommy the Turtle ends up in a dangerous situation. In the end they discover that everyone has something that makes them special. Cute story with a great message!!
Auryn Apps is giving away an interactive book each day in March to support National Reading Month 🙂
Today’s book is Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt. Based on actual events, this story introduces kids to Van Gogh and his work. It begins when Camille (the young boy in the story) and his father help a stranger (Van Gogh) who moves into a house on their street. Camille take Van Gogh a huge pot of sunflowers and a friendship evolves. The beautiful watercolor illustrations complement the story which features several of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. It is a wonderful story of friendship and acceptance of/compassion towards people who are different.
The app has some cool extras: a Museum of 10 Van Gogh paintings, an armature game, and painting. The Museum contains 10 Van Gogh paintings with facts about each one. The armature game shows kids the mechanics of animation. The animated structures are collapsible so that kids can put the pieces/gears back together. The painting option permits kids to paint the characters for  the book. Then the kids’ paintings then become  part of the story!
This is wonderful app – for so many reasons!!
FREE today only – Marble Math. There are lots of good reviews of this app for 9 – 12 year olds which was selected by Apple as New & Noteworthy. Kids solve a variety of math problems as they navigate their way through a series of marble mazes. Concepts included are addition/subtraction/multiplication/division, adding/sequencing fractions with different denominators, factoring, adding/subtracting negative integers and more! The game supports multiple players and it allows you to customize specific skills for each player – what a great option! Another great thing about this app  – when a player answers incorrectly, he/she can choose of 3 options: try again, show me, or next problem. Kids earn marbles as they answer correctly and high scores are recorded. This game blends fun with the practice of common core skills. Worth downloading!
Common Core Standards met:
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