Tag Archives: educational apps for kids

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Cookie Next Door – Rainy Days

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cookie

WOW – here’s one you don’t want to miss!! FREE for a limited time –  Cookie Next Door-Rainy Days. This app was a choice in the “New & Noteworthy”  section of the app store earlier this month. Kids become storytellers in this animated adventure. Their speech, songs, and rhymes bring Cookie and his friends alive. The app includes a Creative Comic Book, a Voice Over Studio, and an Animated Stage Projector. Creative Comic Book utilizes storyboards to guide kids through the storytelling experience. In the Voice Over Studio, kids can change the pitch of the characters’ voices. As kids tell the story their speech, singing, etc. is transformed into the voices of the characters. Once the story is complete, the Animated Stage turns it into a play with dancing props! This app is very creative, very fun and it’s great for developing oral language skills. I am looking forward to more adventures of Cookie and friends!!

Cookie Next Door ~ Rainy Days - Sabodu LLC

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Juno’s Musical ABCs

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juno

FREE again for a limited time – Juno’s Musical ABCs. Narrated by Brooke Shields, this e-book for the iPhone/iPad was created by Emmy Award winning composer, Belinda Takahashi. Kids join Juno and her friends on a musical journey through the alphabet. The book, written in rhyme, teaches kids what instruments look & sound like as well as some musical terminology. It has 3 reading modes: read it to me, read it myself, or autoplay.
Kids will enjoy interacting with the characters (who talk & move when touched) in this cute, colorful book. Nicely done – what a great ABC book to share with a music class!

Juno's Musical ABCs HD - The Juno Company

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I Learn with Transportation

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ilearn

FREE for a limited time – I Learn with Transportation for the iPhone/iPad. This app for toddlers teaches word names, sounds, colors, shapes, numbers, and environments of different means of transportation. Colorful, happy vehicles travel through the pages of this interactive book. Kids tap the vehicles to learn more. I like that the developers set the app up so that kids can name the sound, color, shape, etc. on their own and then they tap to see if they are correct. The app is also bilingual – it can easily be switched to Spanish. Your little one will love exploring the 21 different means of transportation in this cute app. Recommended!

I learn with transportation - DADA Company

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The Opposites

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The Opposites is currently FREE for the iPhone/iPad. Designed for kids 7+, this app requires the matching of increasingly difficult pairs of opposite words. There are two sections of the app: dictionary and play. In the dictionary section, words are listed next to their opposites. To learn the meaning, students just tap on the word and a definition appears. There are 10 levels with 100+ words per level. In the play section, words are pronounced by a boy or a girl as they appear in bubbles and float towards the top of the screen  Kids are to tap pairs of opposites as they appear – which makes the words turn a color then pop. The goal is to match 12 sets of opposites  – which completes the level. A bonus round then appears in which the student has 20 seconds to match up an entire  board full of opposites. This app starts off simply but becomes quite challenging in the later levels. It could be used for differentiating a lesson and/or for helping students grow their understanding of antonyms.

Common Core Standards met:

  • 4.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c.Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
  • 5.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words.

Recommended!

The Opposites - Mindshapes Limited

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Same Meaning Magic (Synonyms)

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same meaning

The day I downloaded this iPhone/ iPad app it was FREE. It is now $.99. In this word game, kids help two young magicians named Leo & Luna by choosing a synonym for the bolded word in the sentence. Kids earn coins for choosing the correct answers. At the end of each level, you are shown the number of questions answered, the amount of money collected, and a percentage score for that level. There are 5 levels of play from very easy to very hard. Although I found some overlap in the earlier levels, the difficulty of the sentences definitely increased. Lots of good practice…  This game could be used in a one iPad classroom to teach using context clues. The app could also be used as an independent or buddy activity. Also available is Same Meaning Magic Part II for an additional $.99.

Keep reading my blog to find out when these apps are offered for FREE.

Common Core Standards met:

  • 4.L.5 – Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. c.Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
 Same Meaning Magic (Synonyms) - NRCC Games
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Jumbled Sentences 3

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Jumbled Sentences 3

Recently released and currently FREE, Jumbled Sentences 3 for the iPad helps kids learn sentence word order in a fun way. Kids put words in order to form a correct sentence while earning coins for each correct answer. If they get stumped, they can use a coin to buy a hint. There are three levels. In level 1 kids rearrange words to form a sentence – picture clues are given. In level 2 there are more words than needed. Kids must choose and arrange the proper words to construct a sentence that goes with the picture. In level 3, kids have to make sentences without picture clues. If the sentence submitted is wrong, the app keeps the correctly placed words and removes the others so kids can try again. The app is simple to use with a cute alien/space theme. Worth downloading 🙂

Jumbled Sentences 3 - Innovative Net Learning Limited

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ABCSounds Lite

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abc sounds

ABCSounds Lite for the iPhone/iPad was FREE the day I downloaded it. It is now $.99. The app was developed by Barbara Milne, an early childhood educator. It’s based on her song” Apple, Apple, AAA” and it introduces kids to the sounds of the alphabet. The music is soothing and repetitive making it easy for little ones to sing along. Her approach is multi-sensory. For each letter of the alphabet, the child hears & sees the letter and a word beginning with that letter. The letter is also hidden in a picture which has been chosen because it looks similar to the letter – great for helping kids make connections. Nicely done for little ones – would be great for preschool & kindergarten classes!

Keep reading my blog to find out when apps like this one, become FREE again.

Recommended!

ABCSounds-Lite - Tender Learning Concepts Inc

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Phonics Tic Tac Toe Interactive Game

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tic tac toe

FREE for a limited time – Phonics Tic Tac Toe for the iPhone/iPad. This game reviews letter sounds (vowels, vowel combinations, consonant, consonant combinations) and syllables in a tic, tac, toe format. There is a lot of great phonics practice in this app. I really like that the app varies the placement of the missing sounds – at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word. I also like how the app uses words with the same letters making different sounds. Since there is no sound, kindergarten/first graders might need help reading the questions. However, it would be perfect for independent practice for most second/third graders. Teachers could use it in a learning center, as independent seatwork with a friend, for small group intervention, etc. I only wish it had the option of having the questions read aloud for younger students. That being said, this app is definitely worth downloading!!

Common Core Standards met:

  • K. RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Associate the short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
  • 1.RF.3/2.RF.3/3.RF.3/4.RF.3/5.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe Interactive Game - Lakeshore Learning Materials

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Fiete

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Fiete

FREE today only – Fiete, an interactive picture book for 1 – 3 year olds. 15 interactive scenes are included in this app. Kids help Fiete with his everyday tasks as they put tires on a car, pop a balloon with a pin, plant a seed, load a ship, etc. There are also 3 memory games based on the tasks in the app. The app is very intuitive – little ones can easily figure out how they are supposed to help Fiete. The cute, hand-drawn illustrations & animations are accompanied by relevant sound effects. This app is ad-free and does not contain any in-app purchases or external links. It is perfect for the youngest iPhone/iPad users!!

Fiete - Wolfgang Schmitz

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Spatter and Spark

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spatter & spark

Just released yesterday and FREE  – Spatter and Spark, a cute interactive book from Polk Street Press. Spatter (an artistic porcupine) and Spark (an inventive fox) team up to figure out how to get a look at Hubert, the baby crow, so that Spatter can paint Hubert’s picture. Kids are invited to help as Spatter & Spark problem solve their way through the story. There are 10 interactive scenes within the app. Each scene is beautifully illustrated by Luciana Navarro Powell, the illustrator of Goodnight Safari (another wonderful FREE app from the same developer  – see my August 28th review). The story, primarily for 4 – 6 year olds, is very cute with purposeful interactivity that adds to the story. Spatter and Spark could also be used with older students to encourage them to think and write about their own inventions. An activity pack (with 4 additional activities) is available as an in-app purchase. Very nicely done – recommended!!

Spatter & Spark - Polk Street Press LLC