Tag Archives: educational apps for kids

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Hickory Dickory Dock

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Hickory Dickory Dock for the iPhone/iPad is FREE for a limited time. Your child can learn to read a clock to the nearest hour while playing with an adorable, purple mouse. Kids begin by setting the time on the clock. For each hour there is an exploration that sends the lovable little mouse bouncing, springing and sleeping his way through the nursery rhyme accompanied by catchy music, sounds effects, and fun animations. The explorations in Hickory Dickory Dock simulate principles of physics –  gravity, collision, friction, weight, etc. as kids play pinball with the mouse, balance weights on a set of scales, and bounce the mouse off the walls of the clock. Very cute for preschoolers – a fun way to learn how to tell time with some physics slipped in as a bonus 🙂

Hickory Dickory Dock - Mindshapes Limited

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Mad Libs

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Over 120,000,000 Mad Libs have been sold to date. MadLibs.com gets 50,000 visitors per month. And now, Mad Libs is a FREE app for the iPhone/iPad with over 3,000,000 downloads. Mad Libs are stories with words left out. 21 stories are included with this app. A reader selects a story but doesn’t tell what it is about. Writers (the other players) give words to fill in the blanks in the story. The reader calls out the type of word needed for the blank  –  adjective, noun, collective noun, verb, verb ending with ing, etc. Once all the blanks in the story have been filled, the reader reads the story aloud. The result is usually a silly, funny story. Kids love Mad Libs and in order to play, they have to know parts of speech. Mad Libs are a great classroom activity when you have 10 minutes before lunch, at the end of the day, waiting for a guest, etc.

Mad Libs - Penguin Group USA

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Christmas Apps

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FREE Christmas apps that you may want to download. Happy Holidays 🙂

Where is Santa Lite – Santa Tracker is FREE for the iPhone/iPad. The app keeps track of where Santa is and how long it will be before he arrives at your home. When using the “Where is Santa” page, it scans the world every 60 seconds to locate Santa and report on his activities. For instance, “Santa is in the North Pole and he is helping Mrs. Claus in the kitchen.” When using the “My Home” tab, it shows the location of your house and tells how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds it will be before Santa arrives. Beware – there are ads at the bottom of this app that are easy to click and will take your child to the app store. Teachers could use the app to make up math problems with the information given. Have kids convert days into weeks, days into hours, figure out the exact time he is scheduled to arrive, etc. Kids could write a story about what Santa is doing on a particular day, illustrate a timeline of what Santa has been doing for a week, etc. – lots of cute possibilities. Parents can use this app with kids to check on Santa daily – cute way to count down the days to Christmas!

Where is Santa Lite - Santa Tracker - Super Kiddo Studio

‘Twas the Night Before Jasper’s Christmas is FREE e-book for the iPhone/iPad. Jasper the dog and Smiley the cat are the stars of the classic tale. Kids can read the book to themselves or read along as it is narrated. In the read along mode, chimes let kids know when to advance to the next page. Background music (We wish You a Merry Christmas) can be turned off or on. The pages are not interactive but they are cutely & colorfully illustrated – appealing to kids. And, at the end of the story is a matching game. Beware – there are ads at the top of each page that are easy to click and will take your child to the app store. Cute FREE book – worth downloading 🙂

Twas The Night Before Jasper's Christmas (FREE) StoryChimes - Siena Entertainment, LLC

 

From the developers of Toca Boca apps comes this FREE gift for the holidays: Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift. Kids can go into the salon to groom Santa and/or his favorite Christmas tree, Topzy. They can use the tools in the salon to style their hair – cut it, comb it, make it grow, shave it, color it, and drag decorations into it. Great sound effects are also included in this fun app. Kids or parents can take a photo of the finished creation and save it to their camera roll. If parents wish, creations may be posted on the Toca Boca Facebook page. The developers have also built-in options to turn off sounds, pictures, and news. What a great springboard for creative writing – give Santa a whole new look and write a story to go with it. Thanks to the developers for a gift that inspires kids to be creative 🙂

Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift - Toca Boca AB

And if your child LOVES the above app, you may want to look into Toca Hair Salon which usually sells for $1.99.

It works the same way but it has 6 characters and  more tools than the Christmas version. Great creative fun!!

Here’s the link:

Toca Hair Salon - Toca Boca AB

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Snow Globes 3D!

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FREE for Thanksgiving – Snow Globes 3D! for the iPad. Get this fun interactive e-book to start the holiday season. Kids explore 7 different snow globe scenes with interactive surprises that are activated by tapping. And…when the iPad is tilted, snow floats around the scenes! Kids visit New York City to help light the giant Christmas tree . They also search for animals in a snow-covered forest, visit Santa & the elves while they load the sleigh, fly through the air with Santa & his reindeer, and more. The book can be read in 2D or 3D. In order to view the book in 3D, red/cyan 3D glasses are needed. The 3D glasses from a movie theater will not work. There are also 3 options for reading: read to me, read to myself, and autoplay. Nicely done app  – sure to delight your little ones 🙂

Snow Globes 3D! ~ 3D & 2D interactive storybook - See Here Studios LLC

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Three Little Piggies – Interactive Story Book with Animations

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FREE for a limited time – the full version of Three Little Piggies, an interactive version of a classic tale for your iPhone/iPad. This e-book is brightly illustrated with cute animations and interactivity on every page. Kids tap objects in each scene to interact with the story. They can also bend the iPad from side to side to start the animations. There are three reading modes: autoplay, read to myself, and listen & play. Cute sound effects and professional narration complete the package. And best of all – no characters meet their demise. This version has a happy ending so it is great for little ones. Worth downloading!

3 Little Piggies – Interactive Story Book with Animations - Kids Academy Company

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American History Time Line

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FREE for a limited time from McGraw Hill – American History Timeline. Kids can navigate the timeline to read about the hundreds of important people, places, and events that have shaped American history. When kids tap on a thumbnail photo, the app brings up a larger image and an explanation of the person, place, or event. The majority  of the drawings/photos used are from Library of Congress. There are 7 categories (such as women, inventors, constitution, etc.) that can be turned on and off so kids can see figures and/or events specific to that category. World events are also included on a parallel timeline. Two games are included: Time Line Scramble and Memory. Kids sequence events in the correct order with the Time Line Scramble Game. In the Memory Game, they match the correct date with the correct event or person.

I really like the design of the app – the ability to customize what categories you want to look at, the authenticity of the drawings/photos, the parallel world history timeline for comparison. It would be great for teaching kids read or create timelines. I only wish that it included more. Hopefully the developers will add more information in updates.

American History Time Line - McGraw-Hill School Education Group

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Grammaroplois

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Grammaropolis is billed as the place where grammar lives. It teaches 8 parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections) using animated characters based on the roles that they play in sentences. Every part of speech has its own neighborhood. Kids follow a map which takes them through a series of activities (songs, books, videos, and quizzes) to learn about the featured part of speech. If they complete everything on the map, they earn a badge. Cutely designed and simple to use, this app teaches parts of speech in a fun, “Schoolhouse Rock”  like way. The songs are catchy and upbeat so kids will love them 🙂

Nouns is a FREE download with the other parts of speech available as in-app purchases. I was impressed that this app covered so many kinds of nouns – common, proper, concrete, abstract, compound, and collective. This app would work well to introduce/teach nouns in a one iPad classroom.

Common Core Standards:

1.L.1  – b. Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.

2.L.1  – a. Use collective nouns (e.g., group). b. Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish).

3.L.1  – b.Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns. c. Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).

Grammaropolis - Grammaropolis LLC

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Plug & the Paddywhacks

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Plug & the Paddywhacks for the iPhone/iPad is an interactive storybook series. The app has some unique features such as word bubbles that trigger the narration for each page and scenes that scroll from side to side. The first issue is FREE. Additional issues are available as in-app purchases: $.99 each or $5.99 for the season of 10 issues. Plug (a lovable monster/creature) and the Padddywhacks (his friends) live inside the Plex because they cannot survive outside its walls – or so they have been taught. Issue 01 ends with a mysterious figure breaking Plug and his friends out of the Plex and the adventure begins…

Here is a link to the website that introduces the series: Plug & The Paddywhacks™. Each issue also has original music composed by Denison Witmer and friends. Download issue 01 to see if this series is something that your child might enjoy 🙂

Plug & The Paddywhacks - Scholar & Saint

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Elliot and Rocco

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FREE today – Elliot & Rocco for the iPhone/iPad. Elliot, a cute little dachshund, finds a bone but drops it when he is frightened by Rocco, a mean giant schnauzer. But the little dog triumphs after Rocco gets greedy and loses the bone. Cute story – the part of the story about Rocco losing the bone is similar to Aesop’s fable: Dog & the Bone. Teachers can use this book to compare and contrast this story with the fable. The story also has rich vocabulary – good for lessons on adjectives & adverbs, context clues, and synonyms 🙂 The story is available in four languages (German, English, Russian, Spanish). It is professionally narrated with hidden movements and sound effects on every page. Take advantage of this FREE offer!

Elliot and Rocco - Ridili GmbH

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The Artifacts

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FREE for a limited time – The Artifacts for iPhone/iPad is a fabulous story for older kids. Asaf is a boy who collects many things – antiques, treasures from other people’s trash, caterpillars, etc. When his family moves, his collections are left behind. He is not permitted to collect things in his new tidy bedroom. So instead, Asaf begins to collect thoughts – imagining all sort of wonderful things. Kids interact with the story in many fun ways: tap the screen to make Asaf’s collections appear, help find treasures on trash day, race with leaf-munching caterpillars, rub-to-reveal Asaf in a wizard’s basement, and more. I loved the variety of interactivity in this app!

Teachers can use this story in so many ways. It contains rich vocabulary – perfect for a lesson on context clues. It also provides great opportunities for creative & imaginative writing. But the best thing about this book is its message. It encourages kids to imagine, read, think, and learn 🙂

Highly recommended!

The Artifacts - Slap Happy Larry