FREE for limited time – Classic Tales: 3 Little Pigs. From Italian developer, Jekolab Srl, comes a cute & colorful, interactive version of the classic tale – 3 Little Pigs. Kids can choose to have the story read to them or they can read it one their own. This educational app can easily be switched to 4 different languages: English, French, Italian, or Spanish – making it great resource for a foreign language class! Nicely done with a happy ending – the pigs all get away!
FREE for a limited time – Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Movie Storybook, a narrated educational app based on the book/movie of the same name. Kids join Flint Lockwood & friends in this educational app. Flint invents a machine that turns water into food to help turn the town into a thriving “food tourism” destination. Eventually the food mutates until a tornado formed of spaghetti and meatballs threatens the town! The app also includes an activity book – available for only $.99 as an in-app purchase. Nicely done!!
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cloudy-chance-meatballs-movie/id703020863?mt=8&uo=4
Selected New & Noteworthy in Education by Apple in April 2013 – Sun by KIDS DISCOVER is FREE for a limited time! The Sun is very important life on Earth. Without it, Earth would be a frozen rock traveling in space. This educational app helps kids learn about the Sun and how it affects our food, energy, seasons, weather, and more. KIDS DISCOVER has been creating award-winning content for kids for over 20 years. Get the interactive, digital version of this book for FREE. 🙂
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sun-by-kids-discover/id630607047?mt=8&uo=4
Over 3 million downloads and counting… On sale for $.99 – Nighty Night. This interactive bedtime app for kids 1 – 4 years old is so sweet! The artwork is beautifully done by Heidi Wittlinger, an Oscar nominated artist. Kids click off the lights around the farm to put 7 animals to bed – setting the mood for their own bedtime. 🙂 6 additional animals can be added with in-app purchases. The story easily changes to 12 different languages – without going into the general settings of your iPad. This educational app is really lovely and it has been successful internationally – winning the App of the Year 2011 in the “books category” in Germany & the U.S. It also reached #1 in iPad books in the US, Brazil, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Australia Switzerland and Austria!
On sale this weekend ($.99) for the cookie monsters in your life 🙂 This e-book for the iPhone/iPad normally sells for $2.99. There’s a cookie thief in town and your child becomes an official deputy to help identify him. Words are highlighted as the story is read so that beginning readers can read along. The story is presented in a movie-like format with the text appearing in talk bubbles. Kids tap an arrow on the right to advance to the story to next page/scene (which I wish loaded a bit faster). There are also surprise animations when kids tap the characters. A really nice feature of this educational app is the Parent Notes section which gives 22 tips on how to use the book with your child. At the end of the story your child can create his/her own wanted poster. Take a picture with your camera or use one from your photo album and let your child decorate it with paints and stickers. Creations can be printed or shared via email, which is a locked option thank you! My daughter was obsessed with the cookie monster when she was little – she would have loved this app. Worth downloading!
Recommended!
Weekend sale!! To celebrate the start of the new season, all Sesame Street educational apps are reduced to $.99 or FREE.
Here are links to 6 educational apps featuring lovable Elmo:
Download link for Elmo Loves ABCs: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elmo-loves-abcs-for-ipad/id426747278?mt=8&uo=4
Download link for Elmo Loves 123s: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elmo-loves-123s/id581585669?mt=8&uo=4
Download link for Elmo’s Monster Maker: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elmos-monster-maker-hd/id408479571?mt=8&uo=4
Download link for Elmo’s Birthday: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elmos-birthday/id370005385?mt=8&uo=4
Download link for Elmo’s Story Collection: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elmo-story-collection/id525593840?mt=8&uo=4
Download link for Potty Time with Elmo: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/potty-time-with-elmo/id525507410?mt=8&uo=4
Monster at the End of This Book – $.99 for the weekend!! If you are a parent/ grandparent of a preschooler, you have probably own this book and have read it MANY times. If you don’t own it, here is your chance to get it for a reduced price. It is a favorite of many children that I know. 🙂
Grover uses a number of inventive ways (ropes, nailed boards, etc.) to prevent readers from getting to another monster hiding at the end of this story. Kids join in the silly fun as they rid of Grover’s roadblocks. This app has won a number of awards: # 1 in Books in the App Store, 2012 Cynopsis Kids Imagination Award – Best Preschool App, one of Babble’s 50 Best iPhone and iPad Apps for Kids of 2011, and 2011 Children’s Technology Review, Editor’s Choice Award. Silly fun for your little ones – a GREAT educational app!
FREE for a limited time – 6 beginning reading apps!! These educational apps for the iPhone/iPad are from the ABC Mouse word family beginning reader series. I chose to downloaded The Hen in the Pen in order to review the series. Each story emphasizes words from a particular word family. There are also easy sight words in the stories. There are several ways that the books can be read: Read to Me, Read with Pause, I Can Read It, and Hear the Words. I really like the Hear the Words option. It allows the child to read alone but tap any word that he/she gets stuck on. There are parent tips on the title page that explain word families and sight words for beginning readers. There are also parent tips throughout the books. The illustrations are colorful and support the text so that kids can use picture clues as they read. The story lines are very simple. But, that is not a negative thing because these educational apps are more about the process of reading than the actual story. When my son was an early reader, he loved books like these because he could read them on his own. That alone makes them worth downloading – not to mention that they are FREE.
Common Core Standards met:
K.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
Recommended!
Ham with Jam Dan and Jan
Hen in the Pen Big Pig & Little Pig
To Run is Fun Big Bug and Little Bug
FREE for a limited time – Tickle Finger Under the Sea, an interactive e-book for toddlers. Kids join Tiny Tinga the monkey for a funny underwater adventure in this educational app. Tiny Tinga explores the world under the sea as he searches for his yellow submarine. KIds help him tickle “the baddies” that he encounters along the way! Kids will also discover secret sounds and events as they read or listen to the book. This cute story is sure to have kids giggling along with the sea creatures – so fun to be silly!
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tickle-finger-under-the-sea-hd/id516020483?mt=8&uo=4
FREE again – The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare, an updated version of the classic fable for 4 – 8 year olds. This fun rendition of the Tortoise and the Hare is set in modern times and told in rhyme. The app has two modes – Read to Me and Read by Myself. The Read to Me mode is professionally narrated. In either mode, kids will enjoy Christina Forshay’s colorful illustrations which fill the pages of this groovy tale. The story also features animations, sound effects, and background music – very nicely put together!
This book would be great to use in a classroom. You could compare and contrast this modern version to the classic tale. The story is also rich with rhyming words. You could use the book full group and identify rhyming twins (look-alike & sound-alike) and rhyming cousins (sound-alike only). Rich in vocabulary, it also makes a great choice for story time! Download it today. 🙂
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