This is a 12 screen/page short story about a little boy (Zanny) who can’t sit still. The story is designed to bring up, or illustrate the topic of children who can’t focus- who might have special needs. Besides the story, a game called The Extra Special Feelings Game lets you paste expressions over a child’s empty face, to match the feeling being described. This is designed for kids with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and PDD, to help them recognize feelings and facial expressions.
This is one of a series of ebooks and activities; each book in the series focuses on one child and one symptom, not a disorder. This is done so that any child can play with the app, to better understand another child’s diagnosis. Other books include Little Lily’s Touch Book and Timmy Tastes Textures. The books were written by Pamela Sloane-Bradbury for her son, Oscar, who has developmental disabilities. Illustrations are by Allison Garwood. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Part of the Brainy Fables series of storybook apps, Uxmal is an English/Spanish story about a young boy, Uxmal, who is growing up in the Mayan world. The story was written by Franco Soldi, illustrated in blue and white by Pedro Bascon. In the story, a local carnival brought together the county’s strongest men to compete in the famous pyramid challenge, but none of them succeeds in throwing the coconut over the pyramid. But, then a little boy named Uxmal is able to do it, and changes the history of his town. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Classic paper doll play comes to the iPad, complete with well-stocked libraries of shoes, hair styles, dresses, tops, bottoms and accessories. After you choose a doll, you pick a name and a setting (such as a barn or a wedding) then you start mixing and matching. Content includes 120 stickers, eight background scenes including a wedding, beach, shopping and a disco. Each scene can be enhanced with things, such as, dogs, butterflies and ice cream cones. In addition, you can name each doll. A child’s work can be saved as a photo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Featuring a simple art style and a compelling story about a trouble-making dog, Quem Soltou o Pum? (Who let Fart out?) is proof that you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to tell a story on the iPad. The story is simple — a much loved dog keeps making a mess, but the dialog (in Portuguese) is full of puns. The creative writing combined with the simple but compelling interactivity earned the title an honorable mention in the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize. Too bad it doesn’t cost less (the high price earned it a lower rating on our scale). Teaches: reading, Portugese. Companhia das Letras. www.companhiadasletras.com.br, $8.99. Best for ages 3-up.
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How’d you like to stick the head of a shrimp onto a rhinoceros? Now you can, with this mix-and-match app from Mexico. By swiping the head, middle and tail, you can combine the creatures until you get what you want. Then, you can color your animal with a set of art tools. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
How many circles can you find in a puzzle? This “I SPY” like shape finding game contains 12 puzzles. The objective is to touch the shapes to find them. For example, you might have to spot all the squares in a construction site. The app provides simple explanations of eight geometric shapes including circles, diamonds, ovals, rectangles, semi-circles, squares, trapezoids, and triangles. The app also reinforces counting from 1-20, because each shape is counted as it is discovered. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This interactive comic introduces “environmentally aware” themes to children, through the adventures of three friends named Flash, Graham and Melody Tulip. The 26 screen story is about the friends search to learn the identity of the Phantom Clickerist — the person (or creature) who keeps turning out the lights. The creature, turns out to be a polar bear, who wants to prevent global warming. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Perfect Pitch Piano (PPPiano) is designed to teach you to play piano by ear, by playing a copy-cat style game with your iPad. Your screen displays a large, responsive keyboard that is just over an octave in size (17 keys) and sounds exactly like a piano. The app starts easy, playing a one or two note phrase and then waits for you to answer. The lessons get progressively harder; wrong answers give you another chance, depending on the settings. You can adjust the activity so that you can make as many as six mistakes. You can also change the pitch and tempo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Designed to help children learn and practice the fundamentals of reading both analog (with hands) and digital (with numerals) clocks, this app drills children with five monsters who have eyes that watch your fingers move on the screen. Children can unlock up to 15 photos of the monsters by completing the three levels of difficulty for each character and earning 5 stars. In the easy level, time is kept on the hour and half-past the hour as an introduction to telling the time. In the medium level, time is tested at 5 minute intervals, introducing the concepts of “past”, “to”, “quarter past”, etc. Getting an answer wrong will remove a star you’ve already earned. The hard level will test children across the full range of the clock, but in this round you have to earn 5 stars in a row to please the monsters. If you get a question wrong you have to try again. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This a memory game designed to provide practice making eye contact, or “eye contact skills.” It is designed for use with children with special needs, specifically those with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. You are shown a close-up view of a person, and a numeral is shown on their retina for a few seconds. You are then asked to type in the number, making this a memory game. By answering the correct number, you earn money. You can use the money you earn to buy things for your restaurant, creating a fun, accumulative play pattern. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
La Forêt by Gallimard Jeunesse features clear, hand drawn, labeled illustrations, professional French narration, and a well designed table of contents. Features include 3D illustrations that respond to screen tilting, the ability to “paint” seasons with your finger, hidden animals and insects and realistic ambient sounds. Note, that there is no English language option. You can use this title to expose your child to a real immersive French experience. Illustrations are by René Mettler. Developed by Studio v2 for Gallimard Jeunesse. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This Pixar-themed collection of movement games contains five multi-level games; each game is based on a different set of movie characters. You start by entering a Pixar theme park; to move you pump your arms (as if running). You’ll soon discover different gates for the Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars 2 and Toy Story 3. Each story contains an obstacle course where you must jump, climb and run your way to the end. A co-op mode lets a second player jump in or out of an activity at any point. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a 32 screen rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk that follows the original story line, with audio narration, read-along text, and some interactive features. Created by Ayars Animation. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Part of the iWorldGeography series, this is a drill on country names, shapes, and locations. Children can touch a country to hear its name, or watch a movie with animated introductions. A quiz mode asks children to locate countries and a puzzle requires reconstruction of the map. There is a Labeling Lightbulb that can be touched to study or peek at control maps. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Gube is a collection of over 500 pre-screened YouTube videos, each with no ads, and tagged by age. There’s no shortage of science, episodes of existing children’s programing like Sesame Street, and silly animals. Note that you’ll need a live Internet connection. The preferences let you filter the videos by age group (infant, toddler, pre-school, and grade school). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Available in Italian and created in Rome, this interactive storybook by illustrator Gioia Marchegiani pulls you inside the world of a little girl who dreams about birds. In some of the screens, you can draw your own bird. It is possible to toggle the background guitar music on/off, as well as the narration. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Created in Mexico, this story deals with a hard but necessary subject; death and dying (or coming and going). The conclusion, after about 14 watercolor and color collage screens … “it is so.” The content comes from a book by Paloma Valdiva. The book could create a context in which to discuss a difficult subject. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This make-your-own dream machine lets you mix and match artistic elements with a left or right swipe. With each motion, the “dream” changes, along with an accompanying three-sentence poem, presented and narrated in French. There is no English option. The app features the art of Stéphane Kiehl. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on an early rendition of the story, this app adapts an animation technique called scanimation to create the illusion of motion. This is done by moving vertical black and white lines against one another — one in the foreground, the other in the background. In the “Let Me Read” mode, you control the speed of the animation. No color is used, other than to highlight words as they are read. This app was created by Marmaduke Park and Umesh Shukla. Shukla is also the publisher. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You can bring the world of Neverland to life, in your choice of language, with this rendition of Peter Pan. Pages can be changed by swiping, plus there is an easy-to-access table of contents. Both the on-screen text and audio narration can be toggled and examined, and children can have the story read to them, or read it on their own. Features of the enhanced HD version include: touch pronunciation, explain to me, show me, and Karaoke reading. Two versions of The Adventures of Peter Pan are available: an enhanced HD version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (USD $3.99), and a streamlined, non-interactive version for iPhone and iPod touch ($0.99). Designed by French publisher Chocolapps’ (formerly So Ouat!) this app contains 42 screens/pages of content. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Love you to the Moon & Back is an ebook designed with “art from the heart” from Sue Shanaha. The 25 screen app is a collection of love-inspired portraits. There are three ways to read the book. Read to Me lets you listen to the narrated story while the text is displayed, one word at a time. After the narration finishes, you can touch objects to see and hear them labeled. Auto Play also lets you listen to the narrated story, but the pages automatically advance once the narration is finished. Read Myself lets the child read the story on their own, but they can also touch a word to hear it being spoken aloud. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Designed specifically around the unique attributes of the Sony Vita handheld game system, Little Deviants is a collection of thirty games that provide a good test of your problem solving abilities and reaction time. In Hole Roll Control, you touch the back of the Vita (the back side has a sensitive, capacitive screen, like the iPad) to see the “bump” of your finger on a floating landscape. By moving the bump around, you push one of the deviants (they roll) toward a hole. Other games include House of Whacks, Depth Charge, and Botz Blast — the latter an augmented reality game that uses the outside-facing camera to let you target bad guys who are floating around the room. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This language experience/creativity app puts a children’s book author (Mo Willems) inside his own app. It also invites you (or a child) to serve as the co-author/ co- illustrator. The result is a Mad-Libs style experience where you can draw elements of the story, and insert your own favorite favorite parts in the narrative. There are two primary modes from the main menu: Create Your Own Story (choose parts of the story and at times record your own voice) and Draw the Pigeon (a free-drawing experience, where Mo Willems gives you art lessons). Features include the ability to see the narration (like captions), and the ability to record your own voice, to hear it woven into the story. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This iPad peripheral expands your iPad’s ability to take surprisingly clear 7 megapixel pictures, without your iPad. The tiny aluminum-body comes with a self-installing photo-editing app that starts when you plug the camera into the iPad’s 30-pin adapter port (this also charges the battery, pulling power from the iPad). Features include a micro-SD port, flash, and preview screen. The camera is made by Saker (known for less than powerful technology cameras) for Disney Consumer Products. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Elementary teachers, take note: here’s a noble attempt to use the iPad to take reading assessment to a new level. Booksy presents a select group of leveled readers (sold separately) to children and then keeps records. It also records their voice on each page, so (in theory) you could use Booksy for part of a digital portfolio. Besides capturing the audio files, Booksy tracks each word pressed, and generates a list in an email format. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This mashup from vintage 1980 cartoon super heroes combines actual footage from the Power Rangers TV show with a well designed fighting format for one or two players. In the DS version you use your stylus, and in the Wii version your Wii Remote as your sword to morph into a Red, Blue, Green, Yellow or Pink Ranger. Each has different properties, required to defeat each enemy. There’s a lot to explore — You can unlock secret passageways, access hidden levers, and follow mystical pathways to get hints on how to defeat the MegaMonster. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Want to see what the home-based math curriculum of the iPad age looks like? Designed by the highly regarded French app developer, GameLoft, Playful Minds is a $3 iPad-based math curriculum that provides a leveled, K-2 math curriculum, mixed with an assessment system along with a set of arcade-like games to reinforce the content. After you login (with an email address) you see a series of islands, each with an animal professor host, along with a game-board. Each stop represents a new set of problems. The problems are mostly multiple choice or correct answer. They’ve been pulled from “Skill Sharpeners Math” — one of many inspired by the NCTM standards for K-2. Content includes 300 exercises and mini-games organized around Algebra, Geometry, Data Analysis, Measurement, and Numbers & Operations. Directions and explanations are displayed in print and by narrator; the app can handle up to five children. Features include the ability to adjust sounds and toggle between US or UK English. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Here’s a mix-and-match activity that turns you into the editor of a fashion magazine. You can dress your Moxie Girlz dolls by trying different outfits, hair, eye color and so on. Next, you stage a photo shoot, and take different photos, earning money that can be used to buy more accessories. Features include journal and diary options, Moxie Girlz quizzes and the ability to add your own photo to the game, providing you have a DSi (with a camera). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This second Just Dance Kids contains 40 new dances for 1 to 4 players, plus some new platform options (the last version was Wii only). The dances are led by a squad of real kids, who model the moves. Content includes songs from The Wiggles and Yo Yo Gabba, as well as covers of popular songs including Whip My Hair, Just the Way You Are and Burning Up. A shuffle mode lets you select your favorite songs for non-stop dancing, and there’s a playlist option, say, for a party. The Wii version features a four player cooperative mode, as well as a Balloon Mode where kids compete against each other to get more items and earn more points by shaking their Wii Remotes. The Kinect version tracks kids movements with the sensor and features a Create mode that lets kids star in their own music video and create their own original dances for any song. The Playstation Move version lets kids capture their dance moves using the PS3 camera to snap photos while dancing, and can be played with up to four players. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Beanie Baby lovers now have an app of their own, in the form of Beanie Ballz Bounce. Designed for the iOS smaller screens, the free app is a bit like Doodle Jump, only backwards. Instead of bouncing higher, you drop down, from platform to platform, earning points by collecting Ty labels. You also have to avoid Beanie Monsters who sit on some of the platforms. If you make it to the bottom, you unlock the next level. There are four levels total. Created by Fun Nugget for Ty, Inc. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Turn your living room screen into a hair and nail salon, with this mix-and-match type of creativity experience. In the story, Barbie is running an operation called Jet, Set & Style Inc. You will travel around the world on the Barbie Jet Salon to do hair, nails and to consult on fashion advice. As you play, you earn “fashionista points” which can be used for the chance to style Barbie herself, for a show in Milan. Developed by Game Machine Studios for THQ. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
New from French publisher So Ouat! (now named Chocolapps), a rendition of Adventures of Robin Hood, in the form of a 25 page/screen retelling of the classic story, complete with pop-up animations, on-screen text and audio narration and a full-screen cartoon video of the story. The HD version includes mini-games. Children might find the hooded Robin in a crowd, compete in an archery tournament, and storm Prince John’s castle to rescue Maid Marian. Other features include: ‘touch pronunciation’ (touch a word to hear it spoken); “explain to me” (a word’s definition and its opposite are given, to provide context for unfamiliar words); “show me” (an illustration displays to represent a word); and “Karaoke reading” (designed to help children learn to read the story themselves). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
What does the inside of a seashell look like? What about an insect, a motorcycle or an iPad? Here’s an app that lets you find out. The app contrasts two images — before x-ray and after x-ray, and every possible gradation between. To move between the views, you swipe with a single finger, from top to bottom. Content includes 26 everyday objects, arranged from A to Z. A double-tap offers a stereoscopic option, or you can pinch to zoom and reveal detail. This app is based on the photography of Hugh Turvey, the Artist in Residence at the British Institute of Radiology. The accompanying text is by author Paul Rosenthal. There are different versions, one for iPad, the other for iPhone or iPod Touch. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Plants HD lets you drag and drop the seven stages of a plant into the correct order: seeds-dispersal-germination-plants and trees-flowers-pollination-fruits. Features of the app include the ability to tap on a stage to learn facts about the process (all text is narrated, a nice feature) and a quiz that lets you earn points. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Transform your iPad into a zany Dr. Seuss horn, with eight buttons, arranged as a whole-tone. Content includes 10 songs, including the soundtrack from The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Hop on Pop and more. There are five horn-style instruments with different voices, and fun effects, including an echo-chamber fish bowl. The GameCenter feature lets you match scores with others. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Loud Crow Interactive and Peanuts Worldwide have partnered to produced a series of digital interactive books based on the cartoon specials. The first in the series, A Charlie Brown Christmas, features narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, along with original scenes and dialog from the 1965 animated classic, and digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your smartphone or tablet. See also “My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree,” a free add on designed to give you a taste of this app; that lets you decorate your own tree. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-charlie-brown-christmas/id484320301?mt=8 Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Blagojevic, B. (2011). iPads in K-3: Notes From Maine’s Leveraging Learning Institute. Children’s Technology Review, December 2011, Vol. 19, No 12, Issue 141 p. 4-5.
Download this article as a PDF as it originally appeared in the print issue.
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iPads in K-3: Notes From Maine’s Leveraging Learning Institute
By Bonnie Blagojevic
“All kids are rockets. Our job as educators is to ignite the fuse.” Tom Morrill, Former Maine Superintendent
When the Auburn, Maine schools announced last April every Kindergartener in the district would receive an iPad, some people had their doubts. How could such an expense pay off? These questions were discussed last month (Nov 16-18) during a three-day conference, called the Leveraging Learning Institute. In case you weren’t one of the 100 participants, here’s a run through the agenda, along with some links that will let you follow Auburn’s iPad initiative.
This toy/screen experience turns your Nintendo DS into a remote control for a robotic dog. Instead of using standard infra-red signals, however, this dog is controlled by sound, in the form of coded chirps that come out of your Nintendo DS speakers. A microphone in Wappy Dog can “hear” the chirps, which can be sent to Wappy Dog’s computer for different responses. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Stretching the term “non-fiction,” The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library is an ebook adaptation of the Dr. Seuss series, done in classic Oceanhouse Media style, where you can touch any item or word to see it labeled. You can also tap the stars on some of the pages to reveal constellations and see them identified. Other titles in the series will explore subjects including dinosaurs, pets, marine life and trees, each featuring classic characters from the original The Cat in the Hat series. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Along with Mario Kart 7, this title marks Mario’s debut on the Nintendo 3DS. By combining the motion sensing abilities of the Nintendo 3DS with a 3D screen, you can use depths and distances to get from one platform to the next. You can also share the game with another player using the Street Pass feature. New enemies include Goombas with tails, tall stacks of Goombas, and a Piranha Plant that spits ink to obscure your view. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.