This app is designed to help children learn to write their own letters and words using the correct sequence and strokes by tracing uppercase and lowercase letters. Features include: meets some of the basic reading and writing Common Core State Standards for kindergarten such as the introduction and mastery of print and word recognition concepts; create 36 custom name tags with your own pictures and recordings to personalize learning for your child; animations upon completion of each letter or word; more than 100 common sight/Dolch words; records student progress as word cards are completed; and a fingerpaint mode that shows completed letters in child’s own handwriting. There are no advertisements or in-app purchases. 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.
Turn your iPad into a password-protected journal with iDiary for Kids. If you can type with the iPad’s keyboard, you can easily setup a new account — just put in your email address and make a password. It is then possible to make daily entries, or if you like, jump a week ahead to make notes. Besides the ability to type, you can make sketches or put in images from your iPad’s existing photo library. The help system uses recorded voice prompts. Other features include a scrapbook and address book, support for new iOS features such as AirPrint, the ability to back-up and restore individual user data to a computer, and multi-user password protection. 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.
Turn your iPad into a talking alphabet/language generator. To build a word, you drag it from an alphabet strip onto a 44 letter grid, where it snaps into place, pronouncing any word that might be created, including nonsense words. The main menu offers two choices: Moveable Alphabet, for free exploration of word combinations; and Spelling Quiz, a talking spelling ten word test with 173 built in word lists (e.g., nature words, or 1000 most frequently used words). In the spelling tests, you hear the word, and must spell it using the same alphabet strip used in the Moveable Alphabet. Options include a spell checker that highlights unrecognized words, American and British voices, the ability to change the speed or tone of the voice, uppercase or lowercase letters, and two backgrounds. 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 talking story construction activity is designed to let young children experiment with sentence construction. There are two modes: Edit and Write. In Edit, you see a page of print, from the Three Little Pigs. It is possible to touch select words, marked with an underline, to toggle between different options. So, for example, you can change “there were three little pigs” to “there were three smelly hippos.” In Write, there are 10 blank pages with “word drop” zones. Made with GameSalad. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This collection of word puzzles includes 300 words, each with an associated picture. Any word, letter or picture can be heard with a simple touch. In the easy level, words are spelled one letter at a time. Levels 2 and 3 automatically create multi-word crosswords in different combinations. 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.
The second of two letter tracing apps (the first is Letter Writer: Oceans), this App combines a set of lower case letters with real space facts. For example, after you trace the letter ‘m’ three times, you are presented with a short narrated presentation all about the planet Mars. To complete a letter, you must follow a pulsing line of dots with your finger. See also Letter Writer Oceans for practice with upper case letters. Note that both apps are designed for the smaller iPhone or iPod Touch app (they are not iPad native). 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.
The first of two letter tracing apps (the second is Letter Writer: Space, that deals with lower case letters), this App combines a set of upper case letters with real ocean facts. For example, after you trace the letter ‘W’ three times, you are presented with a short poem about the Whale, as a large whale swims across the screen. To complete a letter, you must follow a pulsing line of dots with your finger. See also Letter Writer: Space for practice with lower case letters. Note that both apps are designed for the smaller iPhone or iPod Touch (they are not iPad native). 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.
Four early reading activities each feature a character from the PBS Super Why program. In Alpha Pig’s Lickety Letter Hunt, your child helps Alpha Pig find his way home by identifying one of three letters presented verbally (e.g., do you see the letter “v?”). In Princess Presto’s Wands-up Writing, the goal is to make objects appear by identifying letter sounds, tracing letters on the touch screen, and writing words. Wonder Red’s Rhyming Time presents words in a multiple choice format. The word is first presented (“press on the word that rhymes with trap”). Children are then shown two choices (DOG and CAP). Finally, Super Why’s Story Save is a fill-in-the-blank activity. As children play, they collect virtual stickers they can use to decorate a sticker book. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
If you don’t mind a bit of a learning curve, this ninth edition of Inspiration contains everything you’d want in a brainstorming package. New to this version: a Presentation Manager, which lets you generate slides that can be reordered as needed, much like a PPT presentation. Other view options include a map and diagram view, and a new symbol library is designed specifically to support curriculum areas.
The price is $69 for a single user (two computers), or you can upgrade to version 9 (before June 30, 2010) for $30. Each install requires a valid serial number. The program comes on a single Mac/Windows CD, and requires 250 MB of hard disk space. Prices for five-computer license packs and up start at $310. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Following the tried-and-true “buy a toy, get a password” business model, Smiley Central Studio consists of a set of $10 smiley toys, each with a password to a creativity studio, found at www.smileycentralstudio.com.
There are five types of toys, including a key chain, plush toy, a collection of figurines and charms. First you log onto www.smileycentralstudio.com where you must register and type in your 13 digit code. This process is hardly child-friendly, but fortunately is only required once. There are no credit cards or subscriptions to worry about. Next, you see your toy surrounded by sets of stamps, clothing items and paint buckets. You can then modify your Smiley by decorating the smile face. Finished work can be saved online for later viewing. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Short words, like “tree,” “ladder” or “stool” work like keys in this powerful open-ended collection of logic puzzles for the Nintendo DS. Like a small flannel board, children use the DS stylus to drag and drop objects and move through 220 progressively more difficult levels by “typing” in words, using a pop-up QWERTY keyboard. In one puzzle, for example, a large tree might get in the way. So you can type out “beaver” and a beaver appears, who gnaws the tree down. Spelling suggestions are offered, so exact spelling is not required.
Content includes ten worlds, each with eleven puzzles and eleven action levels for a total of 220 challenges. Each level has a “par” for the number of objects suggested to finish the level. Beating a level with under par, earns “Ollars”, the in-game currency, which players can use to purchase new levels and music. A Playground Mode lets you play the entire game in a sandbox style, from the title screen, and it is possible to create and share levels online using the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection.
Developed by Jerimiah Slaczka of 5th Cell (the creators of Drawn to Life, published last year by THQ). Visit http://games.kidswb.com/scribblenauts/. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.