iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

pre-k

Two Winter-themed iPad Apps for Pre-K Students

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sago_mini_flyer Today’s high temperature here in Woodstock, Maine is a crisp 4F. This is the perfect type of day to review a couple of winter-themed apps for pre-K students.

Sago Mini Forest Flyer is a cute iPad app for toddlers. The app may be best described as a mini choose-your-own adventure story. Children drag the flying bird-like character named Robin through the animated forest. As they navigate the forest students can stop and discover animations like a radio next to a tree stump to dance on, they can unwrap presents, or plug-in the decorative lights on a tree. Sago Mini Forest Flyer is currently free (12/12/2013).

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snowInto the Snow: A Stella and Sam Adventure is an illustrated and narrated four chapter book about fun winter activities. In each chapter of the story students are prompted to interact with the story by doing things like organizing sticks and pine cones to create a stick figure that participates in a hockey game. Into the Snow: A Stella and Sam Adventure is currently free (12/12/2013).

 

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Home KG – A Free iPad App for Learning to Write

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Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 7.23.25 AM Home KG is a free iPad designed to help children learn to write all of the letters of the alphabet, numbers one through nine, and ten basic shapes. Children trace the letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and shapes. Children can save their work in the app. The app has a couple of sound options that can be turned on or off. The first sound option is simple background music. The second sound option is hearing the name of the letters, numbers, and shapes read to the child using the app.

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Home KG is a nice, free app that could help pre-K and elementary school students learn to write their letters and numbers. The app also helps students learn to recognize the names of basic shapes. Unlike similar free apps that I’ve tried, Home KG gives students the complete alphabet without the need to complete an in-app upgrade purchase.

Dino Store – A Fun, Interactive Story for Your Child’s iPad

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Screen Shot 2013-02-03 at 5.19.29 PM The more time I spend with my iPad the more I am impressed by the possibilities it offers for enhanced storytelling from both a production and from a consumption standpoint. Dino Store is an example of iPads being great tools for enhancing a student’s reading experience. Dino Store is a twenty-three page story about a father and son going to the grocery store and accidentally coming home with dinosaur eggs that hatch at home. On each page of the story children can tap objects to make them change color, make sounds, move the dinosaurs, and discover other fun surprises.

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Dino Store is currently available for free. It’s a nice little app for teachers and parents looking for stories to read to their children. Children can also use the app on their own and have the story narrated to them.

Draw Along With Stella and Sam Lets Students Add Color to Short Stories

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Screen Shot 2013-01-13 at 1.38.31 PM Draw Along With Stella and Sam is a fun app for kids of preschool and Kindergarten age. The app provides children with ten objects that they can color by using the drawing tools in the app. The drawing tools include three brush stroke sizes, twelve colors, and nine virtual stamps to apply to each drawing. Children can erase part or all of a drawing at any time. Children can also include pictures of themselves or others by using the camera on their iPads. I took a picture of one of my dogs and included it in my sailboat drawing.

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There are ten objects in all that a child can color in Draw Along With and Stell and Sam. The list of objects for coloring include a sailboat, a plane, a butterfly, and a group of three friends that resemble paper dolls. After a child completes a drawing he or she can hear Stella and Sam tell a short story centered around the object he or she just colored in. A video of the story featuring the child’s drawing can saved to his or her iPad.

Moody Monster Manor Helps Kids Recognize Emotions

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moody_monsterMoody Monster Manor is a free iPad app that is designed to help children learn to recognize emotions. Moody Monster Manor features twenty cartoon monsters that represent emotions that children commonly experience. Some of the Moody Monsters that children will meet in the manor include Ecstatic Ed, Worried Wanda, Sad Sal, and Sorry Simon. Children can also create their own Moody Monsters to represent how they’re feeling.

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After meeting all of the monsters in Moody Monster Manor children can help the monsters deal with their emotions in four fun games (more games are in development). Children can help Hungry Hank make a snack, help Worried Wanda with her homework, and help Confused Carl match name tags to monsters. My favorite of the games is helping Scared Sam capture bad dreams so that he can get to sleep. To help Scared Sam capture the bad dreams students have to move their iPads left and right to shine a virtual flashlight on the bad dreams.

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Moody Monster Manor could be a great app to help children recognize emotions that they feel or that they see in others. Moody Monster Manor is an app that I learned about from Rod Berger during one of our Core of Education vodcasts.