By Brooke Marsh, Technology Teacher
It’s summertime – time for the pool, the beach, and the sun! But it won’t hurt to work in a little learning time too – and while you’re at it, let’s make it fun! One of the best ways to do that is on your iPad or iPod. Here are some great apps that you might want to explore this summer for your child to learn new concepts or review from the previous year!
Pre-school & Kindergarten:
· Anything Starfall (ABCs, Numbers, Learn to Read) – the award winning early learning website makers have created multiple apps that are great for young learners
· Anything PBSKids (Wild Kratts, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, Caillou, Cyberchase Shapes) – once again, the folks at PBS Kids have made fun and educational apps for preschool – 2nd grade
· Anything Sprout (Zerby Derby, Chica Adventure, Good Night Star, Dress Chica and more) – terrific preschool apps
· Monkey Preschool Lunchbox – this one is great for shapes, colors, and numbers
· Agnitus – Award-winning preschool and early learning app
· Fish School HD – shapes, colors, numbers, letters, groups
· Endless Alphabet – fun interactive ABCs and vocabulary
· Let’s Make Shapes – helps with motor skills as well as shapes; students trace shapes with their finger
· Alien Buddies – shapes, letters, colors, numbers, motor skills
· Dr. Seuss Apps (Cat in the Hat, ABCs)
· Toca Band – make your own music
· Musical Paint
Elementary:
There are so many good apps out there that I’ll just highlight a few by subject. Many of the previously listed PBS Kids apps are great for early elementary as well as preschoolers.
· Art – Doodle Buddy (drawing), ColarApp HD (this amazing app lets kids color a physical coloring sheet then this app brings it to life in 3D and animation), EyePaint Animals, Intro to Colors by Montessorium
· Bible – YouVersion Bible for Kids (a very colorful, interactive kids Bible), Beginner’s Bible, Veggie Tales League of Incredible Vegetables, Watch and Find (Veggie Tales games and video clips)
· Foreign Language – Rosetta Stone Reading English and Speaking Spanish, Little Pim
· General Education - BrainPop Featured movie (educational movie clips on a variety of subjects)
· Language Arts – Jumbled Sentences 3 (writing skills), Mad Libs (parts of speech), Shake a Phrase (language, writing, parts of speech), Grammaropolis (complete grammar workshop), Word Stack (vocab, synonyms), Grammar Jammers
· Math – Pop Math (math drills and practice), Motion Math (versions for different levels and topics), Splash Math (different apps by grade), Math Dojo (addition), Dragon Shapes (geometry and shapes); Dragon Box (for later elementary students – introduces algebra concepts in a such a fun way that students won’t even realize they are learning it)
· Music – Garage Band (make your own songs), Little Fox Music Box (sing-a-long interactive songbook), EarWizard (ear training and memory)
· Reading – Reading Rainbow, iBooks, Bob Books (early readers), PBS Kids
· Science – The Human Body by Tinybop, Ranger Rick Jr., Piiig Labs (build interactive science experiments), Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, National Geographic Ultimate Dinopedia, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Kids Discover Space, Simple Physics (learn the principles of physics by completing real world challenges – really fun and challenging app), Sid the Science Kid, GTZoo Lite (explore the zoo)
· Social Studies – Stack the States and Stack the Countries (geography games), Barefoot World (atlas and interactive information about different countries, animals, etc), U.S. Geography with Flat Stanley (early elementary)
· Spelling – Spelling City (enter your own words and practice or use a class account), Rocket Speller (early spelling skills), Word Drop (typing and Spelling)
· Storytelling, Moviemaking (Creativity) – Sock Puppets, Puppet Pals, Educreation, and ToonTastic are really fun apps that allow students to be creative and express their own ideas or to share about a topic that they are passionate about; Prezi allows you to create a presentation (similar to PowerPoint), iMovie (make your own movie); Green Screen (make your own movie using green screen technology), Comic Life (make your own comic book), iStopMotion (Stop Motion Animation)
· Technology – Daisy the Dinosaur (programming), Hopscotch (programming), Lightbot (one of my favorite beginning programming and logic apps), Move the Turtle (programming), Tap Typing (reinforces touch typing skills), Minecraft Pocket Edition (logic and programming skills)
Internet & Media Safety
While there are lots of fun and educational things out there on the Internet and in apps, it pays to raise media wise children. Some of the apps that might help your child learn about Internet safety are:
· Digital Passport – this app allows a student to learn about internet safety and receive a “Digital Passport”; it covers passwords, cyberbullying, privacy, communication, creative credit and searching
· NetSmartz Rescue Run – NetSmartz has a great website with internet safety games and videos and this app is produced by them also
· Professor Garfield’s Cyberbullying – kids can learn about cyberbullying and how to avoid it
· Stop That Post…Again – this app teaches kids about the problems with posting unwise or inappropriate things but it is in a fun game format
Think Twice Apps
It is important to realize that your child is not an adult yet and hasn’t developed the critical thinking skills or the wisdom that he needs to make the best choices in social media or other interactive websites or apps. You may want to have some discussions about privacy and what is appropriate to post or to view before allowing your child access to apps like Instagram, Snap Chat, KIK Messenger, Omeagle, Vine, or Whisper. And, of course, Facebook should be limited to those 13 or older. The risk is not always on the side of your child and what she may post on social media but on the side of those out there who may not be safe for your child to interact with – we need to help our children gently learn that not everyone out there is friendly and safe. We want our children to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Also, don’t forget to take some time regularly to check your child’s phone, iPad, iPod or other device and see what they are posting and viewing. . Two good online sources to help you evaluate apps and websites are: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ and http://www.pluggedin.com/.
Enjoy your summer of fun and learning!
(Note: If you’d rather explore learning games on a computer or laptop, you can find a list on the BBS Launch Pad at http://bbslab.weebly.com/.)