Scribble Press is an amazing app that lets you be the author and illustrator as you create your own books. This is one cool tool! Kids can use their imaginations while writing, illustrating, and publishing an ibook, which can then be shared. Wait, it’s get better. This app is not only FREE, it is phenomenal! There are three parts: My Books, My Drawings and Gallery. Scribble Press was created by two moms, 
Anna Barber and Darcy Pollack, who were following their childhood dream when they created a place for kids and families to write, illustrate and publish their own books. Anna adds, “I am a lifelong book lover and grew up in a publishing family in New York City. I started the company five years ago, Scribble Press operates retail studios where kids publish their own books in NYC and LA.”
Fast forward… their retail studios are such a success, they decided to go digital. Now anyone can make a book and actually get a real copy sent directly to their mailbox starting at $9.99. No other app offers that service! What a delight in this digital age that kids can get a hardcopy of their own creation. “Most kids draw well before they write well,” says Anna. “The iPad is a good medium for that, but the computer isn’t… The minute [the iPad] came out, I thought it was the perfect channel for what we were trying to do.” They use Faber-Castell materials and even have an e-shop, so don’t feel bad if you can’t make it to CA or NY.
“Scribble Press for iPad makes it easy to create a book on the iPad. Children, and grownups too, can write original stories or use one of over 50 story templates, draw using over 500 drawing tools, upload photos or original artwork and instantly publish in the ebook gallery or share with friends anywhere in the world.” — Scribble Press Team
Got writers block? Don’t like your own drawing? No problem, they’ve got you covered in every conceivable way. There are 50 story templates to get you started as well as all the goodies listed below:
- over 500 drawing tools, including markers and stamps in a vast array of colors
- a unique sticker collection
- your own photo library
- an easy and fun to use book layout tool
- sharing tools that make it easy to show the world – or just family and friends – your great finished product!
- PLUS, you can use Scribble Press for iPad to read books created by other kids, from all around the world!
“There are several classrooms using it in the US and abroad”, shares Anna. This is a perfect fit for the classroom. It could be part of writers workshop or set up as a station/center for students to use instead of paper and pencil. From our perspective, the publishing feature is the real draw. As teachers, we would like to have the ability to turn on or off certain extras, to promote the creative writing process as well as the illustrating, during a structured activity. This could be used in any subject area from social studies to science to math, and of course ELA. Also, a great way to see if students understand a concept. It would be great for homework as well as classwork. We found our creative students were very drawn to this app and with time, we saw other less creative kids taking risks. Overall, this is a great app for fun, or for assignments in those schools lucky enough to be implementing iPads into their classrooms. Exciting news, scribble press will soon offer board books – so your toddler can get published!
Scribble Press is dedicated to inspiring and empowering all kids to create and share their stories. Scribble Press for iPad takes the fun of doodles and imagining and turns it into the satisfaction of creating a finished story.
Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator, by Harper Collins Ltd, is the perfect way to engage young children into the wonderful world of literacy. Collins Big Cat has teamed up with award-winning educational developers, Shoo Fly, to create apps. This simple yet adorable story, written and illustrated by Tom Hopgood, is about Ned the Hedgehog, who was looking for a home on a cold, dark night. Does he live down a little hole? No. Does he live down a big hole? No. As leaves fall to the forest floor and stars twinkle in the night sky, Ned needs to find a warm place to sleep for the winter. This darling character is turned away again and again until he finally gets some help from the bats in the old barn.
Harper Collins has created the perfect balance of audio, interactivity, and visuals that never distract from the storyline itself. This is the kind of ibook that kids will ask for over and over again. A cute paw print icon id used to help kids find the surprise interactivity on each page. The audio narration can be turned on or off as well as the music and sound effects. Always helpful and included here is the read along with the narration where the words are highlighted as they are spoken. A very cool feature is the capability to have the child record their own narration and sound effects.
It doesn’t end there, this app also includes a comprehension quiz that allows you to return to the text if you are not sure, very thoughtful. Wait, there’s more! A Story Creator is part of the package and here kids can choose the scene, objects, characters and text to make their own story! The ability to narrate your story is available as well. This app doesn’t cease to impress!
• Transfer reading to writing using Story Creator: make your own book using pictures, characters and key vocabulary from the story, transforming readers into writers
• Practical guidance for adults helping children to develop their reading, writing and communication skills
This popular reading series is used and trusted by over 9000 UK primary schools, as well as English-speaking schools all over the world. Now available on the App Store for the first time, Collins Big Cat has brought the quality that teachers, parents and children have come to expect to digital versions of the their books.
ParisAppTours: Beware Mme la Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris by Time Traveler Tours, is an amazingly sophisticated educational tool, that is also tremendously fun! This interactive StoryApp is written expressly for the younger set, but that didn’t stop us from loving it. This app takes travelers back to a legendary moment in Parisian history, with a famous narrated/tour guide. Fantastique! The narration is one feature that makes this app a standout, as the story is told from the perspective of someone whose actions radically affected that time period. This app provides an engaging and vivid understanding of the sites included in Time Traveler whether you visit Paris or not. The iTinerary is a now a fully bilingual interactive voyage to Paris, France, during the French Revolution, told through the eyes of 24-year-old murderess Charlotte Corday in the moments before she is to face the guillotine. The unprecedented, Beware Mme la Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris, or Gare à la Guillotine! Une Visite Revolutionaire de Paris when you make French your default language, is a must have for anyone learning about or visiting Paris. School groups and family travelers tired of traditional tour books now have a new way to explore the world’s historic destinations with their mobile device.
This self-guided tour combines the traditional power of story telling with the latest in mobile technology to bring history and culture to life in a most remarkable way.
As Charlotte tells her story of why and how she stabbed radical propagandist Jean-Paul Marat as he soaked in the bath, she takes you on a personal journey into the sights and sounds of Paris at the time of the Revolution. You go on a scavenger hunt following maps and clues, playing orientation games, and answering brainteasers throughout the tour. The developer, Sarah Towle, is the brains behind this gripping story that carries you back in time, and she has thought of everything! The app has sidebars providing practical information, maps, directions, tips, and at one point you are given a restaurant recommendation, Le’ Cafe Procope. You will receive 10% off your lunch if playing the Time Travelers Treasure Hunt Game! All this to make learning about one of the most memorable moments in history, most memorable… whether you are home or lucky enough to be in Paris. BMB A Revolutionary Tour of Paris, this is not for the light of heart! Graphic depictions of the murder, using famous art work and gruesome narration of the violent times, are not spared. This is one tour not to be missed. Maybe AirFrance would like to offer a special deal for all owners of this app…
You have the option to listen to the narration in one language while reading along in another; or disable the text altogether and let Charlotte’s story unfold. The engaging, interactive, and fun “itineraries” provide users of all ages a unique experience and a greater understanding of this era in history through discovery.
Next to come from Time Traveler Tours: two London itineraries (in development) as well as three more Paris tours:
- Day of the Dead, in which fictional gravedigger Jean-Philippe Toulier takes you to the Catacombs and the Montparnasse cemetery during the time of Emperor Napoleon.
- Long Live the King’s Garden will take you to visit the gardens of the ancien régime’s Chateau de Versailles, enlivened by the adventures of France’s true-life Indiana Jones.
- In Focus, the story of Nadar, the world’s first portrait photographer, and the late 19th century boom that made Paris the envy of the world.
Time Traveler Tours is a web-based app developer and publishing start-up, founded in 2009 by Sarah Towle. This app focuses on teaching history through story. Its #1 mission is to provide great mobile content for educational tourism. Time Traveler Tours interactive StoryApp iTineraries are ideal for the ever-increasing number of young people traveling with their school groups and families. But they also offer a fun complement to related high school and home school curricula.
Rainbow Sentences, by Mobile Education Store, is another incredible learning tool brought to you by the award winning developer Kyle Tomson! Initially, when using Rainbow Sentences with students, we were taken aback by how many different levels of play can be adapted for differing student’s needs. There are three levels of play with 55 sentences in each level, and 6 levels of sentence complexity. And though this may sound complicated, it’s not! Rainbow Sentences offers you have a lot of control over the play, but the interface makes it really simple to set up the levels of play. Kyle worked diligently on this app perfecting every feature and made the app customizable with every conceivable setting. Rainbow Sentences offers a unique environment for improving a student’s ability to create grammatically correct sentences.
Every teacher will tell you that teaching the five W’s is complex, but essential. The Who, What, Where, Why and When are known as signal words and are the meat and potatoes of sentence structure. The first level in Rainbow Sentences concentrates on the who and what of the sentence. The second level address the what and where. The third level incorporates the who, what, where and why, with some of the sentences incorporating the what. This app was designed for a wide audience and is perfect for home or school.
Rainbow Sentences is wonderful for reinforcing sentence structure and as already mentioned contains a great number of levels. Both the words and lines are color coded, using single words or phrases, which is a great visual aid to get students understanding how to build a simple sentence. Words or phrases are dragged from the bottom of the screen to the lines above to make a sentence that matches the picture. There is an optional lesson with each sentence explaining the who, what, where, this is a great assistance to help students understand why the words are grouped accordingly. The graphics are child friendly, with inviting scenes, which often contain humorous scenarios. The kids were immediately drawn in by the amusing illustrations. As a child progresses, the color-coding can be turned off in the settings menu for the words and the line segments. The number of attempts made in completing each sentence is saved and there is a puzzle piece given for every three correct sentences. The option for students to record their own voice, and play it back, improves their receptive and expressive language skills. As with all of the Mobile Education Store’s apps, the option to track and save data is given. There is an individual folder for each student. Plus, there is the option to email stats.
This app is by far the biggest undertaking yet by MES. We got the inside scoop directly from Kyle. “The basis for Rainbow Sentences came from some work my wife and I were doing with our daughter Caitlyn. She was having a lot of trouble putting together complex sentences about a picture by herself. So, we came up with the idea to break sentences down into phrases, rather than into the individual words. We have the phrase that describes the subject, the phrase that describes the action, the phrase that tells where the action is taking place, etc. To help her visualize this, we assigned different colors to each phase. It took a while, but eventually we found a system that seemed to make a lot of sense to her and she made a lot of progress. Once it was perfected, I modeled the app to mimic what we were already doing on paper.”
We love this app. Having the capability to tweak the settings, to get each child working on what they need reinforcement with, is huge! Once the sentence is all put together, we concentrate on making sure the student understands what the words mean. Comprehension is the overall purpose of reading, and understanding what you read is essential for learning.
Middle School Confidential 2: Real Friends vs. the Other Kind, by Electric Eggplant, is a powerful tool to help tweens with the onslaught of issues they deal with on an every day basis. Annie Fox is not new to this topic and its paramount importance. What behaviors children learn during adolescence are vital to the adult they will become. Since teachers do so much of this type of social work in school now-a-days, this resource should be available to every teacher, counselor and administrator, who spend their days with kids aged 10 through high school. (Their target audience is 11-14 year olds.) The good news is that this publisher does have a print version of this graphic novel.
As teachers, we see that some parts of this app could be introduced at an even earlier age. The main idea in Real Friends vs. the Other Kind is friendship and many of the conflicts outlined can be prevalent with younger kids too. In this new release, the characters navigate the ins and outs of friendships, cliques, crushes, and more. “There’s expert information for readers on making friends, resolving disputes, and dealing with other aspects of the social scene—including gossip, exclusion, cyber-bullying, peer pressure, and being there for friends who need help.” The students that field tested this app were aged ten to sixteen. The sixteen-year old asked if she could be included, as she had loved the first,Middle School Confidential 1: Be Confident in Who You Are. For the younger ones, we shared only certain chapters as we didn’t want to promote girls thinking about boyfriends and vice-versa. As the character from the comic says, “We’re too young for this boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.”
Two girls who spent time with this app are part of an iPad pilot program and are very familiar with the iPad and apps. They had never seen this app and they were mesmerized. Some of the comments I overheard were, “Really fun to read.” and “Makes you a better person.” They both voiced enthusiasm over the quiz and liked this feature, especially the difficulty of the questions. They paused often before selecting the appropriate answer. “Hard decisions!” they told me as they went on to the next chapter. I really don’t think you can experience the magnitude and power of this app without having an adolescent next to you. This is pertinent content that should be shared globally. It would be a great app to have available in other languages.
Here’s a sneak peak at the chapter titles and a slide show of “pages” from this wonderful app:
1. Real Friends
2. Friend Dilemmas
3. Should I or Shouldn’t I?
4. Worried About a Friend?
5. So-Called Friends
6. Let’s Go Out
7. Things Aren’t Working Out
8. Making New Friends
“There will be ups and downs in every friendship, but if you know how to BE the friend you want to HAVE… you’ll be a great friend to yourself and everyone else.”
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Sparky the Shark - A Frighteningly Funny Adventure HD, by Biscuit Interactive – Our first introduction to this story app was at the Media Bistro Publishing App Expo in New York City. Alex Souza, one of the pioneers of web 
design in Brazil and creator of Kwik, did a presentation of their innovative software that offers an easy way to transform your Photoshop compositions into mobile apps, without coding! Sparky the Shark was showcased in his demonstration. Later in the day, we met up with Alex and got a chance to get a one on one demonstration of Kwiksher in action. We were re-introduced to Sparky the Shark and got the back story… we were intrigued and impressed. This app was using a very simple product but you would never know it. Sparky the Shark is a top-notch app in every way. From the design elements to the educational value, with the perfect balance of interactivity thrown in. The best part? The students LOVED it!
It was great to see a group huddled around the iPad in the dark, mesmerized by not just Sparky, but the story itself. One of those teach-able moments arose and the original plans were thrown to the wayside. The students were asked to write a short paragraph describing what message the author had in mind when he wrote this book. They dove in with enthusiasm, as they all had come away with a bit of skill set to add to their character education.
Here are some snippets of the student’s writing:
- “He didn’t do it himself – he did it with others” – Alex
- “Teaches others how to get friends and treat friends” – Alexis
- “Be yourself” – Nicere
- “At first people were afraid and then his friends were helpful, happy and saved.” – Kaylee
- “He didn’t like himself, the way he looked. There was plenty of understanding at the end of the story.” – Joel
This Interactive Storybook App brags many features including 33 vibrant and fun illustrations, interactive touch animation and sounds, ambient music, voice over option and useful navigation and page index feature. A fun activities page adds a twist to the story offering children the ability to move disguises and dress up Sparky. Hours of fun. A book children will want to read again and again.
After hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard work and commitment, Sparky has become a reality,” says Creator, Illustrator and Developer, Mark Newell. “Sparky has been over 15 years in the making and now the moons have aligned. 15 years ago, I never would have dreamt that Sparky would be an interactive storybook on touchscreen devices. It’s amazing.”
We agree!
Educreations Interactive Whiteboard by Educreations, Inc is an INCREDIBLE, yes that’s right, incredible app. This newly released app comes with the huge bonus of being FREE! We think this app has the edge needed to push education in the right direction and to begin modernizing teaching as we know it. Educreations is not the first app using the whiteboard concept, but it is the first one geared specifically for the classroom. Educreations wants to give teachers the opportunity to create what Sal Khan has been doing for years (read our review of Khan Academy). Developers, Wade Roberts and Chris Streeter, knew when designing this app, that it would need to have simple features and be user-friendly. Their software turns any iPad or web browser into a recordable, interactive whiteboard, making it easy for teachers and experts to create engaging video lessons and share them on the web. Students can replay these lessons any time, any place, on any connected device. Our initial reaction when experimenting with this app was to picture the potential of a tool of this magnitude in the hands of students. Talk about engagement…
Educreations Inc had the wherewithal to realize the need to add the option to use multiple pages for the same lesson; this is another feature that makes this app a standout. You can easily add photos from your camera, iPhoto Library, or from a Dropbox account. The additional features that are included in this app are truly well thought out, and again – easy to use. When you are feeling brave, you can try moving, tapping, dragging, and resizing images while you’re recording to simulate animation. Your finished lessons are hosted on educreations.com, where you have the option to share privately or publicly. You can also email, twitter, or share your lesson on Facebook.
This revised Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid shows classification of levels of intellectual behavior that is important in the learning process. As you can see creating is at the top, so educators, if you want to see if a student has mastered a concept, let them create a lesson to share with others. We spoke with one of the developers, Wade Roberts, and asked him what was the inspiration behind making this app. Wade explained, “We want to create the best place to teach and learn on the web, by making it quick and simple for teachers to record and share short tutorials with students. As more teachers use our app to share their knowledge, the overall quality of the lessons will continually improve as data helps us identify which lessons are most effective. Just as Netflix and Amazon are able to recommend movies and products you will like, our goal is to be able to recommend the lessons that will be most helpful to each student.”
It is obvious that the developers in this new start-up company spent much time and consideration while incorporating user-friendly features into this app. The educreations app could realistically be used in any classroom, by any teacher. In return, teachers can have their students show what they know and teach others through this new app. All in all, this app has terrific potential, especially when it comes to the sharing content. LOVE their motto:
LetterReflex – Overcoming Letter Reversals, by BinaryLabs, is another sensational learning tool by the creators of Dexteria. Letter reversals are to be expected by any young child learning the alphabet, the cause is a lack of directionality. To address directionality, the first concepts that need to be understood are the directions of “right” and “left.” LetterReflex helps children overcome common letter reversals in a game format that is inviting, engaging, interactive and user-friendly. Best of all, the kids LOVE playing this app. The first activity, Tilt It, uses kinesthetic learning to teach left from right. The second activity, Flip It, allows them to practice what they learned while honing their letter discrimination skills.
Although listed in the medical category this app has its place during every child’s development. For some it would have a short shelf-life, for others it would be with them for a much longer time. This app is so well done, so professional, and so worthwhile an investment, that we encourage parents of all preschoolers to take a look. If your child struggles with letter reversals, this a must have app.
Teachers with apps spoke with Frank Jenson, CEO of Dexteria and asked a few questions: “With regards to Dexteria, yes, our app business is a full-time endeavor. We have been in business since 1993 developing educational applications, mostly for textbook companies…Our goal is to provide OTs, parents, and teachers with a family of apps that serves as a toolkit to address common developmental challenges.”
This app focuses on this one important concept; this is an essential skill to master. How many adults do you know who still struggle with, “the other left” syndrome. A recent study examined right-left discrimination among medical students. About 11% reported poor or very poor perceived ability to discriminate right from left. The study found that medical students vary in their ability, and about a third of students reported using techniques to help them discriminate right from left. Medical students?
Teachers With Apps and Frank Jenson feel that LetterReflex may possibly help children with other skills in areas of their development as well as improving reversals.
Motion Math: Hungry Fish, by M
otion Math, is a fabulous learning game! Mental math is such a key component for success in building a strong foundation in math, and building on this early on helps all other math concepts fall into place with relative ease. Our students were enthralled by this simple, yet brilliant game – and they were polishing up on their number skills with smiles on their faces! Brilliant job Motion Math! Now, can you add multiplication and division practice too? *NOTE: The developer just let us know that new Hungry Fish levels are coming soon!
Jacob Klein explained in an email, that this app features instant addition – bring two numbers together and they’ll merge and add. This metaphor of bringing elements together helps make symbolic addition more concrete. Also, most addition apps and worksheets ask problems in the form of 3 + 4 = ?; Hungry Fish requires learners to find the different ways to make a 7 (1+6, 2+5, 3+2+2, etc.). So EXCELLENT! And it’s FREE! There are in-app purchases for additional levels, but – they never get in the way, no blatant adds in your face.
Recently, this app was used in a study, in the first experiment ever to study an iPad app, and was shown to help improve student knowledge and attitudes. ABC7 recently covered the study here. This is exciting news and validates that kids can learn and have fun all at the same time. Our students loved when they were rewarded with the option to customize their very own fish!
Key Product Features
• Intuitive gameplay to practice mental arithmetic.
• Beautiful graphics by Emilia Forstreuter.
• Instant addition: the metaphor of bringing elements together helps learners master the addition of symbolic numbers.
• 18 levels of difficulty – challenging for 4-year-olds all the way up to adults.
• Fun rewards: let you customize your fish with new colors and fins.
• Addition level is free-to-try; In-App purchase buys Subtraction and Negative Number levels.
Learning Goals
• To develop fast, agile mental arithmetic
• To learn there are multiple paths to add up to every sum
• To build automaticity in adding and subtracting positive and negative integers
“Motion Math creates fun mobile learning games that let kids play with numbers. Our engaging game suite helps children master math’s foundations – we turn screen time into learning time!”
As we said in our last post, people are always asking us for a list of our top ten apps. It’s virtually impossible to choose only ten! However, we just released a list of Top Ten App Developers who we feel continuously bring outstanding apps to the market. Now, we have compiled a TOP TEN LIST of Tried and True Apps we love using in the classroom! Please note, although these apps work well in the classroom, they are absolutely appropriate in the home and any other setting. Also, keep in mind that all of the apps we have featured on our site, are worthy of a download.
*Note: Please read the reviews before purchasing, as some apps are developed with a very specific audience in mind.
TOP 10 Tried & True Classroom Apps!
Outstanding Apps of 2011… listed in no particular order:
Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa by cognitivekid is a Social Studies/Geography app which combines thought provoking educational content, with engaging gameplay and thrilling interactions that keep children engaged, entertained and learning. While Cognitive Kid aims to teach and reinforce concepts, they answer not just the “what?” but also the “why?” and ”how? questions. Spectacular interactions, animations, stunning visuals, quests, along with, puzzles and games, bring learning to life. We first used this app last spring, in a sixth grade classroom, while they were studying Egypt. The kids loved it, never felt that it was below them and they continued to use it throughout the year.
My Bird World – by 5 Ravens, is a Science app filled with fascinating facts, sensational real bird calls, and great photos. It is totally impressive. The app includes players learning about North American birds, including their songs, food choices, and habitats. We found that students took to this app immediately. They worked cooperatively in groups, assisting one another to move ahead and learn the ropes to master the game.
Smarty Pants School, by Smarty Pants School LLC, is an awesome application for for the PreK set. This app enables parents and teachers to introduce, teach, reinforce, and have FUN while playing a wide variety of pre-reading and reading games with their children. There are five different games or classes and each having multiple levels. There is also an assessment tool to gauge where to start each child. Smarty Pants is an app that we return to over and over again with our tutor students.
Faces iMake HD, by iMagine machine, is a creative, modern day take on the beloved and all time classic, Mr. Potato Head – our generation’s mainstay toy for creative play! This app is a great way for kids to relax, unwind, have some fun, and most importantly use their imagination! Faces iMake HD is a perfect way to develop right brain creative capabilities. Our students use this app during our Project Period to make all kinds of wonderful creations.
Dexteria, by Binary Labs, is a wonderful app to help all kids focus, improve, and perfect their fine motor skills. This app was developed by a group of occupational therapists. As teachers, we are really impressed with the thought and execution of this incredible tool. There are three distinct activities to improve fine motor skills and handwriting readiness, each one is very different from the other. Dexteria’s hand and finger exercises take full advantage of the iPad’s multi-touch interface to help build strength, control, and dexterity. These exercises are designed to be used again and again. They are not only engaging, students think they’re really FUN! We have been witnessing students having a blast as they make much needed progress.
Proloquo2Go, by AssistiveWare, is an app that has the reputation of being an absolute angel! It provides an easy solution, in a very cool package, to assist anyone who may have difficulty speaking. This communication system redefines AAC, (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) which is defined as “An integrated group of components, including the symbols, aids, strategies and techniques used by individuals to enhance communication.” As this definition states, communication encompasses more than just spoken words. It includes gestures, eye gaze, touch, body postures/movements, sign language, photographs, printed words, objects, pictoideographs, and Braille. We had our life skills teacher review this app for us. He uses it daily with his students, in and out of school, and says that no other app can really compete with Proloquo2go because it’s just that good.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by Moonbot Studios LA - This is a very, VERY cool app. The award-winning short film is now an interactive, narrative experience. William Joyce’s “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”, blurs the line between picture books and animated film. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore app was shown in the classroom using the SmartBoard, as a lead into a writing assignment. Kids were in awe of this app! We featured this app on our Just Books page months ago, we’re still in awe of it.
ParisAppTours: Beware Mme la Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris, by Time Traveler Tours, puts Paris in the palm of your hand! With this innovative app on your iPhone or iPod Touch you will get to the heart of the French Revolution with murderess, Charlotte Corday as your guide. You’ll discover history with those who made it! Beware Madame la Guillotine offers adults, teens, families and school groups — whether residents or visitors to Paris — a vivid and engaging way to explore and really get to know the museums, monuments, parks, boulevards, cafés and other locations of relevance to the French Revolution. This app is great because it combines the traditional power of storytelling with the latest in mobile technology! This app first came to our attention back in the summer. We quickly featured it on our More Mentions page in hopes of catching those who might be traveling to Paris during the summer break.
iTooch MATH Grade 5, by eduPAD, is a terrific app that covers a lot of ground conept-wise and shouldn’t be limited to just fifth graders. This app combines a no-frills approach to content while still providing the user with an exciting learning experience. The mascot is adorable and keeps kids on task with lots of encouragement and their is a lesson summary available when needed. iTooch MATH Grade 5 is, by far, the largest collection in the App Store of educational activities based on US national standards. Students are immediately challenged by this app. The format calls for mental math – something we don’t see required often enough these days. When needed, aids are readily available.
Millie & The Lost Key, by Megapops, is a darling, clever and loveable app book. The iPad has taken literacy and made it all the better. Millie’s pages are a scrapbook-like collage – part photography and part cartoon, with exciting and funny forays into the unexpected with every swipe. The app has a pop-up book feel and there are different interactions throughout. There are tabs to pull, flaps to lift, buttons to push, and wheels to turn, as well as several games to play. The narrator is spot on with tone and inflection, giving the story polish, panache and humor. The very best part is that this app doesn’t get old, kids want to go back to it over and over again!
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