StoryBuddy

Title: StoryBuddy

 

Age Group: Pre-K and Elementary students

Cost: Lite= Free; Full version= $6.99

StoryBuddy is an app that allows children to create their own picture books. The pages can be filled of students’ own drawings or digital photos. StoryBuddy is an excellent app to help younger children develop their fine motor skills. Students will like being able to flip through their book and watch the pages turn like a real book. Children have control over every step of the book-making process including the cover page. Children can enter text using their fingers or the keypad in a variety of colors. Text and photos can be moved around the page by pressing down and dragging it where they want it to go making every page of every book as unique as the children in your classroom. The lite version only allows one book to be created at a time. Books can have a maximum of 15 pages. Final stories can be shared by e-mail, iTunes file sharing or saved to iBooks. One feature missing from this application that I would have liked to see was the ability for speech bubbles to denote conversation between characters. StoryBuddy is very user-friendly but a tutorial and assistance would be needed to help younger students become more familiar with the application. The various features of StoryBuddy allow students to create and edit digital stories that are only limited by their imagination.

 

Get StoryBuddy here

Review of Simplex Spelling HD by Kathy Burdick

Name of App: Simplex Spelling HD by Pyxwise Software

Free or Fee: $2.99 when reviewed

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Simplex Spelling HD helps students learn over 220 Dolch sight words through “reverse phonics.” Since sight words are high frequency and may not follow the rules of the English language it is difficult for students to sound them out. But what is great about Simplex Spelling HD is that the phonogram for each letter combination that makes that sound, single or multiple letters, is provided for each word. For example, when you tab on the hint button for the word find f and ph are shown as options that make the sound heard at the beginning of the word. Some of the letter combinations have an explanation as to the spelling rule applied and why a particular letter is used. In addition to the use of “reverse phonics”, Simplex Spelling HD uses spelling to build literacy since students are required to spell the word using a keyboard (ABC or QWERTY) after hearing the word said and used in a sentence as opposed to learning the word solely based on sight and memorization. Students can press the speaker button to hear the word and sentence repeated as many times as necessary.

Simplex Spelling HD is incredibly easy to use. There is a tutorial to guide beginning users, a question mark button that tells the user what each symbol means, a progress button that allows teachers, parents and students to see how many words have been mastered from each list and a home button that navigates back the beginning page. Multiple users can be added to the app making it perfect for a household or classroom that has fewer iPads than children. The sight word lists range from pre-primer to third grade making this app for many reading levels. In addition to learning the sight words, which increases reading ability, students are supported with positive feedback (whether they used the hint button or not) helping to build confidence as well. Simplex Spelling HD is an excellent tool to support literacy and help young readers grow!

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Review of Word Wall HD by Kathy Burdick

Name of App: Word Wall HD

Free or Fee: $0.99 when reviewed

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Why I like it: Word Wall HD is great for emerging readers. Between the six activities within this app, reading skills are greatly reinforced since students are repeating words and letter sounds as well as using visual aids. Students are also spelling, sounding words out and listening to pronunciation. The amount of interactivity in each activity is sure to keep students engaged! My favorite activity is Writing Words. With Writing Words, students are selecting word families then making complete words using their chosen word family. With just this one activity students are practicing letter sounds, spelling, reading and obviously working with word families. Word Wall HD would be recommended not only for new readers but also students new to the English language.

Word Wall HD also features SmarTots. SmarTots tracks the amount of time spent on particular apps then reports the information to parents. Parents can sign up for SmarTots to receive emails which include reports as well as activity ideas that parents can do with their children to enhance what they are learning/practicing by using the app. I think SmarTots is a great way for parents to become involved and stay informed regarding their child’s learning experience. SmarTots is available on several other apps as well. The educational experience it provides is well worth the price for Word Wall HD.

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Review of My Dad Drives a Roller Coaster Car by Kathy Burdick

Name of App: My Dad Drives a Roller Coaster Car

Free or Fee: $1.99

Rating: 5/5

Seller: Crab Hill Press

Why I like it: My Dad Drives a Roller Coaster Car is a fun and interactive story. You can read the story to your self or follow along as the story is narrated for you. This app makes following along easy since each word is underlined as it is read. The graphics and the sound effects are excellent which make interacting with the story so much fun. Each page is filled with movements and sound effects that happen when you touch an item. This is a great story for young children since the days of the week are shown on several pages and can be moved around. You could scramble them up and have the reader put them in the correct order. It is also fun to talk about where you see the things the people in the story drive, such as the roller coaster, a rocket ship, and a twirling teacup. My Dad Drives a Roller Coaster Car is a fun story with amazing graphics and sound effects. Highly recommended!

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My Word! Reader! - Are Bees Smart, or What? New Reading App for iPad

Are Bees Smart, or what? is the first ofMy Word! Reader series, a unique, innovative and educational reading appdesigned to raise literacy levels of elementary and secondary school students. The smart approach is ideal to encourage and stimulate children who struggle with reading with top features and high-interest subject.

A top reading app to help develop basic literacy skills and comprehension. For kids 7+

The iPad continues to bring innovation into our kids learning. Reading can be a struggle for some and today we are happy to let you know about Are Bees Smart, or What? A reading book app that caught all our attention for its innovation and unique concept.

What the kids at Fun Educational Apps really liked is the story and all what they learned about bees and the top features with what they call the “video dictionary” and the “word bag”. Within the text kids will find words highlighted in blue. Tap on these words and you will see a small animation that explains the meaning of the word, a type of visual dictionary. Each time you tap on a word, it goes into the word bad and at the end of the book kids can revisit all these words for review.

At any time, kids can have access to 6 learning games. Each learning activities complement reading and is designed to engage the reader and develop basic literacy skills and comprehension. Activities include Learning about the silent “K”, Initial consonant sounds, initial consonant blend, sight vocabulary scrambled words, initial consonant sounds and key words review.

Overall, Fun Educational Apps really liked the apps. The kids liked it and it supported their learning and reading in a fun, entertaining and interactive way. A definite fun educational app that can be personalised and customized based on the reading level of your kids.  Help is there and kids can decide when to use it. A top reading app that we are happy to recommend and we hope to see new stories coming soon. The only thing we would add is attach a definition to the words in the word bag. 

Cross Posted:  Fun Educational Apps 

Review of What Rhymes? by Kathy Burdick

Name of App: ABA Problem Solving Game- What Rhymes?

Free or Fee: Free for the month of April!

Rating: 4/5

Seller: Kindergarten.com

Why I like it: In honor of Autism Awareness Month Kindergarten.com is offering their ABA apps for free during April. They have some great apps to offer for autistic children, but the app What Rhymes? is fun and aids in literacy development for all children. This app has children choose the rhyming words by selecting a picture of an item that rhymes with another item shown and read. There is immediate reinforcement with a short cheer when the correct answer is selected or “try again” is said if a non-rhyming word is chosen. This app offers visual and auditory stimulation, which is great for all learners. One recommendation would be showing the word under its picture. Currently just the name of the item to rhyme is said, but if the words were included under each picture it would help children connect the item with the written word. Having a child say the names of each item aloud would also be beneficial. Throughout the game there are momentary pauses and a metal ball appears that can be manipulated by moving the device (iPhone, iPod, or iPad) while classical music plays. This pause, along with the instant feedback and interaction, helps to keep children engaged. It’s a great app that will encourage rhyming for all! Cheers to Kindergarten.com for offering it free for a month!

Reviewer's Website

#AppMondayTAS-Fill the Gap

Fill the Gap is a simple spelling app for iOS.  While that statement is true, it tends to miss represent the app.  Fill the Gap is simple in premie, but rich in features.  At it's core Fill the Gap asks students to fill in the missing letter of a word, a picture is provided, as well as a pronunciation.  You can choose from first or last letter, missing vowel, missing blends, digraphs, and irregular vowel sounds.  You have an option to choose word length as well - 4, 6, 8 or any number of letters.  If you get the answer correct you get both audio and animation rewards.  Incorrect responses get an audio sound and the correct answer is flashed on the screen, it will not move on until you get the correct answer.  

Fill the Gap also includes some simple data, called Smudge Marks.  It sorts the data by word length or you can view all correct or incorrect.  This is a great feature of the app, but I would like to see some options to export the data (email or copy), also if you get a question wrong multiple times, it is counted each time in the data, which can be a little misleading.  Overall, Fill the Gap is a solid app for working on literacy skills for many students!

At this time Fill the Gap comes in many different versions:

iPad: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap-smudge/id415104902?mt=8&ls=1
iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap-pocket/id417629706?mt=8&ls=1
Mac: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap/id415118585?mt=12&ls=1 
• Android https://market.android.com/details?id=com.magmentis.firstwordsfillthegap

Fill the Gap Lite is the FREE version of  app (with a limited number of words, but can work for a try of the app):

• iPad: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap-smudge-lite/id416335221?mt=8&ls=1
• iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap-pocket-lite/id422713980?mt=8&ls=1
• Mac: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fill-the-gap-lite/id422715245?mt=12&ls=1

App - Fill the Gap - iPhone Version

Price - $0.99 (at time of posting)

Type - Universal (works on iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch)

Restrictions - None

Skills Addressed - literacy

The developer has offered 5 codes for Fill the Gap Pocket for iPhone/iPod Touch to giveaway this week. As always you can enter up to 3 times, using the following methods:

1.  Comment on this post at Teaching All Students

2.  Tweet about this post using the hashtag #AppMondayTAS

3.  Like the Teaching All Students Fan Page on Facebook  leave a comment

Good luck!  Make sure to have all your entries in by Friday, April 8 at 12pm Central time.  I'll pick the winners after that! 

Patrick 

**The developer provided the reviewer with a copy of this app**

Reviewer Blog - Teaching All Students