Big Bird’s Words: eSchool News App of the Week

It comes from Sesame Street, works on Apple and Android devices, and features Big Bird, games, and fun. Big Bird’s Words, an eSchool News and Metro Bistro App of the Week, encourages children ages four and up to learn vocabulary and read written text.  The App ($.99) uses Big Bird’s wonderful Word-O-Scope to get children hunting for words in their real-life environment. Finding words is fun, especially when they get to use their devices’ camera to click on images of the words—like cereal on their breakfast table. Wired Magazine recommends it as a great app for children who are just starting school. Take a look at the demo reel from Qualcomm to better understand what this app does.

Smithsonian’s Wiggle and Stomp

Send your youngest students on a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park with the free app, Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp. Using the app, your students, with the help of Ada, the Zookeeper, learn about flamingos, lions, mole rats, pandas, and so many more animals. They use the virtual Shutterbug camera to snap pictures of animals they find on their journey throughout the game. The app is designed to be used by individual players; it will adapt itself to the level of the user.

If you like Shutterbugs, you’ll want to keep a lookout on the Smithsonian Science Education site for the upcoming games, Habitats and Memory Watch.

Coding, Apps, and 3-D Models for Kids

Richard Bryne, in The Digital Shift from the Library Journal, discusses helping students “make things” in his article, “Teach Kids How to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools”.  Some of the learning sources he recommends are: Daisy the Dinosaur, which teaches programming basics; Code Monster with lots of coding lessons complete with instant feedback; Blockly, which uses visuals to teach about if-then logic; MIT App Inventor for creating smart phone apps; 123D Design for designing 3-D models; 123 Catch to turn pictures into three dimensional models; and 3DTin that lets students build 3-D models from scratch or with the help of templates.

Young Students Write Novels

During November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNaWriMo)

Although, adults are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel during November, the count is flexible for children. Grade 1 teacher Lily Jones decided to have her young students write novels. The idea was that they’d each write their own novel and all the words written by each student would be totaled. The goal for the class was 5000 words. Jones’ students learned about chapters and characters and enjoyed the freedom of writing fiction. The students didn’t master the art of creating chapters and plots, but they came up with delightful stories and saw themselves as novelists.  Jones went on to help create the NaNoWriMo curriculum for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students. You may want to put some of the NaNoWriMo ideas to work in your classroom this month and throughout the school year. Give your students time to create a story of their own, either using word processing or getting it down on paper. They’ll be proud of their accomplishment.

Math Bingo

Fun with math for Kindergarten through Grade Three, Math Bingo ($.99) by ABCya.com, motivates children to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with five Bingo games. The games range in content level from easy to difficult. Bingo Bugs are given as rewards; a scoreboard displays student scores.  Three bonus games come with the app. According to a review in Education World, Math Bingo “is a great app to supplement regular math lessons.”

Kick Start Your SchoolYear by iTunes

The iTunes Store has compiled an extensive list of apps that will help you and your students become better organized and productive, in addition to increasing knowledge.  Included are reading and writing apps for all ages, apps for organization, and apps for math, science, history, geography, and art and creativity. So—as the new school year is about to begin, you’ll want to browse through the offerings (free and for-pay) in the Kick Start for the School Year section of iTunes.

Paper-Folding Fun Apps for Kids

Creating animals and objects by folding paper is fun, and now there are apps that can help children create with origami.  The apps provide the designs, but the children do the cutting, folding, and decorating. TH origami apps for children, recommended by Jinny Gudmundsen in USA Today (07/28/13), are Mr. Shingu’s Paper Zoo for iPad, iPhone, Ipod-Touch; Foldify for iPad; Gomma Friends for iPad and Android; and SallyBob for iPhone, iPod-Touch, and iPad. The apps are priced from $1.99-$3.99.

Reading Eggs & Eggspress—Edmentum

Edmentum’s Reading Eggs helps PreKindergarten through Grade 2 students become proficient readers by giving them lessons that feature phonics, sight words, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, in addition to spelling and writing. The self-paced program is interactive and treats students to “egg” awards. Eggspress, for students in Grades 2-6, focuses on reading comprehension and motivation for reading. The library includes more than 600 full-colored fiction and non-fiction ebooks and a wealth of exciting educational games.

PBS for PreK

You can sign up for free or login to your PBS account to view resources that help students learn about topics that span the curriculum. If you search for Caillou on the PBS site, for example, you’ll find PreKindergarten activities, printables, songs, and other goodies all featuring the four-year-old Caillou. At PBS Learning Media, there are Caillou videos about life science, health, investigation, and social, physical, and emotional development. Caillou’s Cricket, for example, is an engaging story about a preschooler who finds a cricket in his little truck. During a search for the cricket throughout the house, Caillou learns about crickets and the sounds they make. Be sure to watch Caillou’s Dance Party, Shadow Scientist, and Caillou Makes a Meal.

Wonderful, Wanderful Books Now Available for iPad and Android Devices

Harry and The Haunted House, Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, Ruff’s Bone, and other children’s digital classics are now ready for Android devices. The series, which has until now, only been available for the iPad, includes thirteen apps, eight of which are for the U.S. market and have story content in English and Spanish.  Other apps are available in UK English and in French. iPad apps for the books can be found at the iTunes App Store; Android apps, at the Google Play Store. If you haven’t tried these delightful apps, you’ll want to download the Wanderful Storybook Sampler to enjoy some very special pages from these very special interactive digital books.