Apps+Review+and+Comments

Calistoga Teacher Review and Comments for Apps used in 2012


 * __Developer App Name Added Like __**

__Tapfuze Alphabet Fun Initial *** __ Write/trace on paper-like lines with a dash line. Alphabet, words, colors and numbers. Blank lines for practice. We like it for correct letter formation within lines.

__Oncilla Technologies Alphabet Tracing Initial ** __ Follow a moving train or worm to correctly trace and then write letters. Great for beginners. A little boring after about a month.

__@Reks Caboose – Learn to Recog. Patterns January * __ I am warming to this App. Simple to use. Good to revisit patterns after teaching early in the year.

__RatCat Software DirtMovers Construction Counting October * __ *Limited to counting to 10. No way to repeat the target number. So-so

__Darren MurthaDesign Drawing pad Initial *** __ Fantastic! We like it for it’s versatility. Draw with pencils,crayons or markers, paint with various size brushes. Great variety of colors in all mediums. Background paper choices, stickers, special effects. Save options plentiful. Import from photo roll and draw/write on. This is a great App.

__Mintmomeg G1 math October * __ Complicated to use. Only appropriate for advanced K’s/First Grade. Some modules within this app are good. Some are so-so.

__Montessorium Intro to Mathematics January __

__gdiplus iWrite Words Handwriting Game October ** __ Follow the bug on big letter forms. Modules for upper case or lower case, also numbers. Kids stayed engaged and always want to do it. We like it for its strict guide for exact letter formation and fine motor practice.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Egerter Software Jungle ABC Bingo October ** __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Kids Place Kids Can Spell Animals October * __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Lakeshore Learning Letter of the Day January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Nothing here to recommend. Boring.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Grasshopper Kids Learning to Read Little Reader 3 letter words January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Great app. Levels possible. We like the real world pictures and manipulative <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">options.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Grasshopper Apps Little speller 3 letter Words January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Students pull down jumbled letters to spell words. Real world photos for objects. <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">We like it for the ability to customize the words by vowels and difficulty and the multiple <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">exposures to words and the letters to spell them.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Smart Kids Media Math Adventure January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">All Math operations. A little awkward to launch the games. It is not intuitive. This is mostly too difficult for K’s. Good for first grade.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Emantras Inc. Measurement HD October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Limited activities. Fill the cup and weight activities are appealing to students. Not much depth here.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">L’Esapadou Montessori Crosswords October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Fantastic! We like it for the phonemic awareness and accessibility to students. Students hear the sounds to make words. Hidden hint helps students acquire confidence. Customize settings for difficulty allows for differentiation. Go from making single three letter words to complete crossword puzzles.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">PBS PBS KidsVideo October *** __ We had difficulty running this on our network last year, but with our fabulous upgrades the issues seem to be resolved. It is a great App to recommend to parents. Play dozens of videos from PBS including segments from Sesame Street about letters and Social Studies topics like friendship. It was free.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Abitalk Phonics Consonants January *** __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Abitalk Phonics Vowels January *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Same developer as above this is a word family app with short vowel and long vowel patterns. The App allows you to hear all the sound choices and offers a hint if the student is stuck. Make words then match the words to pictures for reading practice. Again, positive response.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Polished Play Puppet Pals Initial *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">We’ve just introduced this App to students as it is somewhat complex. If you buy be sure to get the Directors Pack. It allows you to download all the character packs whenever you want them. We don’t really like the Pirate swords and guns, and Kindergarten really doesn’t need the Political pack, but there are endless possibilities for storytelling here. We like the recorded narration by the students for speaking practice. We have special quiet times for recording, but this might be an issue for you.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">tApps Read on sight free (case sensitive) January __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">FreshPlanet Inc. Red Fish Alphabet October * __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Activity for each letter of the alphabet. The kids love the animations for each letter. They sometimes get fixed on one letter. Not sure if there is that much value with such intense repetition, but very engaging letter practice. __<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Brain Parade See Touch Learn October __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Not our favorite. Screen is too crowded for intuitive use. It is progressive and good <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">for EL practice with a teacher in a small group.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Bellamon Shape-O ABC’s January __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Newness World Shape Puzzle Initial *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Never gets old with students. Objects in a scene are separated into puzzle pieces that students drag to make the object. They love it. Great visual discrimination practice.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Grasshopper Apps Sight Words by Little Speller January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">We love this developer but there was a delay in adding it so we haven’t used it yet.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Lakeshore Sound Sorting Beginning Sounds January *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Kids choose three pictures from a picture alphabet page. The app sends pictures down a chute and they drag them below the picture with the same beginning sound. We like it for beginning sound practice.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Doonan Speech Therapy Speech With Milo Sequencing January __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Preschool University Spelling Magic ABC January __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Starfall. Starfall ABC 's October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Fantastic! We love it for the multiple pictures and activities for each letter. Lots of variety, excellent illustrations and photos. One of the kid’s favorite.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Starfall. Starfall Gingerbread October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Another good app from this developer. Use shapes to make a gingerbread man or girl then “run” them through a pattern maze. So much fun kids hardly notice they are learning.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Starfall. Starfall Snowman October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Not as much here as the previous two, but still entertaining. Make a snowman character then count to 10 with him/her. Good for early in the year.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Tapfuze Story Buddy October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This is a complex App we just introduced in January. Students can draw or paint using a color box of 15 or more colors. They can adjust the size of the line using a simple up or down arrow. Import pictures from the camera roll, add text, move things around on the page. Add pages similar to PowerPoint. Save and share your book. The only difficulty for Kindergartners is the small dialogue bubbles that appear at times. For example, when students come back to their book and tap it, it the box pops up to choose EDIT, READ, SHARE. Difficult for K’s. Still a good App for a journal type structure.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Tapfuze Story Buddy 2 Spring 2012 ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">This is a very good upgraded app but had to be purchased separately. New features include icon opening page, recording capability, paper choices. The ability to record is a great addition to this app. We used this for making books that coincided with Language Arts, Science or Social Studies themes. The only limitation is that it only allows 5 books to be stored on the shelf. If students are sharing iPads, this is a bit limiting.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Vivid Apps Strip Designer October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Used by teachers to create pages for students and by older students helping Kindergartners make all the choices. Too Advanced for independent use by Kindergarten students. It is the perfect App for cooperative projects.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">24x7digital LLC Teach Me Kindergarten Initial ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Set up for individual students to enter the App under their own name. Up to 5 students can set up profiles. Customize settings for differentiation or target skills. The App carries scores forward and students continue rather than begin again each time. This creates a management issue when i-pads are not issued to the same students each time. Not a favorite

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gramercy Consultants This is My Story and I’m Sticking To It January __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Fill in the blanks for themed silly stories. Not so academic, but can be

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Launchpad Toys Toontastic Initial ** __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">UANGEL Corp. Touchband Free October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This was a personal interest for one of the teachers. Good to teach to whole class where there are 1:1 i-pads or in small group.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">digitalsled Touch Count (i-phone App) October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Read the number and tap on that many objects. Choose different kinds of objects to count such as cupcakes or bugs. Not very fancy, but it was free and good practice.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Alligator Apps Touch and Learn letters and numbers October ** __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Alligator Apps Touch and Learn Shapes Game October ** __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Pioneer Valley Ed. Press Who Can Read? Book Reader January __ <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Don’t bother.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> ABCya.com Word Bingo (Sight Word October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Love this app. Can be bingo or spelling practice for sight words. Listen to a word and <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">find it on the bingo card. Teachers need to introduce the menu as there are choices <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">to create a player profile. We have them sign in as guest so the game repeats, but can <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">be progressive. Has Dolch lists up to third grade. GREAT!

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Amusen Inc. Word Magic October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Customize for differentiation and challenge. This is a very good App and holds student’s interest when offered weekly or bi-weekly.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Duck Duck Moose Word Wagon January __

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Classroom Focused Software 10 Frame Fill October * __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Not much here. A ten frame is presented partially filled. Drag counters to fill. Not very interesting to kids and sometimes the screen scrambles.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Andrew Chew 123 Balloons HD October ** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Simple counting game. Students pop colored balloons. The best game is where the student has to pop them in numerical order. For the game of Pop as many as you can in a timed set, one teacher had students pick a single color to pop to practice visual discrimination as well. Kids like it.

__ BOOKS __ <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Learning Touch Bob BooksBB Reading Magic #1 Initial *** <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Great! The book pages appear as lined drawings. As you tap on the words the matching picture pops out of the book and students drag letters to make that word. The picture fills in with color and pops back in to the story. And so on. There is so much to do with each book there isn’t usually time to read the whole book so establishing a reading routine would be good for this App. Still, this App has a lot to offer.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Learning Touch Bob books BB Reading Magic #2 January *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;"> Same as above

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Kidzstory 9 Goldilocks and the Three Bears October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">We were looking for digital versions for some of the stories that we read multiple times in our Language Arts Curriculum. This is a good version. It is read by someone with an English accent, but we liked it anyway. We also want to get Gingerbread Man, Tortoise and Hare, and Lion and Mouse by this same developer. Best value for a book and kids return to it over and over. They love these books.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Duck Duck Moose The Wheels on the Bus October * __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;"> Not much here but young children like it and it is one of the most addicting songs ever.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Penguin The Little Engine That Could (Classic Version)October *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This is the original version with all original text and pictures including jackknives for the little boys. Love this even though it is a little pricey. This book continues to please and teach and is also a curriculum book.

__<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Tab Tales Town Mouse / Country Mouse October ** __

__<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">New Image Media, LLC Footsteps to Brilliance Initial *** __ <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This is a subscription we piloted. We like the way the words are highlighted as they are <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">read and the themes of the books. They can also read the book by tapping each word. Students are very excited to use this feature to “treasure hunt” words the teacher wants to emphasize like sight words. The books are a little bit long and they all rhyme (not always successfully). We also like the comprehension piece although we would like more variety in the questions and a random rotation of 5 or 6 each time because students remember the answers and just drag. They are in levels so it is progressive. This developer collects data about how many times students are exposed to certain words and they work hard to place tier 2 words in the books. There are alsoteacher resources like flash cards and teachers can add their own activities for other teachers to use. We didn’t find the data very useful to drive our instruction. This is an expensive proposition and we are evaluating it. We would like to find individual books where students can track each word and read by tapping each word. Get busy Developers!