KinderTown Blog | Educational App Reviews, Activites, and More!

Email with Your Child | Guest Post

Email is not just for adults anymore! I should know because I spent this fall asking 4-year-old children to send emails to their parents. And do you know what? Not only were they able to send emails, but most children kept coming back to write more.

Emailing is basically a digital form of writing notes. Note-writing is encouraged by early childhood educators to promote writing with a purpose. Beyond simply practicing letter formation, creating messages for others is an authentic way for children to experience the power of writing. Offering your child the chance to send emails is a way to combine authentic message making with the highly engaging lure of technology. As you interact with your child during this process, you can focus on many literacy skills including letter formation, sounds, spelling and message making.

After sending and receiving almost 300 emails with preschoolers, I have learned a few things about emailing with young children so that it’s an engaging and beneficial experience for everyone.

10 Suggestions for Emailing With Your Child

Before You Start

• Talk with your child about the difference between sending an email and sending a letter. What tools do you use for each? How do you send them? Ask him to write a letter and mail it to your home. Then send an email to yourself. Ask your child, “Which do you think we will receive first? Why?”

• Create a list of “safe” people that your child can email. This may include relatives and playmates’ parents. You can even set up email addresses to come up as the name that your child calls them (i.e. Uncle David or Scott’s Mom). Your child should always know the person to whom he is sending an email.

What You Need

• Invest in a quality drawing app that will allow your child to create messages using both pictures and writing, and then email it using a mail program. (If you have multiple email accounts, make sure that the default account is the one you would like your child to use.)

• Drawing Pad is one of my favorites. It has pencils, paints, stamps, and you can import existing photos. It has a mail button that is easily accessible so that your child can email his compositions with your guidance. Once emails are received, your child can type responses in a mail program or compose more in the drawing program.

Teaching Moments

• After your child has created a message in a drawing program, ask him to read you the message. Sometimes scribbles have meaning that we might not realize. Show your child that you believe he can write.

• Practice name writing. Ask your child to print his name, whether it is drawn with a finger or printed using a keyboard.

• If your child says they can’t write, ask him to draw a message and then ask him to tell you about it. Then, write/type a message in conventional writing. As you type, talk about the letters and sounds in the words. For example, you might say, “You want it to say “I like ice cream.” Okay, for I, I will write the letter “I”. See, this is an I. L-l-l-l-ike. That starts with an “L”. Here is the L.”

To Make Everything Go Smoother

• Encourage relatives to respond in specific ways so that children have a reason to respond. For example, Uncle David may write “I love ice cream, too! My favorite is strawberry. What is your favorite flavor?” Children have a hard time writing back when the reply consists of messages such as “Great job, honey.” Or “I love you, and miss you so much!”

• If your child eagerly types or prints long strings of letters, offer a translation below so that people who receive the message can respond appropriately. For example, after the text “cjdieskjfiejaldnvkiefd”, you could type “Ryan says, “I love you, Uncle David. I like ice cream.” This can help well-meaning adults who can’t interpret our little one’s scribbles.

• When an email response is received, encourage your child to look for letters or words that they recognize before you read the message aloud. Printing out copies of email exchanges can also give children exposure to words and letters on an ongoing basis.

For Inspiration

For reluctant message makers or those ready for something different, encourage them to select a photo to write about. You can do this in the Drawing Pad app by importing photos from your photo library. Stop during the day to snap a picture, or make a suggestion about a topic for an email your child could compose later. For example, “Maybe I could take a picture of you eating your ice cream to email to Uncle David.”

Remember that the purpose of emailing is to work with your child to use literacy skills and to connect with the special people in your child’s life. Most importantly, have fun writing with your child as you work together to send messages.

This guest post was written by Emily Bigelow.

Bag Game | App Review & Activities

Bag Game

Bag Game is an excellent addition to the folder on your device labeled: car trips.

You should have at least two players. One player to choose from the abundance of images arranged by category and hide it in the app’s brown paper bag. The second player to ask questions in hopes of figuring out what is in the bag.

Sound familiar? It’s 20 questions for your iPhone (or iPad – the app is universal).

There’s a lot of educational value in this app. Did you know:

• Children build reasoning skills as they test conclusions through asking questions.
• Parents foster vocabulary development by going through the pictures in the app and asking questions like: “Would you use that in a kitchen?” or “Where can we find that in our house?”
• >Children make sophisticated connections about categorizing, a very important skill, when they are able to notice and talk about the similarities in organized sets of objects.
• It is a challenge for young children to answer these kinds of questions with a simple yes or no. They have to take time to think to themselves and make sense of the question being asked.

Enjoying watching your kids get inspired with Bag Game. We hope you take time to play along, ask your kids questions and join in on the fun!

Activity 1: Go Fish! for 10

What You’ll Need:

• Deck of Cards.
• At least two people.

I grew up playing cards and still bring a deck of cards with me on vacations or trips for those quiet, relaxing moments with friends. With memories of playing Go Fish! and war in the backseat of the car with my sister, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share a fun twist on the classic Go Fish! that your kids are sure to love.

To set up the game:

Prepare your deck of cards by removing all the face cards and 10s. Deal five cards to each player. Pile the rest face down. Look through your cards and If you have two cards that add up to 10, put them down. Pick up as many cards as you need to have 5 cards in your hand.

How to play:

Everyone in this game needs to take turns. On your turn:

• Ask a player for a card that goes with a card in your hand to add up to 10.
• If you get what you ask for, put down the pair, and draw a card.
• If the card you draw makes a new pair of 10, put it down.
• As you use up your cards, draw more cards.
• Once you have no pairs that equal 10 in your hand the next person gets a turn.

Play until the deck is used up. The player with the most pairs wins.

Make it easier:

• For younger children you can use cards 1–5 and make pairs that total 5.
• Make a cheat sheet for what numbers make 10 (1+9, 2+8, 3+7…)

Activity 2: 10 Supplies to Keep for Outdoor Playtime

Every spring I challenge myself to find more activities and lessons that my class can do outside. My students always love a chance to be in the sun, even if it is to write a story or to lay in the grass and listen to a good book. “Extra recess” seems excessive to principals (and some parents) but it’s the best reward ever to kids, and any lessons that use movement and outside play are precious.

I am sure that you also look for ways to encourage meaningful play in your home. That is why instead of a 2nd activity I am sharing with you a list of 10 items that spark creative play. Put these items in a bin and let your child choose from the bin or use freely during outdoor play time:

1. Sidewalk chalk.
2. Bubbles.
3. Dice – especially if you have a big, soft pair.
4. Beach Ball.
5. Yarn (not for sewing!).
6. Foam or rubber balls of various sizes.
7. Water bottle filled with water (good for drinking & squirting).
8. Old camera or kids camera.
9. Bean bags or balloons filled with: sand, corn, seeds, flour (the balloons will break!)
10. Muffin tins or egg cartons (for collections)

Jungle Fractions | App Review & Activities

Jungle Fractions

Jungle Fractions is an outstanding app that makes learning about fractions so much fun! Learning about fractions is often frustrating for young children. It is a tough concept with a lot of new vocabulary for kids to tackle at a young age. Thankfully, developer Andrew Short created this app.

We recommend this app for 5 and 6 year olds, however children up through fifth grade can use it. The latest release added multiplication of fractions which extends the life of this app in your home. The only issue may be older children thinking the cartoon jungle animals and their sounds a bit childish.

The activities in the app address key areas of understanding and manipulation of fractions. There are five sections (name, compare, convert, add, and multiply) and five levels. The parent learning page is helpful for parents who have forgotten their elementary school lessons. This parent section helps adults and children make sense of the vocabulary and strategies for working with fractions.

In the setting section you can keep track of your child’s progress. You can also turn on and off the animals sounds and the background sounds. This may not sound like a big deal but believe me you WILL love this feature. The testers enjoyed spiking the volume. Earplugs will work, whether you wear them or your child does.

There are so many opportunities every day to prepare your child for the difficult concept of fractions. Remember that every time you break a cookie in half and share it you are modeling fractions.

Activity 1: A Look at Fractions For 1st Graders

By the end of first grade your child should:

• Be comfortable dividing circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares.

• Describe the shares using the appropriate terms – halves, fourths, and quarters & “half of…”, “fourth of…”, and “quarter of…”

• Understand 2 halves are equal to one whole & 4 fourths (or 4 quarters) are also equal to one whole.

• Understand that the greater number of shares you divide a whole by, the smaller each of those shares becomes. In other words, one fourth is smaller than one half when talking about the same whole.

Activity 2: Ways to Get Ready to Learn Fractions

The big idea around fractions is that you can break apart one whole object into smaller equal parts. Those parts have names and can vary in size and amount. That is a big concept for our little ones. Thankfully there are lots of things parents can do for kids to prepare them for learning about fractions.

1. Talk – talk – talk. Vocabulary is half the battle with fractions. Describe things around your world with words like “whole,” “half,” “equal,” and “not equal.” While packing your child’s lunch explain that you are cutting the sandwich in “half.” Have your child give “equal” amounts of crayons when sharing with friends. When your child is ready, introduce the words “divide” and “remainder” – graham crackers work well for modeling these two words.

2. Use apps. Fractions are challenging to model with children because we eventually run out of interesting, meaningful things we can cut into parts. From experience – practicing with paper gets boring really fast. Apps like Jungle Fractions are an excellent way for your child to play with fractions in a safe and supportive way. You will be glad to leave the things in your house “whole” too.

3. Playing with your food is a great way to learn fractions. Next time you have a dish that can be evenly divided (pizza is great for this), have your student divide it in half, and then into quarters.

Musical Me! | App Review & Activities

Musical Me!

We had different reactions when reviewing Musical Me! The music person on our team was excited to see a children’s app that so thoughtfully included solfege for kids (I told you she was a music person) while those of us with a tin ear were thrilled to be able to master well chosen favorite childhood songs.

We ALL saw the educational value for young children. One of our child testers astutely pointed out that it helped him with his memory and concentration (six year old’s can be very reflective). The children enjoyed playing the songs that they knew and really loved to sing along with their parents!

Five activities work with your child on dance, rhythm, memory, instruments and notes. You will find both free play activities and challenging levels that will test even the parents. Very little direction is needed. A wonderful “learn by discovery” app.

Oh my, do kids change quickly in their early years. Here are two examples of ways to weave this app into your child’s playtime.

Activity 1: Music With Your 6-Year-Old

Your 6-year-old has changed a lot since age 4. They now enjoy more structured activities. They still might have a strong independent streak but often enjoy working with friends and family on projects. They also have the capacity to learn and repeat specific melody lines as are presented in Musical Me!

Many schools with music programs start children on recorders at about 2nd or 3rd grade. Your ears may not enjoy it, but if you haven’t started your child on an instrument yet – the recorder is a great place to start. Now I highly suggest taking a trip to a nearby music store. If you are short on time there is always Amazon where you can get a recorder and instruction book for under $20.

Even if you don’t play an instrument, the recorder is easy to learn. Help your child get started and then let them explore different notes and sounds on the instrument. Suggest they try to play along with the songs in Musical Me! and other music apps you have. Often time the first songs in beginner music books are children’s music!

Activity 2: Music With Your 4-Year-Old

Generally children around age four are rapidly expanding how they communicate and express themselves, and they really want to try out all kinds of new experiences. Children at this age also start to develop an independent streak – they want less help from others, even when they need it. This is a great age to have your child start exploring with musical instruments and sounds.

While playing Musical Me! inspire your child to think about what instruments they can make from stuff around the house. Need inspiration? The app includes a variety of percussion instruments. See if your child has any ideas on how to make their own percussion instruments to use while the app is playing. Let them get creative and problem solve to make their instruments. No going on google to look up specific instructions!

Okay I’ll give you some hints: Make sure you have some rice, beans or pasta on hand for the shakers. Also chopsticks, spoons and twigs work for drum sticks. A favorite is to make a home guitar: shoe box & rubber bands!

The Giant Turnip | App Review & Activities

The Great Turnip

Day Two Productions has yet another story from around the world. The Great Turnip features master storyteller Katrice Horsley telling a story directly to your child – no gimmicks, no sound effects, just the storyteller enrapturing your child through the expressive use of words, gestures, facial expressions and direct eye contact. It is a tale about a farmer who plants a turnip that grows too large to pick and how the problem is resolved. These types of ‘progressive’ stories increase memory development and good listening skills.

Each activity for this app was developed by teachers and should match what your child is already familiar with from their classroom. One of our favorite parts is being able to record the story in your own words with support from picture clues. Confidence is built while mimicking and re-telling parts, or for experienced storytellers, all of a story in their own creative way.

Successful reading and writing depend on the child being able to speak and listen well first – this app offers the perfect opportunity to practice both!

Activity 1: String Together a Tall Tale

One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting around the dinner table and listening to my Dad tell us stories about his day. He was a high school math teacher and amazing at keeping us hanging on every word.

One day whales would be swimming down the hallway after a leak in the roof flooded the building. Then there was the time when bees where flying around the gym, which he turned into a tale about playing badminton with bumblebees as the birdies. A really long tale emerged when we started questioning him about the day the teachers turned into the knights of the round table. Never a dull moment.

Storytelling can be as simple as talking about your day or retelling a favorite book at bedtime. What is important is that your children hear you tell and retell stories. After listening to you they will naturally start to engage in storytelling themselves. Being a good storyteller builds confidence, language, and transfers into strong writing skills.

Activity 2: Great Books for Storytelling

Start with the classics, the stories you already know by heart. If your parents told them to you then they are excellent for your children to hear too.

Some other familiar tales:

• The Little Red Hen
• Cinderella
• Where the Wild Things Are

Kids and iPads: What’s Working

We hand the iPad to 4-year-olds and they can navigate between multiple apps and the games within the apps and then proceed to tell us all about what they are doing to “win” the games. Unbelievable! These little people don’t even blow their noses by themselves but can handle the sophistication of our iPads. It is no wonder why the number of children’s apps have grown exponentially over the last few years.

After using over 600 children’s educational apps I want to point out some of the characteristics of apps that really connect with our children.

First: Apps are entertaining. Bright colors, cute characters, music, voices in the app that talk to us, cheer us on, tell us to keep trying = entertaining. When I was a kid it was Math Blaster, Reader Rabbit and Oregon Trail. The sophistication has changed but what makes kids return again and again has stayed the same.

Second: The apps and devices are intuitive. The apps that are the easiest to use seem to know what our next thought is going to be. They propel us into the activity we want or answer the question we just formed. The great apps know when a task is too long and change it up to do something different.

Third: The apps kids repeatedly choose keeps them thinking and moving along a path that is engaging. The look in kids eyes show that they are completely enthralled in the activity. It’s the same look you get when lost in a good book, a video game, listening to music, watching your favorite sports team or on a long walk. The great apps are designed in a way that creates a world or a path that the child is so completely focused on that all sense of time is lost.

Fourth: The apps have unlimited patience. Parents – please do not get mad at me here. I am just admitting the fact that there are times we do not have the time or energy to do one more math problem, practice one more spelling word or explain one more time whatever the child is most interested in. Lucky for us, these apps can! The apps that patiently explain how to sound out “cat” for the 200th time are priceless.

The experience children have with apps is not so different than what any fantastic activity or toy provides. What is exciting is that we have app developers who know about how kids learn and are creating media that is showing signs of being as beneficial as Sesame Street has been.

Apps are really showing themselves to be a great teaching tool – yet, we all know there is room for improvement and further development. What I want to see next is how parents balance apps with play. I want to see how developers get children to problem solve, think critically and create something new in their apps. I want to see how teachers tie in apps to help children make amazing connections in the classroom.

Crayons and Communication: Tapping into the Minds of Children

In my kindergarten classroom children drew with pencils, crayons and markers on a daily basis. They practiced communication through stories, drew solutions to math problems, illustrated their observations of the world, shared their happiness and sadness, all on paper. What amazed me was that these same children, in front of the computer or with the tools of the SmartBoard, would go from “drawing-communicators” to what I can best describe as “color explorers”.

My students loved using a computer program called Kid Pix. They would add lots of colors, stickers, patterns, even type. Then they would blow up all their work with one of many “eraser bombs”. They just loved clicking away, filling up the screen with colors, pictures, letters and numbers. They would spend easily an hour on Kid Pix if time allowed. What could be more fun?

Were They Communicating Anything?

It wasn’t clear how they were applying what they were learning. My job was to provide a place where children could learn and grow. I needed to provide both the fun and try to get some learning or a product to emerge naturally.

One solution was to switch to using Microsoft Paint. No eraser bombs, no stickers, just colors, lines and a paint bucket. Was it fun? Not really, but I was able to get pictures that communicated what my students were learning. The problem was my students stopped asking to use the computer for drawing. They would groan when we were going to computer lab and beg to use Kid Pix.

What I began to understand was that although the exploration is fantastic, a great space for children to learn and grow, needed to figure out what I could do with the technology to keep the exploration and add the communication. After seeing children engage with a few well designed drawing apps I finally got my answer. There is something that technology can add to what children do with paper and pencil alone that does not sacrifice the depth of learning and communication.

A Transformed Drawing Experience

One of these fantastic apps is called Doodlecast, which is an app for children to create their own stories. The app contains blank screens and a variety of story starters. Choose from nine colors and use your finger to draw on the screen. Simple, right?

What Doodlecast does to transform the general drawing experience is that it adds a non-obtrusive recording feature. Children are still able to freely draw with their finger, but the unique playback feature lets adults tap into what is going on in the mind of the child. Also, I found that a 5 year old watching themselves draw and talk gets just as excited as when they get to launch a bomb to erase their work as in the computer programs I have used.

Drawing has the power to stimulate young children, give a them a way to communicate and allow us to understand how well they understand complex and abstract ideas. Why not use a tool that for $2.99 provides children an interactive, fun way to encourage creative drawing and communication? I believe fully in the power of paper, crayons and markers, but I am glad that we now have options like Doodlecast!

Happy Drawing!

Reading Raven | App Review & Activities

Reading Raven

Reading Raven is a self-paced, phonics-based reading app for emergent readers. Young children need to spend time in front of letters and words. Noticing the letters and words around their world and most importantly, in books (both paper and eBooks). All this exposure to letters and words will help children when they start to blend the sounds together to read on their own.

Reading Raven has one of the strongest educational and design foundations we have seen. Reading Raven has done a wonderful job of creating a variety of phonics activities that support and motivate children in practicing skills that will help them be strong readers. The app will take your child from when they are just discovering what a letter is through when they are blending letters together to make words. The app also seamlessly connects writing each letter to the phonics activities which helps reinforces letter identification and formation in context.

Parents and teachers are given in-app tools for customizing their children’s learning experience. Make sure to read the parent and teacher guide in the app and visit the Reading Raven website for videos and more information.

Activity 1: Read – Read – Read

We can not encourage parents often enough to spend time reading to and with your child everyday. It does not have to be in a formal setting. Just grab a book and plop down somewhere and read.

Spend a lot of time in the car? Download eBooks and share your device with your child or just keep a backpack with books in the backseat. See activity #2 for more ways to use books on the road.

Don’t have a set routine? Set up a chart with your child to read one book a day together before bed. Set a goal that is good for the whole family. There is nothing wrong with showing your child how adults need to be held accountable too.

Your child is already a reader? Here are some ideas to keep reading fun:

• Read to the family pet.
• Set up an author chair and stuffed animal audience.
• Include Grandma and Grandpa.
• Visit the local library.
• Read on a Saturday morning with a mug of hot cocoa.

Activity 2: Favorite Stories Read by You<

What You’ll Need:

• Your child’s favorite books.
• Read to Kids app (or any other recording app/device)
• Some quiet time.

Children love hearing repeated stories. Often there is just not enough time in the day to read stories as many times as our little ones would like. If you can get some quiet space, take the time to record yourself reading your children’s favorite stories.

We like the Read to Kids app because it allows you to create the page turn sounds. The app also has a built in timer that shows how long to wait for the page turn. Let your children use the app to record themselves reading a favorite book or just telling their own stories.

Happy Reading!

ABC Music | App Review & Activities

ABC Music

ABC Music guides learning through research and discovery. Traditional encyclopedia-style presentation combined with real instrument sounds, videos, interaction and quality images makes all the ABC apps from Peapod Labs truly special. This is an absolute MUST HAVE on your iPhone or iPad.

What makes this app unique is how the free-flowing design helps children to learn in multiple ways. Instead of guiding children through a series of activities, Peapod Labs created an environment where children get to choose what is interesting and important to them. The interface models how adults search for information, moving between websites and relevant texts to gather knowledge. What an amazing early learning experience to give your child.

Activity 1: Create Your Own Music Dictionary

What You’ll Need:

• Paper.
• Scissors.
• Stapler.
• Pencils, crayons markers.
• The ABC Music app.

Start by creating a simple flip book for your child. Go ahead and teach your older child how to make their own flip book. A simple flip book is made by folding a piece of paper into 4 equal parts. Cut along the folds, compile the pieces. You might want to wait to staple the edges until your child has finished writing and illustrating the pages. Find more fun flip books at Vicki Blackwell’s website.

Open up the ABC Music app. As your child learns about each instrument help them or have them write the name of the instrument and draw a quick picture. This is a great way for your child to keep track of their favorite instruments or instruments they want to learn how to play. You might need to plan a trip to your music store to see, touch and explore real instruments.

This activity is a great way to start talking about alphabetical order. Help your child (or challenge your child who knows the whole alphabet) to lay out all their pictures and order them from A to Z. You might want to write out the alphabet on a strip of paper for help. When the pages are ready, staple your book and add it to your child’s library!

Activity 2: Make Your Own Xylophone

Make a xylophone with this exploratory and entertaining at-home activity.

What You’ll Need:

• Tin cans.
• Rubber bands or duct tape.
• Pencils, sticks, or anything you can use to bang on the cans.
• Earplugs?

Go through the recycling bin looking for tin cans of a variety of sizes. Coffee cans are fantastic for a nice deep sound. Try to find between 5-8 cans. After collecting and washing out the cans, strike each one to hear the different sounds they make.

Choose two cans to start and rubber band them together. If you don’t have a lot of rubber bands make sure to tape the cans together so they don’t move or fly around while playing. Add more cans creating a circle. Rubber band or tape together each can as you add it.

It is quite challenging to get the cans in straight line and have them stay put. By making a group of cans in a tight circle your child will be able to use their xylophone in many places around your home. Including their bedroom after the music making starts to wear on your nerves.

Noodle Words HD – Action Set 1 | App Review & Activities

Noodle Words HD – Action Set 1

Noodle Words is one of our favorite apps ever! Noodle Words is the first in a series of animated Word Toys. We never get tired of testing this app with children. Watching the joy and giggles when new discoveries are made = Priceless!

Designed for both readers and non-readers to play with words, Noodle Words supports learning vocabulary and comprehension through motivational wordplay. There are 18 words that the Noodle Bugs illustrate with highly interactive antics. Children literally play with words to make DANCE dance, SPIN spin and JUMP jump as you tap, tilt, turn and blow.

Make sure you read through the menu tabs for helpful game tips for parents. Our kids come back to this app often, but with only 18 action words it leaves us wanting more. The time you spend with Noodle Words will be some of the most fun you will have learning vocabulary with your family!

Activity 1: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Get ready for Valentine’s Day with these silly wordplay Valentines.

Have you picked up your classroom Valentines yet? Are you planning to make your own Valentines this year? The Crafty Crow blog has gathered some funny, “pun”-y Valentines ideas from around the web.

Check out all the activities here: The Craft Crow WordPlay Valentine Card Ideas for Kids.

How to choose from all the great ideas? Here are my top picks:

• For a last minute, quick make: You Color My Heart Valentines!

• For a funny treat: Hog’s and Kisses Valentine

• For a kid favorite: “Doh” you want to be my Valentine?

Activity 2: Go Fishing for Verbs

Make a fishing game to practice reading nouns and verbs!

What You’ll Need:

• Two bowls.
• Index cards.
• Paper clips.
• String.
• A magnet.

Start by creating a list of nouns and verbs with your child. Choose about 5 nouns and 5 verbs to start. Write one word on each index card, making sure to keep the piles separate. Add a paperclip to each card and put each set into a bowl.

Pull out a magnet fishing pole from an old game or make your own. All you need is to tie string around a magnet. Go ahead and just grab a magnet from the fridge! Get inspired by adding a stick from outside as a pole. Now you are ready to start fishing.

Fish for one noun card and one verb card. Put the cards together and read each word. You might have some very silly sentences! Extend the activity by thinking up endings to your sentences or writing out the noun and verb and adding a picture of what the sentence looks like. Your child will never realize they are doing “school work” with this game.