Wee You-Things | App Review & Activities

Why does Joe have orange hair?

Why does Julia wear glasses and I don’t?
Where is Jackie’s Dad? She has two Moms.

These are the questions kids ask (usually in very public places) and parents get to answer in the most diplomatic and understanding ways. Well, parents you just got a new resource to help you in these discussions! Today’s app, Wee You-Things, is an interactive story that helps kids learn to see and appreciate the differences we all have.

Wee You-Things is a kid-friendly app that introduces over 20 unique (and often silly) characters that all have a special You-Thing. You-Things are the unique things that everyone has. Instead of ignoring these You-Things, this app gives kids a safe place to notice, ask questions and learn to appreciate all these special differences that people have.

Some of our favorite characters and their You-Things are:

Kyle with a ginormous smile, Potter who lives in the water, Clair who has no hair, CJ who only wears her PJs (we all have that You-Thing from time to time), and Pierre who runs with his arms in the air.

As you can tell, this very serious app is also filled with funny, laughable moments. Crafted with beautiful artistry and storytelling, Wee You-Things is sure to be a favorite in your home! We love when kids can’t get enough of stories that tell important messages.

Activity 1: What Do I Look Like?

Helping kids make sense of the similarities and differences between people of the world is a challenging and important task for parents. In the classroom, teachers are also helping kids work through a quickly broadening understanding of the great variety of qualities people have. This activity, which I now pass on to you, is a favorite that a parent once shared with me.

What You’ll Need:

• Paper (Try a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials).
• Art Supplies.

The objective of this activity is to get your kids thinking about how they look and feel. You will need to plan a week or two allowing you to gather a variety of drawings.

Day 1: As your child to draw a picture of his face. You don’t need to give any more directions. He can choose a piece of paper or draw on a paper plate using colors and art supplies. When he is done, collect the drawing to save for a later date.

Day 2: Ask your child to draw another picture of his face. Again leave him to create as he sees fit. Today might be a face in the color green or a face that is half the size as yesterday. When finished, save the drawing.

Day 3 to (however many!): Continue asking your child to draw his face. After he is done, bring out the other drawings from previous days. Take a few minutes to look at the drawings and point out what is the same and different on each picture. Maybe one day he has a big red nose and on another, he had no nose.

Without critiquing the drawing (that isn’t the point) discuss how what we think about ourselves changes. Some days we feel like a big as a mountain and others as small as a mouse. Some days we love our curly hair and other days we want to have no hair at all. By helping your child think through his own feelings about himself, and how they change, you are starting to encourage a sense of our feelings and forming sensitivity to other people’s varied feelings.

Activity 2: A Very Important Question

This activity is short. It is something you can do with your child often. It might take twenty seconds or twenty minutes. It’s really up to you and your child. What’s most important is that you ask the Question and never stop.

The question: How are you feeling?

The strategy: You ask your child and listen to their answer. Then your child asks you. Here is the challenge, you need to answer. You might have to carefully craft an answer or just be completely honest. By talking about your feelings, and encouraging your child to talk about hers, you are modeling and practicing together how to think about and express the feelings everyone has.

Splash Math Kindergarten | App Review & Activities

Splash Math Kindergarten

Today, I’m letting all of you in on a little secret. I don’t like worksheets and workbooks, especially in apps for young kids. Yes, we all come at these things with some sort of bias, and the people at KinderTown are no different – but for good reason! I like kids to be creative, challenged and exposed to rich technology experiences. With most apps I am looking for the good, the moments of educational value, so we can approve them. This is not usually the case when I open up a workbook-style app.

Splash Math Kindergarten, is, well, hard not to be called a workbook app. Yet, it is the most thorough workbook-style app I’ve ever played! It’s also an app I would have gladly used in my kindergarten classroom. Not only is the app completely engaging for young children, but the adult features and customizations also add incredible depth to the content.

$Read KinderTown's review of Splash Math Kindergarten.$

Splash Math Kindergarten is able to provide kids a wealth of math learning or focus specifically in an area your child needs some more explicit practice on. This is critical for teachers and parents to customize the app based on an individual child’s needs.

What kids experience in the app are a series of 10 questions which are answered multiple choice and fill in the blank. The app is supportive with intuitive design helping kids count aloud and giving direct feedback when answering a question incorrectly. You’ll find the series of activities are varied enough to be interesting but still connected around one skill area (instead of having kids jump around from shapes to counting to adding).

Coming from a reviewer that rarely raves over a workbook app, Splash Math Kindergarten has tremendous value!

Transform your workbooks and printables into rich play experiences! Don’t let those pages of your child’s artwork and connect the dots go to waste. Here are two creative ideas for stretching out the life of kids workbooks.

Activity 1: Turn Your Workbooks Into a Board Game

Standard kids board games typically contain four items:

• A path to travel (the game board)
• Markers unique to each player
• A spinner or dice for setting the number of places to move
• A challenge to complete to move your piece

Tell your kids that and they will make their own board game in a matter of minutes. It might end up more elaborate than Candy Land, but the game will be theirs. Encourage them to look at other board games and think about what different spaces can be labeled as (for example: lose a turn, go back two).

Next, take out a workbook that you have around the house. Cut out the individual problems on each page and glue them to pieces of cardboard or construction paper. Your kids now have a set of game cards to use for their board game. When it’s your turn, flip over a game card and solve the problem (or complete the activity). If you solve the card correctly you get to move ahead!

It’s up to you in this activity if you want your game cards to be reusable or not. Kids can just solve the problem right on the cards. Which you might want to do if you are playing this game with younger kids. You can also keep paper close by for working out problems so you can use your cards again and again.

Activity 2: What To Do With Leftover Workbooks

Kids (and their parents) love workbooks, however, once they are used up what can be done with them? One thing I know for a fact is that kids love cutting things. Just using scissors, paper, and glue, you can transform these used up workbooks into new activities. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Rainbow Alphabet: Have your child cut out one of each letter of the alphabet from the workbook. On the floor or a table, arrange them alphabetical order. Arrange the letter in the shape of a rainbow by putting A in lower left and Z in lower right with M at the top making an arch. If you want to divide it into quadrants add E and T. Once the rainbow is complete gameplay starts. (Can also be done with magnetic letters on the fridge).

Florida Center for Reading Research has a template of the alphabet arc (rainbow) to help you get started.

2. Numberline: Make your own number line by cutting apart an old workbook.

3. Create a Rebus Story: Our workbooks are filled with pictures the kids have colored. Cut out 5 pictures from the workbook and arrange them on a piece of paper. Have your child tell you a short story inspired by these pictures. Turn it into a rebus story by writing simple words your child can decode (read) between the pictures.

Apps and Activities for Science Learning this Spring

Have a fun spring with children exploring & discovering science with these fun educational apps and activities.

Science Apps for ages 3 to 5

Dr. Panda’s Veggie Garden

Dr. Panda’s Veggie Garden playfully gives kids the tools to be gardeners. There are 12 fruits and vegetables to grow. Over 30 activities such as plowing, digging, picking off insects and planting seeds are sequenced appropriately for growing each produce.

The app is more geared towards amusement and working through 1 and 2 step tasks than learning the sequence of growing fruits and vegetables. Each task is fun and easy for kids to work through, but there is not much free play in the games. There are links in the app so you might want to turn off the internet on your device when using this app.

Related Blog Post:
Gardening: Indoors With Apps

Hippo Seasons

Hippo Seasons responds to your child’s touch for discovering the four seasons. In each season kids tap, swipe, shake and blow to reveal and create with the thematic seasonal scenes. Winter has snow play, spring blends water and colorful flowers, summer an interactive lawn and fall is filled with leaves.

This free exploration app feels more like a toy than a traditional kids app. A very good app that uses no timers or directions, just your child’s imagination!

Related Blog Post:
Apps for Spring

Science Apps for Ages 5 and Up

Simple Machines by KIDS DISCOVER

Simple Machines by KIDS DISCOVER is a brilliantly designed app that keeps both kids and adults longing to learn more. This is a large app filled with animations, activities, vibrant images and more facts about simple machines than you probably remember learning when you were in school. Activities in the app include puzzles, a mind-bending spelling machine, ideas for simple machines you can make at home and a quiz to see how much you have learned.

This app doesn’t have the text read aloud, but our curious kids didn’t seem to mind making all kinds of meaningful connections from the pictures when we weren’t able to read aloud.

Related Blog Post:
Maker-Inspired Apps

Color Uncovered

Color Uncovered is a completely engaging app with interactivity, vibrant images that pique your interest and ton of cool facts about color. Over 20 pages present fun facts about color. The whole family can settle in with this app, allowing the colors on the screen to trick the mind.

There is informative text and explanations provided in the app. They are not written for young children and there is no speech option. An app to use alongside your child, with content that’s interesting for adults too!

Related Blog Post:
From Doodles, to Drawing, to Writing!

You’ll notice a tweet button on each page, parents can go into the settings page and turn off going to Twitter (but the icon remains). In addition to removing the twitter button we hope the developers add more learning areas, as the app can be a quick play for some kids.

Related Blog Post:
4 Superb Science Apps for Kids

Explore the weather and seasons with your young child with the following activities. We crafted each activity to be easy to do with very little planning. Enjoy!

Activity 1: What Can the Wind Move?

The invisible mystery of wind makes for great play with young kids. When you are out on walk one day, point out how a flag is blowing or the tree is moving and simply ask you kids, “Why is that moving?” You might get the response, “Oh, Dad, that’s just the wind!” or something wild and unpredictable (like our kids often are).

For a quick to set up lesson about the wind, join in with your child to find small objects around the house to test in the wind. The question you’re trying to answer is, what can the wind move.

Set up a table in the yard or clear a space on a windowsill. Set out your collection of items to test in the wind. Make sure to jot down your predictions too! Then wait and watch. (You might want to set it up before bed and then see what the table looks like in the morning.)

Talk about why certain things on the table were blown by the wind. Why some objects did not move, some moved a little bit and others ended up halfway across the yard.

Activity 2: Where Can We Make Rainbows?

A favorite craft in my classroom was coffee filter rainbows. All you need to do is cut a coffee filter in half so you have a half-circle. Then add your colors using markers around the arch, like a rainbow. A few squirts from spray bottle filled with water helps the colors bleed into a bright beautiful rainbow.

While that activity by itself is really fun for kids, stretch it out to get kids really thinking of what happens when the water hits the filter and the colors bleed. Challenge your kids to think about where else you can make rainbows:

• Can you make a rainbow on cardboard?
• Can you make a rainbow on tissue paper?
• What happens when you use chalk on the sidewalk?

Activity 3: Modeling the 4 seasons

As the seasons are changing from winter to spring, kids are able to really notice the differences and form understandings of the cycle of seasons. Use this time to create books and crafts about the four seasons. Here are a few of our favorite 4 seasons projects:

• 4 seasons foods: Divide a paper plate into 4 parts and label each part with one of the four seasons. Think about foods that look like each season. I used split peas for summer, 3 colored pasta for fall, mini marshmallows and pretzels for winter, and colorful jelly beans for spring. Glue the food into each quarter, describing and comparing what we see outside to the colors and shapes of the food.

• 4 seasons trees: Gather small sticks from around the yard. Glue them into tree forms on 4 pieces of paper. Label is paper as one season. Kids then add the details to and around the trees to reflect each season. Change up the project by adding: tissue paper, ribbons, paint stamps in the colors of the four seasons.

• 4 seasons “I like” book: Using four pieces of paper, talk with your child about what they like to do during each season. On the paper write the prompt “I like _____ in (season)”. Fill in the blank with what your child likes to do and add an illustration to each page.

Happi Papi Spelling App Reviews & Activities

Today you get a double whammy of app reviews. As we settled down to share all that we enjoy about Happi & The Word Thief, we learned of a new app by the same developer for more language learning and spelling fun. So today we are featuring both!

Happi & The Word Thief

Kids are challenged to find words hidden in a seek and find puzzle before the thief comes and steals all their letters. If you find the words in time, there is a follow-up word scramble game which is quite challenging. Kids have to figure out the word scrambled on the top of the screen and then tap on the object from the picture below. If you don’t find the words in time, kids practice spelling the words by dragging the scrabble style letters into place.

The gameplay is perfect for the target age, advanced 5 and up. Ominous music and dark (but not scary) graphics are visually appealing. There are three levels of play, which you’ll want to take advantage of if you have a beginning reader/speller. The app is also lightly adaptive to help limit frustration.

We love that the play isn’t the same old present a word and spell it play (not that we mind those apps). There is a theme to the play and variety in the games. Also, the words aren’t always easy, which means our kids are really challenged and sometimes stumped. A little frustration, perseverance, and problem solving emerge as kids use Happi & The Word Thief.

Happi & The Pirates!

Uh oh! Pirates have hidden four parts of a treasure map and you need to find them to unlock the grand treasure. Finding the maps is no easy task and requires your child to use spelling, math and other brain games to achieve the goal.

To start, you’ll find words hidden in treacherous land. Your job is to find the words, letter by letter to earn treasure chests. Be careful though, if you tap a place where this is no letter you ignite a bomb! The words, which are hidden crossword style, can be tricky to find even if really think about how each word is spelled. Thankfully there is a helpful feature if you get stuck!

After finishing the word search, you move on to dragging keys to unlock treasure chests. Of course, kids have to apply some knowledge to unlock the chests. A variety of activities like completing patterns, alphabetic order or a color mixing might be what stands in your way. Unlocking chests earns you puzzle pieces and tools that become very important at the end of the level as you look for the big, X marks the spot, treasure. It’s important to unlock the chests correctly, otherwise, you might lose your hard earned treasure!

What is unique about Happi & The Pirates (for a kids app), is that kids just might have to go back and solve the puzzles faster or with better accuracy. The reason is that you are earning tools and map pieces along the way. These tools are important for finding the big treasure hidden away in the large map at the end of each level. If you don’t get the right tools and puzzle pieces the first time through, you’ll need to go back and keep earning pieces.

Help your child work on their spelling by thinking through the words as syllable parts. Just like your young child started to read simple words one sound at a time: /r/ + /e/ + /d/. Your older child is starting to decode more complicated words by syllables: /rain/ + /bow/, /sham/ + /poo/. Here are two activities for working with syllables in your home.

**Parents with young children. Do these activities as aural games. Being able to hear, count and manipulate the syllables in words (part of phonological awareness) will help your child when they are ready to read and write these “big” words.

Activity 1: Wild, Wacky Syllables

What You’ll Need:

• A handful of 2 syllable words like planet, purple, baseball, rainbow.
• Rectangles of paper.
• Writing materials.

Together with your child, brainstorm a few two syllable words. Then discuss how you break those words up into syllables. For example: purple = pur/ple. Taking two rectangles of paper, write one syllable on each paper. Repeat this process for a handful of words, start with three or go all the way to ten. It’s up to you.

Now let those syllables go wild! Take all the pretty words you have written and mix them up. Instead of “purple” and “rainbow”, you might have “purbow” and a “rainple.” Continue until you either have a stomach ache from laughing at the silly words or when no more creative match are left.

Creative kids: Make a story out of these new words. Draw pictures of what you think a “purbow” looks like. Come up with words that when you break them into syllables and mix them with other words they make new words that are not wacky but real words you find in reading!

Activity 2: Partner Spell

Working on some tricky spelling words? Need a quick change of routine for these last weeks of school? Try a partner spell.

Here’s what you do. For each spelling word tell your child you will help with the spelling, but you will only help if you both work together. Explain that your child’s job is to spell the first syllable aloud and you will join in to spell the second syllable aloud (going back and forth if there are more than two syllables in your word). After spelling each word, switch roles with parent spelling the first syllable and then the child taking over.

This may seem simple, but by not just using rote memory to run through the spelling of each word, your child really has to think about each letter and where the syllable ends.

For younger kids, you can also play taking turns with the letters in simple words or trading off words to a familiar nursery rhyme or song.

Storytelling Activity for Kindergarteners | Guest Post

Today we are fortunate to share an app and storytelling activity designed with kindergarteners in mind.

Kindergarteners love the book Hug by Jez Alborough. The picture book tells the story of a little monkey in search of a hug from his “mummy.”

Along the way, the monkey meets many animal friends who help him in his search. In the story, the monkey feels hopeless, his animal friends show empathy, and finally everyone rejoices when the baby monkey and his mother reunite for a hug. It’s a lovely story that elicits many thoughtful observations from kindergartners and adults alike.

Here’s a storytelling lesson that is inspired from Hug to teach kindergartners narrative writing as part of composition. Since kindergartners are emerging writers, combining audio and pictures to create a narrative can help to engage even the most reluctant of storytellers.

Primary Learning Goal

Listen and retell a narrative through writing, pictures, and voice.

Secondary Learning Goal

Follow auditory directions. Use prediction to help retell the story (what happens next). Identify feelings and show empathy by acting the story out.

What You’ll Need:

1. A copy of Hug
2. The Kid in Story Book Maker app
3. An iPad
4. Download the *.kis template entitled Hug inspired by Jez Alborough and open in Kid in Story Book Maker
5. Watch the Kid in Story Book Maker demo to learn how to create a book.
6. One child and 5+ toys (dolls, stuffed animals, action figures) or 6+ children

Lesson

1. Read the story Hug by Jez Alborough.

2. Ask the following questions:

• Who is in the story?
• What animals did the monkey meet?
• What were they doing?
• Who was the monkey searching for?
• What happened when the monkey found the animal he was searching for?

3. Open Kid in Story Book Maker and show the Hug template to your child/children. Invite them to retell the Hug story by acting it out using Kid in Story Book Maker.

4. The *.kis template changes the main characters from the monkey and his mother to Sarah and her best friend Willie. Determine who will play Sarah, who will play Willie, and who will play the animals they meet. Children can get creative and play more than one character. It’s fun for them to try on many roles.

5. Read each page aloud or if there are children who can read, have them read aloud. Take a picture of the child (or children) in front of a white wall for easy editing. Insert the picture of the child into the story.

6. Once all the pictures have been inserted into the story, have the children retell the story in their own words and record them page by page. Some children may read the story as the template is written and others may improvise. If they improvise, you can change the text to reflect what they say.

7. Click “done” to save your story. Now you can read the story you created together.

Kid in Story Book Maker App Tips

• In the beginning, you will lead and direct your child for the first few pages. Suggest changing roles and have your child direct you, take your picture and insert you into the story.

• Dress up, use puppets, or put on silly hats and masks to make the story more interesting and engaging for your child/children.

• Don’t forget to use the modify button to reposition your child in the story and to scale bigger or smaller. Children LOVE this feature because this helps them to direct the story instead of being passive participants.

• Share your custom story by email or Dropbox with friends and family! In order for them to read your custom story on the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, they will need to download the FREE Kid in Story Reader. Watch the demo and learn how to share a custom story.

Sample Writing Prompts

In additional to writing a digital narrative, you can extend this activity by drawing pictures of and writing about hugs. Here are some sample writing prompts or you can create your own. Find pictures online (Google image search) to complement the writing prompts below. Depending on your child’s writing ability, you may choose to have them dictate their response to you. If this is the case, you can use a highlighter to write their response and they can trace over the highlighter. Or you can write their response with a pen and they can copy it on their own paper with a pencil.

• Describe the oldest person you have ever hugged. What is their name? How old do you think they are What did it feel like? What were you doing with this person? (Google search “seniors hugging”)

• Your sister, brother or cousin is swimming in the pool and sees you sitting on the pool deck. They climb out of the pool to say hi and give you a big, full body, and wet hug. What happens next? (Google search “child swimming”)

• Imagine you just learned to ride your bicycle for the first time without any training wheels. You are so excited to tell someone special. Describe the person who you tell and describe the hug they give you. (Google search “child riding a bike”)

• A classmate is sad and sitting alone. What are 3 things you can do to turn that frown upside down? (Google search “lonely child”)

Anna Johnson is a mom, wife, marketer, special ed supporter, congenital heart defect advocate, iPad devotee and EdTech believer. She works in marketing at Enuma®. Enuma® designs exceptional learning tools to empower children – including those with special needs – to be independent learners.

Easy Stop Motion studio | App Review & Activity

Easy Stop Motion studio

Have you ever tried to make a stop motion animation? It takes materials (like clay in claymation) that can be manipulated, a camera and a video editing program. Stop motion can be an incredible, creative experience for both kids and adults, but is not a simple undertaking. Until now!

One of our favorite developers, Edoki Academy, has created a stop motion, animation app designed specifically for kids. The app does it all:

• Introduces kids, step by step, on how to construct their video in a specific easy mode.
• Sparks creativity with in-app animation videos.
• Provides tons of shapes and tools for making your own animations in a do-it-yourself expert mode.
• Shares tips and tricks in an informative info page (start there parents!).

In terms of educational value, stop motion animations might not be as high on your list as learning to read or math apps. Yet, the process of designing, planning, problem-solving and persisting through the task to be rewarded with their own movie are extremely important life skills for children to experience.

We’ve spent more time talking about Easy Studio and all it’s learning potential since it launched than our traditional language learning apps. We highly encourage you to challenge yourself and your kids with Easy Studio!

Activity: Storyboards

One of the strategies I used as an adult playing Easy Studio was to create a storyboard before making my animation. While I enjoyed a few rounds of playing with the Easy Studio tools, I wanted to create something more sophisticated. I found it helpful to do some planning by sketching out the big pieces of the design. Since planning is a skill your child will need for life. We recommend storyboards as a useful tool for kids.

A storyboard is a series of pictures that tell a story. Like a comic strip!

Storyboards for younger kids:

For your child new to planning, start with a few boxes on a piece of paper. Choose something that your child is familiar with, like how to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich or the sequence of a favorite story. You are really are working on the sequence of beginning, middle and end. Draw or take pictures to represent each step in the sequence. Have your child put the pictures in the correct order and share the story of what is happening in order.

Storyboards for older kids:

If you have a child who is already as strong sequencer you can start tapping into their creativity! On a storyboard template, encourage them to organize the sequence of what they want to happen in the next Easy Studio stop motion they create. Your child might enjoy getting out the camera and creating a stop motion movie. The storyboard can be used to help your child plan a story they want to write or a meal they want to make for the family.

Rocket Speller PLUS | App Review & Activities

Rocket Speller PLUS blends phonetic spelling play together with motivating rocket building activities. This app is a kid favorite that receives great reviews from both teachers and parents, too.

In Rocket Speller PLUS, kids are given a series of words to spell. The settings in the app allow parents to customize the theme of the words, choose between five levels of play and letter style. The leveling of words, clarity of the letter sounds and the adaptive assistance provided in the app help kids to stay in the sweet spot of focus, enjoyment while still being challenged.

Instead of leaving off the tricky phonics spelling words, Rocket Speller PLUS groups the letters together by individual sounds. This means kids are seeing letter-sound patterns (like /oa/ & /er/) and hearing the corresponding sounds at the tap of a finger. This is one of the first apps we’ve reviewed that understands how to support beginning readers in spelling every day (interesting!) words without sacrificing the phonics rules.

Kid’s aren’t just spelling words in the app. We know that spelling practice is better with a motivating game element to keep kids interested. Rocket Speller PLUS switches between spelling and rocket building to give kids a creative outlet alongside all their hard work. Numerous combinations of rocket pieces keep kids building and launching rockets, with plenty of spelling happening in between.

Rocket Speller PLUS is an excellent app for both the home and classroom!

Activity 1: LEGO® Brick Spelling

Have LEGO bricks around the home? A permanent marker transforms your bricks into spelling cubes. It’s amazing how a fresh way to practice spelling, with something as simple as letters on LEGO bricks, can increase your child’s motivation and willingness to build words.

For older kids: Instead of giving your child words to spell, pass them a handful of letters and see how many real words they can make from the letters. Be ready with your tablet or a dictionary to let kids look up possible words to make. We believe in giving kids the tools to discover new words, instead of just sticking with the words they already know.

For the little ones: Go on a word hunt! Bring your LEGO brick letters and find words around the house (or in your books) that you can build. Run out of letters? Point out the missing letters. Encourage your child’s creativity and problem-solving by helping him (or her) figure out how to create or use other materials to represent the missing letters.

Other common household materials that can be transformed for spelling practice:

• Clothes Pins
• Bottle Caps
• Marbles
• Rocks
• Magazine Letters

Activity 2: Spelling with Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is one of our favorite authors. Besides absolutely loving the humorous and creative stories, the books have many teaching moments, especially for spelling.

Grab one of your favorite Seuss books. Go on a letter pattern hunt looking for words that all have the same ending on each page. Dr. Seuss incorporated a lot of rhyme in his books so there should be plenty of patterns to discover.

Keep some post-it notes nearby and cover up one of the rhyming words. See if your child can guess the word and spell it for you. Using the letter patterns from the other words on the page should help your child’s spelling.

Fizzy’s Lunch Lab | App Review & Activities

At KinderTown, we are always on the hunt for an app that does something a little different. For apps that let kids play with a concept that you can’t find in the other best educational apps in the app store. Today’s featured app: Fizzy’s Lunch Lab really got our reviewers excited.

Professor Frizzy, from the PBS series, provides eight challenges with a focus on mapping skills, money, positional words, sorting and classifying. Granted, this is a lot of varying content, but the app plays so smoothly! The individual problem-solving games are connected by entertaining video cut scenes with many games integrating healthy food experiences. For repeat play, the videos have a “skip” button to get right to the games.

Have multiple kids in the home? You’ll find options for creating separate accounts. Not only do multiple accounts mean that kids can experience the app at their own pace, but Fizzy’s Lunch Rush is adaptive. Adaptive play supports kids by auto-adjusting the leveling based on their answers. This means there is no need to go in and adjusts the levels yourself.

Some of the unique (to the app store) content in Fizzy’s Lunch Lab includes:

• Counting money in real life experiences
• Mapping out directions to get from one place to another
• Solving if/then logic problems
• Classifying items and people by features

Activity 1: Secret Chest

Children begin to develop their logical-thinking skills by answering questions and playing games that involve reasoning or critical thinking. We highly recommend including riddles and guessing games throughout your day. Your child will enjoy guessing an object that is hidden in a paper bag from clues given, and the process teaches them to put clues together to figure out an answer.

I used a “Secret Chest” in my first-grade classroom. My students would get three clues, but I gave them out one at a time.

After the first clue, we would write possible answers on a whiteboard. When the second clue was given we crossed out the suggestions that no longer fit both clues. Same for the third clue.

After the suggestions were narrowed down, the class voted on which object they thought was in the Secret Chest. Then came the big reveal!

An activity like “Secret Chest” can be tailored for use at home or in the classroom. For a variety of ages too. Eventually, you’ll notice your kids taking the leadership in picking out the “secret” and preparing clues.

Activity 2: Traffic Jam

If your child is into puzzles and challenges you have to try out a game of “Traffic Jam.” Dr. Mike’s Math Games for Kids has a free version of this game to download.

Objective: Drive the red car to the exit. Start by choosing a puzzle template for setting up your cars. Then, find out how many moves takes to solve the puzzle – where one ‘move’ means a single car or truck moving a single space forwards or backward. Start by solving the easier puzzle or puzzles in a group, and it will give an idea of how to solve the harder ones. You will eventually need more puzzles!

Don’t want to take the time to print, cut and set up the board game. We have a few other easy options:

• Download the Rush Hour app from ThinkFun. There is a free app to try out and a paid version if you like it!

• Purchase the ThinkFun Rush Hour Junior game directly from Amazon.

Build a Paper Airplane Activity

Making paper airplanes doesn’t feel like science. And it’s not quite an art. Near as I can figure, launching a regular old piece of paper into the sky so that it soars is pure magic. Put your best paper airplane to the test with the paper plane playoff activity. Most of us love building paper airplanes. Most of us have our own favorite designs. Why not go head-to-head and test it out?

What You’ll Need:

• Paper.
• Paper clips.
• Long play area (park or playground).

Step 1: Build your best paper plane.

Step 2: Stand side-to-side with your child. Let the planes FLY!

Step 3: Make the exact same alteration to each plane such as adding a paper clip to the nose of the plane, tear a tiny notch in the tail, or even add a small leaf to each wing.

Step 4: Fly the planes again. Repeat the process until one plane is disabled. The plane that endures the most changes, wins.

More on the web for learning basic paper airplane design:

• YouTube video with step by step modeling to make a basic paper airplane.
• 10 paper airplane designs to try at home.

Valentine’s Day Activities & Books

Are you geared up and ready? I’ll bet your child is! People all over the world profess their love on Valentines Day, however, customs vary slightly. Our family has a tradition of making chocolates together.

Activity 1: Valentine’s Day Sayings

What You’ll Need:
• Heart-shaped Valentine’s Day candies with words on them.

When sitting quietly with your child each choose (eyes closed) three candies to start. Using the ones you have chosen make up a short story. You go first modeling the procedure. The older the child, the more candies to tie together into a storyline.

Think what a great story she can make with:

• Cool cat
• Purr fect
• Dream
• My pet
• Ur good

Activity 2: Graphing Activity

CEOs use them. City planners rely on them. And entire board room walls are devoted to their presence. And no, we aren’t talking about candy hearts! Let’s get our kids graphing early and often. Here is an activity to help your child get a leg up and dive into the sophisticated world of graphs.

What You’ll Need:

• Candy hearts
• 1” graph paper works well

Randomly take a handful of candies and sort using graphing paper. Sort by: color, broken or unbroken, how many letters on the printed word.

Questions you might ask:

• Why do you think there are more of those?
• Which has the least?
• If you do this activity again, will the results be the same?

Activity 3: Fact Games

We have put together 11 interesting facts to share that will make you look like the smartest parent EVER! Play a game? Perhaps make it into a family Jeopardy challenge or design your own family game.

In Japan and Korea they observe on February 14 but ends on March 14 known as “White Day”. On the first day women present chocolate or gifts to the man to express feelings. In Korea however, they also have set aside “Black Day” for those young people who have no particular romantic partners.
In Denmark white flowers called snowdrops are sent to friends.
The earliest written valentine was 1415 years ago. Have the older child
figure out how many years ago.
Many believe the ‘X’ symbol became synonymous with the kiss in medieval times. People who couldn’t write their names signed in front of a witness with an ‘X.’ The ‘X’ was then kissed to show their sincerity.
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned onto their sleeves for one week for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression “to wear your heart on your sleeve.”
Physicians of the 1800’s commonly advised their patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining for lost love.
Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in the late 1800’s.
Red roses are considered the flower of love because the color red stands for strong romantic feelings.
Teachers will receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
The most fantastic gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife. Find it on the map and find pictures.
Every Valentine’s Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.

Valentine’s Day Thematic Read-Alouds

Happy Valentine’s Day, Curious George

George and his friends celebrate Valentines Day and in his traditional mischievous style causes trouble with balloons, glitter and frosting.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Little Critter!

Little Critters class is celebrating Valentines Day. Pull back the flaps and discover all the fun Valentine’s Day surprises.

The Day It Rained Hearts

Cornelia Augusta couldn’t believe her eyes as this unusual downpour began. Each heart was special and she knew just what she wanted to do with each and every one of them. The simple and gentle text is kept to a minimum.