Tapikeo App Review

Tapikeo

Tapikeo is not a game or filled with cute characters, stickers and sparkles. It’d be a big mistake to let that turn you off because there is so much you can do with Tapikeo. In fact, Tapikeo is one of those rare apps that is easy for a kid to play independently, but also invites families to play together.

What is Tapikeo?

• More than a flashcard app!
• A completely open-ended app that gives parents and teachers the tools to easily tailor content to their child’s needs.
• A place for kids to organize, create, and apply their knowledge and passions.
• An app that enables parents and teachers to easily share personalized content.

Tapikeo was originally recommended to us as an amazing app with tons of options we just had to try out. Once we talked to Jeoud, the developer of Tapikeo, and learned more about about how families and teachers were using his app, we were hooked.

We realize most of our users won’t be accustomed to this style of app play. Tapikeo just doesn’t look like other apps we’ve approved, which is why we want to take a moment to showoff all the exciting ways you can use this app.

5 Ideas for Using Tapikeo at Home and in the Classroom

Family Storytelling

Storytelling is an important part of reading and writing. It also encourages creativity, collaboration, and communication. Sit down as a family, open Tapikeo and pass the device around the table. Each person in the family narrates one picture they choose from photos to create what will end up being a silly tale. This story is now saved on the device for replaying or modifying.

This activity doesn’t take any pre-planning other than making sure you have a nice catalog of photos already on your device. It also may morph into recording a family recipe, sharing about each others day, or brainstorming your family’s next vacation.

Family Vacations

Getting ready to go on that family vacation you planned around the table? Encourage an older child to create a “Family Vacation” grid. Great for car rides, children can pick out favorite pictures, plan narrations and take on the responsibility of creating the digital scrapbook of your vacation. Using Tapikeo to give your children more control and role in the family trip helps build confidence alongside all the learning benefits.

Child Interest Projects

Many of you have a child who gets completely absorbed in learning about dinosaurs, space, horses, wrestlers (my kinder kids last year were obsessed with wrestlers) or whatever else their active minds can come up with. Tapikeo is a great way for them to take pictures of their favorite images, toys, and drawings and create short narrations. Parents and teachers can even type in text to help support beginning readers.

Now for those of you with 7 and 8 year olds – hand over the device and let the kids create grids that interest them. Ask your child’s classroom teacher to provide a few minutes one day for your child to give a brief presentation straight from the Tapikeo app.

Classroom Books

Creating books is one of the easiest things to do in Tapikeo. In my classroom we were always making classroom books. In addition to binding the classroom set of pictures and text, take a picture of the students’ work and have the kids narrate their drawing on the app. Then, easily share these stories with your parents who have the Tapikeo app! With a quick email your students can experience these stories at home too.

Have active room parents? Get your volunteers who are familiar with Tapikeo involved by coming in and working with the class building books.

Do you teach a dual language or a bilingual classroom? We know how limited your options for books and other resources are. Tapikeo can be used to take pictures of books and narrate them in a language you are teaching. Just don’t share this content. We don’t want any copyright issues.

Make Content to Suit Your Kids Specific Needs

Do you have a child struggling with a concept? A child with special learning needs? A classroom of kids struggling to understand a difficult unit? Tapikeo is one more resource for you.

Tapikeo is designed on a grid system. The squares on the grid can connect to each other to link concepts together. Think about the potential for building vocabulary and comprehension. You can use one square to present the text, and link other squares that provide visual context clues, connect the text to prior learning or reinforce a strategy. It takes some work up front, but much less time than trying to find an app or other resource tailored to your specific needs.

Tapikeo has many resources to support you including a “Quick Start Guide” which can be found in the setting tab, a “Guide for parents and educators” on the grid page and look for the “?” on each page for more help and ideas.