Top Apps of 2011

I have noticed a lot of sites doing top app picks for 2011. I didn't want to feel left out so I decided to create a list, well more like LISTS. There are so many great apps that I felt I needed to choose the top apps in a few different categories. All apps have been used by myself and/or students within my classroom. These are the apps that I try to incorporate into the curriculum and daily schedule as much as I can (with the limitation of 1 iPad, 1 teacher, 3 assistants, and 7 students). 


If you would like to see a complete list of the most used apps within my classroom, visit my list at the Technology in Special Education website. I have to admit, with over 850 apps in my itunes account, narrowing these down and keeping them all organized was a little difficult!

Also, check out my special ed counterpart from northern Ohio, Miss Kolis. Here is the list of her top 20 or so apps of 2011. 

Looking for app for older students, check out Golden Communications, LLC's list of apps for older students to enhance language and learning skills. This list was created by an SLP working with students grades 7-12 and is the developer of Enchanted Dictionary (an app worth looking into for vocabulary development and language).


~ Melanie

Top AAC/Speech and Language Apps

** AAC apps are suggestions, it looking for a voice output app/device, please consult SLP or AT specialist to request a AT/AAC evaluation **
SonoFlex- LITE version FREE, voice output app, customizable

Answers: YES NO - simple, easy to program AAC app

Toontasic - FREE, create 'puppet show' videos; add characters, voice, and video is created
Verbally - FREE version, w/paid upgrade available; although I do not have a student that can use this AAC app this school year (as it is word based versus picture based), I had to include it because it made quite an impact for a student at the end of last school year

Top Fine Motor Apps

Bugs and Buttons - app that incorporates fine motor, sorting, patterns, colors, visual motor...I could go on! Great for fine motor, but also works on pre-academic skills as well.

injini - a multiple activity app that is divided into levels within each activity; this is the app I use most within my classroom; it incorporates activities that develop fine motor skills, matching skills, patterning, colors, visual motor....and another app that I could continue to list the benefits; Project Injini website has tracing printables that mirror iPad activities

iLuv Drawing Animals - simple learn how to draw app; takes user through picture step-by-step; great for fine motor development, teaching how to add detail to drawings, great feature - can email completed pictures

Top Book Apps

Cinderella by Nosy Crow - all Nosy Crow apps are amazing, but Cinderella made me feel like a kids again; a timely story, great interactivity, amazing illustrations create this superior book app
Chuck and Friends: Friends for the Long Haul - book app with the characters every little boy loves, embedded activities to reinforce letters, fine motor, and story comprehension; my review of Chuck and Friends
Penelope the Purple Pirate - an adorable story of a little girl who turns into a pirate; had to add it to this list as it is the one app a student requests frequently

Top (Pre) Academic

Alien Buddies - my review of Alien Buddies, great to reinforce letters, numbers, shapes, colors

Junior BINGO - bingo app for younger students; bingo reinforcing letters, numbers, and shapes
Kandy Fish -  great app for sorting by color, fine motor

Top Reading Apps

Word Wizard - my review of Word Wizard, great to use as an alternative to handwritten spelling tests

Word BINGO - great app to use with individual students as an assessment tool or with 2 students as a turn taking activity; my review of Word BINGO

My Word Wall - my review of My Word Wall, great to introduce letters and word families 
Photo Touch Sight Words -  great app to use as assessment tool, very customizable with built in word lists as well as ability to set word lists
 

Top Math Apps 

iLEAP Touch Spot Subtraction and Addition - very similar to "touch math" concept; various levels: learn, explore, apply, practice; gives more concrete meaning to subtraction/addition

Jungle Coins - customizable app with various levels from penny to all coins, including dollar; app is also customizable by other country's coins as well; my review of Jungle Coins and Jungle Time
Jungle Time - customizable app with various time levels of to the hour down to minutes
Candy Count - not a well know app and it does contain an in-app-purchase (IAP) which I am against as a selling point, but the concepts are great; sorting, counting, number order, greater/less than all in one app
iLearn With Poko: Addition - fun app focusing on the math skills of counting, grouping sets, and addition; my review of this app

Top "for fun" Apps

All Toca Boca apps

My Underwear - the only time it is ok to decorate and play with underwear

Top "grown up" games/apps

Scrabble

Battleship

Words with Friends
Angry Birds  
Zite  - personalized magazine
Flipboard - personalize magazine

Vacation time...iPads ready? CHECK!

As we get ready to take a long weekend road trip to see a couple of baseball games and visit a few children's museums, I had to make sure we did the iPad check. I wanted to make sure that both my work iPad and my husbands iPad 2 were "kids" organized and had a variety of apps to entertain 2 kiddos in a car. Even though they both are excellent travelers and enjoy looking at the scenery, I wanted to make sure we had all our bases covered. (No bun intended - if you closely, the background on my hubby's iPad is Pete Rose sliding into home plate.)

I have been asked several time about how I have organized my apps into folders. I don't think there is a "right" way or a "wrong" way. You have to figure out what way is going to work best for the user.
 

Here are a few pictures of how we have folders set up on our iPads. My husband's iPad 2 is sent up for his use. I have only advised on how to organize his apps.

But I made sure that since my kids would be using it too, they knew what apps were OK for them to play. So....
we made each kid a folder (Grace and Caleb), then we have a Books folder, games folder and a kids fun folder. These folder contain all the app that are appropriate for the kids to play.

  
My iPad, which is primarily for work use, is set up more "kids friendly" and academic. I have apps organized into folders set up according to subjects, such as math, reading, drawing, books, etc. Apps that I use on a frequent basis (like Proloquo2Go, Pandora, iDress, etc.) are no in folders so that they are easy access.

Here are the top 10 apps (ok, may be there are a few more than 10) that we have on at least one of the iPads that I know will make the road trip a little less painful.

1. Every app from Toca Boca: Toca Tea, Toca Doctor, Paint My Wings, and Toca Hair Salon (our new favorite).  apps range in price from $0.99 to $1.99 with a free LITE version of Toca Doctor available. Toca Doctor and Toca Tea are some of the favorite apps of my 5 year old.
2. My Underwear by Thumb Arcade and Todd Parr. Several activities all relating to....well, you guessed it underwear! You can decorate it, match it, and have monsters eat the undies. My kids LOVE IT! available for $2.99 in itunes.
3. Playskool: Alphie by Red Urban. This app is a simple that teaches basic skills (colors, numbers, shapes). My kids love to help Alphie on his adventures and visit his Grandpa Blue. The price is amazing... FREE!
4. The Three Little Pigs by Nosy Crow. See my review for additional information on this app.
5. Chuck and Friends: Friends for the Long Haul by Ruckus Media Group. My 3 year old loves his cars and trucks so I knew that this interactive book was a must. Various learning activities are imbedded into the story. BONUS * app allows you to record your own voice reading the story* Chuck is available for $3.99 for full version or LITE version for FREE
6. iDoodle Card by BND Co., Ltd. offers a variety of drawing activities. It allows for free drawing, follow a maze, complete a picture, or coloring pages. It is able 2 or 3 apps in one. I can't wait to do a full review because this one has so many potential IEP uses. I think it is a steal at $0.99.
7. MiniSketch by FatalFun is similar to the handheld "Etch-a-Sketch", but with a twist. In this app, you can change color and line texture. Although I was never good that the original etch-a-sketch, I found this one fun to just play with due to the color and line changes available. If you hurry, it is FREE until June 27th.
8. Bug Builder by zinc Roe allows you to choose between 4 different bug body shapes. Next, you can decorate your shape to create your bug. After your bug in complete, you have the choice of taking a picture of the bug going back to create another. I'm not a fan of taking the picture as I end up with 50 bug photos on my iPad if my kids are playing by themselves. Consider yourself warned. This app is $1.99 which compared to other "creative apps" is a little high for the simplicity of the app.
9. Create a Car by ABCya!. See my review for additional information on this app.
10. Moody Monster by ALEX toys allows you to create your own monster, take monster tour of the manor, and play games with the monsters. The app integrates both academic (colors) and social (feelings) components as well. Moody Monsters is one of the favorites of my 3 year old (until we got Chuck the Truck). Best of all, it is FREE!
11. And last, but not least, we cannot leave the house without a copy of The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton made into an interactive story app by Loud Crow Interactive, Inc. This book, actually this board book, has had a place in our nighttime ritual since my daughter, who will be 6 in August, was born. We have read it so much that the whole family, even Caleb (age 3), can recite the book from memory. So when we saw that there was an interactive version for the iPad, we jumped on it. For the iPad version it is $2.99, iPhone version is $1.99 which I think is a great price for a very good quality interactive book. Both cheaper than the original board book which was probably about $5.99. However, I wouldn't be trading in the board book.....too many memories are attached to the book.

As you are planning your own vacation, hopefully this list will give you a few idea on how to "keep the peace" and quiet while traveling. Safe travels to all!

~Melanie

The Three Little Pigs: A 3-D Fairy Tale ~Review~

A little background on this app. While stumbling through my new found "worlds" of 'professional' facebook and twitter, I came across an app giveaway. I was to tell why I would deserve a copy of the app and with whom I would use it. I briefly explained my situation (part of iPad project, intervention specialist, mom of 2, etc.) and I was fortunate enough to receive an app compliments of Nosy Crow. With that said, this review was not influenced by the fact that the app was free. (I need to add this disclaimer to a few other reviews I have done.) I am here to give my opinion as a mom, teacher, lover of learning, and budding technology 'geek'. With all that said....let's begin:


The Three Little Pigs A 3-D Fairy Tale

Let me just start by saying, I am not sure how to classify this app. Is it a book? is it a movie?.....I think that The Three Little Pigs is more of an "interactive video". The creators took a well-known children's story and brought it to life with this app. After downloading it, I (yes, I...a 30-something year old) played with this story for over 30 minutes. The graphics were very engaging and the voices were amazing.


The app follows the traditional story: pigs leave home, build houses, wolf comes along to eat them. Yet this interactive book makes it so much more. It begins with the three pigs saying good bye to mom and dad pig and the pigs go walking along the road. Each pig builds his/her house with the assistance from the user. The user can touch various parts of the screen to interact with the story. If the user doesn't touch an area, a small blue dot gives a visual cue on where to touch. I liked the idea of the prompt and the color and size were very discrete. As the wolf visits each house/pig, the user is able to "be the wolf" and try to blow the house down. This can be done by touching wolf or blowing into the microphone. I was not successful at using the microphone to do that. (I think part of it might have been user error on my part.) I was a little worried about how the story might end. I was worried about how much explaining I was going to have to do to my own 3 year old or to the several 5-7 year olds whom I was planning on reading with at school. To my delight the ending was well done and kind of cute to hear a little voice say the big bad wolf "burnt his bottom!" I felt the ending was very age appropriate for ages 3+ and I received no questions or comments from students who I read this with.

Additional IEP applications
Besides being one of the most entertaining "book" apps on my iPad, I can see several IEP uses. I would definitely see this app being used as a way to teach sequencing as well as work on developing vocabulary. Since it is a "book", I could see the "read by myself" being used to work on reading skills and the "read and play" section as a reward. With the excellent graphics, character voices, and music, I could see this app being used to work on increasing attention to an activity or visual tracking. Lastly, it would also be great work on cause/effect skills, especially with the dots that cue user to touch and make something happen.

Suggestions
The app is great! If I had to give one suggestion, which I will, I would like to see the words be highlighted as they are read. So many students, especially individuals with special needs benefit from both the visual and auditory input that having the words highlighted while reading would assist them with developing new vocabulary and reinforcing existing vocabulary.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I just have to say, I truly enjoy this app. It is one that is not placed in a folder on my iPad, I have it out on one of the main screens, next to the folder of my book collections. The level of interactivity and the graphics really make the story come alive. With that said, I keep asking myself if I would have purchased this app on my own if I would have seen the $7.99 price tag?? The price exceeds my personal rule on app purchases. On this hand, I would say that I probably would not purchase because of the price. Then, after I have experienced it, I have started to think...if the app was only a trial and they were going to take it back, would I purchase it? I would have to say yes. Not only for my students (ages 5-9) and my own children (ages 3 and 5), I would purchase it for me to continue to experience this traditional story with a 21st century twist with all the children with whom I interact.


Thank you Nosy Crow for taking the time to create a great app that is fun for both children and adults. I look forward to Cinderella, but not as much as my 5 year old daughter!

APP INFO
developer: Nosy Crow
website: http://nosycrow.com/
itunes: The Three Little Pigs
category: Books
recently updated: May 19, 2011