Posted from Diigo.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
ReadWriteThink
This is a great resource for parents and teachers. ReadWriteThink offers lesson plan ideas, student interaction ideas, professional development as well as as a whole section of parent and after school resources. It is sponsored by International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Great resources for iOS and non-iOS users
Looking for some great resources for your iDevice?
Looking for some great resources to use on your home computer?
Check out this website.
Posted from Diigo.
**I just started a diigo account and this is my trial of quickly sharing all the awesome resources I have gathered.**
Happy 4th of July!
Just a quick post. I'm still trying to get on track after returning from vacation, catching up with some "tech" things, and now preparing for some out-of-town visitors.
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday! And may you enjoy time with family and friends!
Thanks to my daughter (age 5) for creating a great 4th of July hair-do, thanks to toca boca Hair Salon app.
description from iTunes: Fireworks 123 is an interactive “cause and effect” app designed to support the development of early literacy skills and the comprehension of descriptive concepts such as number, size, and color in a fun and entertaining way.
i See-quence Firworks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i-see-quence-fireworks/id440977983?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
description from iTunes: i See-quence… Fireworks is an application providing a picture story for individuals that need support in understanding the process of watching fireworks. Personal photos can be added by the user with a camera ready Apple device or imported from the user’s photo album.
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday! And may you enjoy time with family and friends!
Thanks to my daughter (age 5) for creating a great 4th of July hair-do, thanks to toca boca Hair Salon app.
For my students, here is a message from Ms. Weathers:
4th of July - Auracle: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/4th-of-july-auracle/id446275675?mt=8
Fireworks 123: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fireworks-123/id442807770?mt=8description from iTunes: Fireworks 123 is an interactive “cause and effect” app designed to support the development of early literacy skills and the comprehension of descriptive concepts such as number, size, and color in a fun and entertaining way.
i See-quence Firworks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i-see-quence-fireworks/id440977983?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
description from iTunes: i See-quence… Fireworks is an application providing a picture story for individuals that need support in understanding the process of watching fireworks. Personal photos can be added by the user with a camera ready Apple device or imported from the user’s photo album.
Monday, June 20, 2011
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- The Three Little Pigs by Nosy Crow. See my review for additional information on this app.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Create a Car by ABCya!. See my review for additional information on this app.
- 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!
- 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!
Alphabet Photo Machine ~Review~
I was excited to receive an email from a "local" app developer. Not that I don't LOVE talking to those of you from Canada, California, Seattle, or the UK, but I was beginning to think that the mid-west was 20 years behind (kind of like the old Mark Twain saying about Cincinnati). After a little research, I was surprised to see that there are some developers within a days drive of Cincinnati doing some pretty cool things. This is one of a few app I received from 965 studios out of Columbus, OH.
The app is a very simple alphabet app that displays both the upper and lower case letter and a drawing of something that starts with that letter.The letters are not next to each other and will swap places when touched. A green box and arrow give the visual cue to "touch here" to go to the next page. If the user touches the drawing, the upper and lower case letters move side by side and photographs appear. The photographs are clear and focus on the word versus having a lot of background in the picture. I think the use of the photos are what set this app apart from other ABC apps out there that I have seen and used with my students. Another benefit to this app is it incorporates the plural form of some words. For example, it shows a picture of on dog, and says dog. Then it will show a picture of 2 dogs and says dogs. The voice of the narrator is pleasant and I think that it would be better received by students than an adult sounding voice. The app gives the option of voice sound on/off and music on/off which is a plus when working with students who can be easily distracted. My preference for this app with voice on, sound off.
Alphabet Photo Machine
The app is a very simple alphabet app that displays both the upper and lower case letter and a drawing of something that starts with that letter.The letters are not next to each other and will swap places when touched. A green box and arrow give the visual cue to "touch here" to go to the next page. If the user touches the drawing, the upper and lower case letters move side by side and photographs appear. The photographs are clear and focus on the word versus having a lot of background in the picture. I think the use of the photos are what set this app apart from other ABC apps out there that I have seen and used with my students. Another benefit to this app is it incorporates the plural form of some words. For example, it shows a picture of on dog, and says dog. Then it will show a picture of 2 dogs and says dogs. The voice of the narrator is pleasant and I think that it would be better received by students than an adult sounding voice. The app gives the option of voice sound on/off and music on/off which is a plus when working with students who can be easily distracted. My preference for this app with voice on, sound off.
Additional IEP applications
There are several applications for this app when working on IEP goals. First, it is a great app for reinforcing letter naming and letter identification. Students could use the voice on during teaching or exploring the app, then teachers could turn voice off when asking students to identify letters. Another application would be to use this app to increase language through picture identification. Again, this is where I would use the voice on/off similar to the letters during teaching and assessment. Lastly, I think this app would be great to use when working with students on plurals or simply working on placing the 's' on the ends of words even if it isn't the concept of "more than one".
Suggestions
Suggestions
A couple of suggestions for this app:
- When teaching students the alphabet, I like to use the "circle and a line" a versus the "typeset" a. Since I'm often teaching the letters along with printing, I tend to like that letter better.
- When choosing pictures to go with the letters, make sure that the pictures make the correct beginning sound for the letter, not just start with the letter. For example, under 'c' the pictures were CAR, CAT, and CHAIR. For students with learning challenges, this would be confusing.
Conclusion
Although I did not have time to use it with my students (I downloaded it the last week of school...and teachers and parents you know how that goes!), my own kids (ages 3 and 5) enjoying playing with it. Once I use it with some of my students next year, I will be sure to update this.
In conclusion, this was a very well put together. It was simple and it didn't have tons of "interactivity" as some of the the other apps I have tried, but that it what I liked about it. The drawing and photographs were clear and focused on the object with not a lot of background to distract the user. Each page showing simply the letters and the pictures makes it a great asset to the students with whom I work. I think this app is appropriately priced at $1.99. Oh, I think I just thought of an idea for an Alphabet Photo Machine 2.
APP INFO
developer: 965 Studios
website: http://965studios.com/
itunes: Alphabet Photo Machine
category: Games
recently updated: July 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)