Matt Connell
Early Childhood/Special Education Teacher
Assistive Technology Facilitator
Garden City Public Schools – USD 457
mconnell@gckschools.com
www.mrmatt.org
Appy Discussion
Share your apps, technology or other ideas for Early
Childhood.
Send an email to join@mrmatt.org
In the subject line type: “join-appy-hour” or “end-appy-hour”
Once approved, you will receive emails relating to early
childhood technology.
Feel free to submit ideas to
appy-hour@mrmatt.org
Before the Apps
Device
Accessory
Platform
Where can I get apps?
VPP, Gift Cards?
School Policy
Choose a Device
Choose accessories
Choose a case or other accessory that fits the
child.
Avoid purchasing an item because “it’s COOL”
Choose a Platform
Choose a Store
Where can you find apps?
www.myinfinitec.org
www.mrmatt.org
iTunes Store
iTunes is the only place for apple apps
Google Play
There are multiple market places for Android apps
Specific App Developers
Grasshopper Apps
Oscar’s Apps
Reading and Literacy
Things to think about
Will this app meet curriculum guidelines?
Will this app meet standards?
Is there a cost? – Is there a budget for apps?
What is the purpose of the app? (besides being
cute and fun)
Starfall ABC
Price: I have seen this app free to $2.99
The "ABCs" section of Starfall.com's well-loved website is
now available as a universal application for your iPhone, iPad,
and iPod Touch. Our activities motivate through positive
reinforcement and play. (Note: App contains the ABC letter
section only, NOT the whole website.)
Children delight as they see, hear, and interact with letters
and sounds in words, sentences, and games. They learn to
recognize letters and develop skills that will ensure they
become confident leaders. All children, and especially
English language learners, benefit.
Animal Zoo Puzzles - My
First Words
Features:
* Interactive puzzle parts
* 40+ animals in 8 different scenes
* Learn animal names and sounds
* Learn Spelling and Vocabulary
* Fun interactive activities on all pages
* Screenshot - If you like a puzzle page, you can send it to
your friends via e-mail
* Tips - activate tips from the menu to see all interactive
points on the page
* Scenes Navigation - You can go to any page by using the
menu page navigation control
Spelling Magic
Teaches the sounds of the letters and how to build words.
This app can help your child learn the sounds of the alphabet. This
app indirectly teaches the essential reading skill of segmenting as
well. Two levels of challenge are available.
The first part of the app has a limited alphabet for building words.
The second part of this app has the entire alphabet available for
building words.
This app focuses on the skill of learning to spell words with three
phonetic sounds with short vowel words.
Letter of the Day
Interactive Activities
Free – only does letters A, B, C
Kids explore the whole alphabet—from every
angle! Animated lessons cover letter formation,
letter sounds and more. For ages 4-6 years.
Plus, check out the other Lakeshore Learning
Materials apps: Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe Interactive
Game and Beginning Sounds Interactive Game
Learn How to Spell Your First
1,000 Words with Little Speller
Cost: $0.99
Learn How to Spell Your First 1,000 Words with
Little Speller is an exciting interactive game that
helps your child rapidly learn to read, write, and
spell words all with just the touch of their finger.
The interface is so easy to use that even a 9
month old baby will delight in moving their first
letters around the page. Ideal for ages 0 to 6.
Letter Quiz
Cost: $1.99 (there is a free version)
Letter Quiz is the best way to learn the English
Alphabet. Four different games for every stage
of learning; flashcards, identification, matching
and handwriting. Designed for kids but great for
all ages.
The Cat in the Hat (lite)
Cost: Full-$2.99
My First Books
Cost: Free!
Get your child’s library started with a FREE book
from the hit TV network BabyFirst. The First
Books app brings you access to all your favorite
BabyFirst books featuring Harry the Bunny,
Peekaboo, VocabuLarry and more. You’ll be able
to see when a new BabyFirst book comes out
and what’s even better – it comes with one free
story to get you started.
Little Matchup – ABC
Alphabet
Cost: FREE!
Little Matchups is an exciting interactive
matching game that helps your child rapidly
learn how to recognize and identify important
concepts such as uppercase and lowercase
letters.
Communication Apps
Things to think about
Will the student be able to use the app?
Are they developmentally ready?
Are there lower tech tools that will be as effective?
Proloquo2go
Cost: $189.99
Proloquo2Go® is a full-featured augmentative and
alternative communication (AAC) solution for people who
have difficulty speaking. Proloquo2Go provides natural
sounding Text to Speech voices (CURRENTLY ENGLISH
ONLY), a high resolution library of over 14,000 symbols,
powerful automatic conjugations, two researched-based
vocabulary organizations, advanced word prediction,
multiuser support, and the ability to fully customize
vocabularies for users along a broad continuum of
abilities, from beginning symbolic communication to full
literacy.
Verbally
Cost: FREE!!!
Verbally is an easy-to-use, comprehensive
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
(AAC) app for the iPad. Verbally brings speech
to those without and enables real conversation
with its simple, intuitive design. Just tap in what
you want to say and Verbally speaks for you.
Premium Features available with an in-app
purchase.
Talking Tom
Cost: Free!
Tom is your pet cat, that responds to your touch
and repeats everything you say with a funny
voice.
Math
Things to think about
Will this app meet curriculum guidelines?
Will this app meet standards?
Is there a cost? – Is there a budget for apps?
What is the purpose of the app? (besides being
cute and fun)
Kids Counting
Cost: Free!
FREE and fun picture math games for kids
designed by the iKidsPad team. This free iPad
math app dynamically generates thousand of
beginning counting games with different themes
and number levels. Great interactive and
challenging games helps young children build up
basic counting skills and number recognition.
Abacus
Cost: Free!
Help your kids develop an interest in numbers in a
fun way, by introducing the Early Learning Abacus –
it’s a great step on the ladder to counting! Using the
Early Learning Abacus as a tool will help them make
numbers tangible and concrete basic mathematical
concepts. As a simplified version of the classic
school abacus, the Early Learning Abacus has been
created as a dynamic visual aid for teaching
toddlers, pre-schoolers and kindy kids their numbers
and how to count from 1 to 100.
1-10 Balloons
Cost: $.99
Can you Count?
Learn 123s (Learn
Numbers)
Candy Count
Cost: Free!
Dice
Cost: Free!
Too often you end up unable to play your favorite
game because you lack the stuff needed… You
forgot the Dice ! Dice simulates up to 5 (20 on
iPad) dice simultaneously. Shake the device, and
dice are rolled ! For the lazy ones, a simple
pressure on the screen will roll the dice too. Dice
is extremely simple, everyone can play
anywhere.
Colors, Shapes and
Creativity
Fluid Monkey
Cost: Free!
Relax as you enjoy interacting with incredibly
smooth and responsive pools of liquid. Use all
ten fingers to smear paint, jiggle gelatin, or fling
brightly-colored balls through puddles of mud.
Glow Coloring
Cost: Free!
Glow Coloring is the first doodle app that allows
you to scan in images that you can color in or
trace. With Glow Coloring, you can adjust brush
pattern, brush size, and color. When you are
done drawing your masterpiece, you can save it
to your camera roll or email it directly from the
app.
Shapes and Colors
Cost: $.99
Adam Learns Shapes and Colors is a highly
interactive app created to help our own very curious
toddler learn his shapes and colors. Each level of the
app presents a series of shapes or colors, with audio
stating the name of each one as it appears on the
screen. It then asks your child to pick out each shape
or color shown by touching it on the screen, praising
them when they touch the correct one and gently
correcting and encouraging them if they touch the
wrong one.
Shapes (Toddler Teaser)
Cost: Free!
-4 ways to play: Quizzing, Flashcards, Toy Box
and Puzzle game modes. -Fully voiced over in
English, Spanish and French.
Toddler Colors
Colors and Shapes
Cost: Free!
Color and shapes learning games for young children
to identify colors and shapes while they count! This
free kid’s educational app generates thousands of
unique colorful color games and shape games on
your iPad. A fun interactive learning game helps
preschoolers and kindergartner to elementary
school students to study color and color names and
spy different shapes.
Speak Colors
Cost: Free!
SpeakColors is an iPad app designed to
encourage young children to imitate and use two
word phrases with color words and common
objects. The app is geared toward toddlers with
speech and language delays, autism, Down
syndrome and other developmental disorders.
Memory and Cognitive
Development
Memory Test
Cost: Free!
Kids Memory Test is the memory game where
you match all pictures of animals soon as
possible time. It has launched for iPhone and
iPad. The application is available for all children
age. To get the most matches in the least amount
of time. You can test and improve your memory
with Kids Memory Test.
Tangrams
Cost: Free!
Puzzles
Cost: Free!
Colors
Cost: Free!
Colors is a jigsaw puzzle game designed for
children. App comes with different color puzzles
along with two real time objects related to that
colors to play with. Start with simple 6-free
puzzles and gradually move to all objects.
Whimsy (lite)
Cost: Free!
Memory!
Alphabet Match/Letter
Match
Memo Cards
Switch Puzzle
Together
Other
Apps for
Combination apps (several areas covered)
Fine Motor
Writing
Dexteria
Cost: $3.99
My Name
Cost: $3.99
Kids Letter
Dot to Dot; Numbers
and Letters
Cost: $1.99/Free
Trace It
iTot Cards
Cost: Free/$1.99
Just like traditional flash-cards for kids, Toddler
Flashcards has cards to teach children the
names of animals, foods, things, as well as
advanced stuff like the alphabet or numbers.
Unlike traditional flash-cards, these ones speak,
and they also play animal sounds.
My Baby Piano
Cost: Free!
Preschool
Cost: Free!/
Preschool is a powerful educational tool for the
Questions?
Code
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1/22/2013
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4/18/2013
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