Tech Tips Tuesday

iPad for Preschoolers #5 Bookshelf

Today I thought I would share some book apps that are available and beneficial. I must admit that these apps have not had much use on my iPad, as I'm still quite committed to the old-fashioned, ink-on-pages variety. While I agree that it is nice to have a book with moving pictures and flashing words, my son also prefers to cuddle up on the couch and read one of his favourite, slightly torn and buckled books. While he will sit still for multiple readings of one such book, I struggle to keep him from pinching the page of the electronic version! And so, I think to myself, "Why am I fighting this?" and put the iPad away for another time, draw him up onto my lap and read with my own voice and expression - maybe this is what it is really about after all!

That said, there are some great book apps, that provide for interaction with the text and images.

Sesame Street Books - I love some of these, particularly The Monster at the End of this Book which was a favourite of both my husband and I when we were growing up. The original version of this book draws the reader in and Grover asks (or begs) the reader not to turn the pages as they draw us closer to the monster at the end of the book. The electronic version does not disappoint, and equally enjoyable is Another Monster at the End of this Book.

Dr Seuss Books - I was amazed to see how many Dr Seuss Books have now been made electronic and are available through the app store. I remember learning to read with Dr Seuss and his zany, rhyming tales. As in the original version, these texts are fairly lengthy - too lengthy for my two-year old at this stage. The apps allow you to read the story, hear it read, and touch words to hear them again. I bought a selection of these stories when they were on sale recently.

Graeme Base - The work of Graeme Base is a sight to behold. His detailed illustrations attract and captivate the attention of both children and adults. The text is also amazing, reminding us of how beautiful the English language can when words are carefully selected. Through his work we can teach children about using adjectives, adverbs and interesting verbs to paint with words. In Animalia, Base makes good use of alliteration to explore each letter of the alphabet. The Waterhole is a counting book with so much more. Base illustrates different regions of the world and the issue of biodiversity and shared resources. The apps encourage the reader to take a closer look at the details within the illustrations and to find the hidden items.

Bedtime Stories - Here are two apps I have found that work well at bedtime. Goodnight Safari is a read-along story that invites children to interact with the safari animals. It also includes some learning activities beneficial to preschoolers. Nighty Night has been a favourite of ours for bedtime. Children turn out the lights in the farmhouse and put all the animals to bed before going off to bed themselves. It is in the 'book' category on iTunes, but doesn't include written text, and children choose the order in which they interact with the farm animals.

If you'd like to read more on selecting appropriate book apps, you should read this article: Let the Reader Beware:| Evaluating Digital Books.

Other posts that might interest you:
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #1 Mathematics Concepts
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #2 Alphabet Apps
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #3 Let's Pretend
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #4 Creative Play

Tech Tips Tuesday

iPad for Preschoolers #4 Creative Play

Kids love to create - be it a ball of dough, a pile of construction blocks, a box of textas, a handful of craft materials or a musical instrument. Today I will share some iPad apps I've found useful to support your preschooler with exploring his/her creativity.


Construction
Lego App4+ With this app children collect Lego bricks, construct a vehicle, and drive the vehicle through an obstacle course. On completion of the route they are awarded a Lego puzzle to complete, which is then displayed in the scene they drive through. My little guy has completed this game but continues to play it as he enjoys creating and driving the vehicles. He particularly loves using the siren piece and the helicopter piece! Lego also has a story based Lego Duplo Zoo app which he enjoys playing, and this also has some elements of selection and construction.

Zoo Train Through this app, children play a variety of games. One of these games involves selecting track pieces in order to complete a train track for a mini train to travel on. Another requires children to select the passenger cars for a train and then choose a scene to see it pass through. There is also a musical game, a puzzle game and a word game. Given that it's a train game, it's proven quite popular with my little guy.

Toca Robot Lab This is a fairly simple game that draws on children's creativity. They select the parts to construct a robot and then try to collect stars as they move it through the factory.


Visual arts
Faces iMake This fun app allows you to create a picture using images of everyday objects. I have only recently purchased it, but had some fun designing some faces of my own before my little guy got into it. At the moment the premium version for iPhone has greater functionality than the iPad version (in my opinion) - so hopefully this will be sorted out through updates.

Play School Art Maker Based on the characters from the popular Australian television program Play School. Children can create a scene using a variety of craft materials and add animation by moving items around their scenery. There are also puzzles to be completed. My little guy is just getting started with this app, but loves completing the puzzles. He tries to create videos, but doesn't really understand that he needs to "move the toys and make some noise". I see it as a useful app that will grow with him.


Music

Mozart Interactive This is one of my favourite music apps for kids. Children interact with Mozart's Rondo alla Turca by selecting which musical instruments will be included at key decision points. It's fun and it introduces kids to classical music and the instruments. Also produced by Melody Street LLC is My Musical Friends HD which introduces children to the different instruments of the orchestra.

Little Fox Music Box What a great way to experience three well-known children's songs! I think I 'purchased' this app when it was free, and I have been very happy with it. The song plays, the words scroll, and children interact with the illustrations. I particularly like the use of the seasons for Old McDonald had a Farm and think this is a great talking point with a toddler. Creativity comes into play in the Fox's Music Studio, where children can touch objects to hear their sounds and thus create their own songs.

Toca Band Another favourite of mine, this app is addictive and the songs you create get stuck in your head! In the usual Toca Boca style, you take on the role of conductor and create a band using a collection of characters with their unique sounds. Move the character up the levels to change their tempo and pitch. When this came on sale, we got it on all the iPads at school - and recommended it highly to the teachers! Too much fun!

Songs For Kids As my toddler has only just started singing along to songs, we haven't fully explored this app yet. It features 14 children's songs which children can sing along with and record their singing. The pictures are cute and interactive.

Tap A Tune This is another app new to me, but featured in the 'top' lists. I am yet to introduce this to my little guy. Using this app, children can follow cues to play children's songs and create their own songs.


Of course, this is just a taste of the many creative apps available for iPad. These are the ones that I have discovered to date, and which my two-year-old is using. Please feel free to leave a comment to share your favourites.

Other posts that might interest you:
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #1 Mathematics Concepts
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #2 Alphabet Apps
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #3 Let's Pretend

Tech Tips Tuesday

iPad for Preschoolers #2 Alphabet apps

I was a little nervous about putting my iPad into the sticky hands of a two year old, particularly one who seems to hack into things with natural ability! I bought a Fisher Price cover which has proven goop resistant so far and the hard plastic case seems to have done the trick in protection from everyday kid use. While not cheap, it has made me a lot more relaxed and so has been worth the investment. There are far too many things for mothers to stress over when living with a two year old!

I also adjusted the restrictions settings to prevent in app purchases and to request a password every time for new purchases. I have put all my apps (email etc) into folders for Mummy on the last page of apps. There is enough of interest to my little one that he doesn't bother with mine.

So today I thought I would share some of the Alphabet apps that are available and which I have found useful and worthwhile. It is worth noting here, however, that my little one has been more interested in numbers than the alphabet so far, so I am yet to see how his enthusiasm for these will develop.

Elmo Loves ABCs
This app is very large with great content for each letter of the alphabet and thus takes up quite a bit of space on the iPad. Activities are provided to support children with letter id, letter sounds and letter tracing. Children are rewarded with more content. My little guy loves the videos with the ABC songs that are included in this app. Parents can also track their child's progress.

Bugsy Pre-K
This app covers numbers, colours, shapes and the alphabet. The nice thing with this one is that it includes both the text and the audio for the questions, so my little one has some clues to help him answer the questions! He loves the Bugsy games and I am able to see his progress in this and other Peapod lab apps with an account. If you are interested further, you could check out the other ABC apps Peapod lab produces as they are similar to topic dictionaries and may enhance vocabulary and letter id.

Alien Buddies
This is another general preschool app that builds learning around colours, shapes, letters and numbers. The cute alien characters add to the appeal of this app, and the matching game is attractive to littlies. I got it for free when it came on sale recently, and my little guy was enjoying it today. There is an info page for parents, but no customizable features or progress reports.

AlphaTots
This app includes an interactive activity for each letter of the alphabet. My little guy enjoys this app, and has his favourite activities. It is a good introduction to the alphabet and sure beats the alphabet frieze or basic ABC book of yesteryear!

Goodnight ABC
This is one of my little guy's favourites. He frequently comes back to it and enjoys the music on the panda page in particular. It is VERY interactive and each page has loads of learning opportunities for children. To extend further, they can change to vocabulary mode and the label for each picture comes up so that they can hear and see the name of the item. My only gripe with this app is that, unlike Animalia, the pages include items beginning with different letters of the alphabet.

Animalia
This beautiful book is the work of Graeme Base, made interactive for iPad. Each page contains objects beginning with the relevant letter of the alphabet. Children search each page for the hidden items and can discuss the many other items starting with that letter/sound. My little one hasn't explored this yet, but I feel it will be more relevant to him as he gains a greater understanding of the alphabet - particularly for extending his vocabulary. I have only purchased the iPhone version so far and upsized it to fit the iPad, as I am waiting for the iPad HD version to come on sale.

rEd Writing
We only purchased this app in the last week, but so far it has been a big hit with my little one. We have the iPhone version, upsized on the iPad, but he has mainly played it on my phone. This is an Australian app, complete with accent and appropriate fonts for Australian schools. Children are rewarded stickers for tracing letters and numbers correctly. The monsters make it very cute! I was amazed by how interested my little guy was in this one given his usual disinterest in the alphabet.

Little Writer
This is another cute app for writing letters, numbers, shapes and words. I'm not sure of the font for this words, but if that's not a concern for you, than it's definitely worth looking into (and free at time of writing). I like the way that it shows the order of the pencil strokes and that it includes some words. I haven't looked into it much yet, but there are customizable options as well. My gripe: it is not very forgiving when you go off the pathway - which is good when you are trying to promote neat letter formation, but not great for very little ones just starting out.

Other posts that might interest you:
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #1 Mathematics Concepts

Tech Tips Tuesday

iPad for Preschoolers #1 Mathematics Concepts

We went on a trip to the USA this year. It was the first time we had really done the west coast and we had a great time. We flew into San Francisco and then drove up the coast seeing Napa/Sonoma, the Redwoods, Portland and Seattle. Needless to say, the trip involved a lot of travel - both in the plane and on the road.

In preparation for this journey, we bought an iPad and loaded it up with games for our almost two year old. There were many times that we were VERY grateful for having done so. Had it not been for this trip, I doubt I would have seen the value in buying and 'sharing' an iPad with a toddler. He would have missed out on a huge range of learning experiences that are available and easily accessible. We continue to use the iPad when going on a long drive, and also at home. I use AppShopper to watch the price drops of apps and to watch items on my wish list. this way I don't have to pay the full price unless I want an app immediately. While I still look for quality free apps, I've learnt the value in paying for good apps. I am not a fan of in-app advertisements or lite versions when it comes to apps for kids. I would rather pay for the whole service up-front than have to buy additions to make it enjoyable.

So, over the next few weeks I thought I would share some of our favorite apps. This week we start with apps to build early Maths concepts including number and shape.

Bugs and Bubbles
I love the beautiful graphics in this game. It is great for building vocabulary (more/less, size, colour, etc) for practicing counting and number recognition, and for identifying simple patterns. It's not free, but I waited until it came on sale, and will do the same for the partner app - Bugs and Buttons.

Bugsy K Math
My little guy keeps coming back to this one. I'm not sure what the appeal is for him, but he seems to like the hamster! This app has counting, adding and number tracing as well as subitising ( seeing a number of items as they flash by - like knowing the amount shown on dice.) If I got my act together I could set up an account and track his progress with this and other Peabody apps, but at this stage, he seems to be taking delight in showing me how wrong he can be! That or he likes the way the hamster says huh-uh when he gets the answer wrong!

Team Umizoomi Math
This one appealed to us because we had previously watched the television program. We haven't got past the first two levels yet, which consist of touching objects to 'count' them and matching numerals 1-6. This one is more costly as it is part of the Nickelodeon family, but it has more appeal as such. I like that this is one that will grow with us over the years.

Tally Tots
This app has not been the huge success I'd hoped for yet, but I'm still waiting to see if it becomes more enjoyable for the little guy. I like that it works with numbers 1-20 and that it has an activity for each number.

I'm sure there are many that I have missed. Please let me know the great ones you have found.

Update 17/12/2012
After not playing with it for a while, my little guy returned to Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar yesterday. It held his interest and he busied himself following the instructions on level 5. While not his favourite, it was great to see him trying it out and being successful.

We also came across Hickory Dickory Dock which both my husband and I struggled to figure out, but sure enough my son was on top of within 10 minutes! This is a clock game that also reinforces number recognition and familiarity with an analogue clock face. Just be warned, the first time you play, you are hit with an ad straight away - ugh! I hate the ads!

Other posts that might interest you:
Tech Tips Tuesday - iPad for Preschoolers #2 Alphabet Apps 

Early Childhood Australia Conference

I found out about this conference quite early in the school term and thought it would be a good one to go to. Teaching Year 1 puts me in the "Early Childhood" category, so I figured I could probably learn some great new strategies.

I was surprised to discover how many people attended - I didn't expect it to be so large. I'd be interested to know exact numbers, but I guestimate it to be about 1000. (Which is big compared to other conferences I've been to).

I don't know how I could have failed to realise that the largest proportion of people would be from childcare agencies. I struggled to find anyone else from the Primary School sector, and only saw departmental staff from my own system. They were there to present a workshop.

I felt a bit out of place for most of the day, and had to try to relate the things I was hearing to my own situation, but on the whole, I did pick up a few things.

Ferre Laevers and Julia Moons talked about Emotional Wellbeing - how to recognise it and how it can be monitored through observational checklists over time. This was an interesting idea to me, as I have never thought of keeping records of students' emotional wellbeing and involvement with others. Here is a copy of the manual.
Ferre also shed new light on how to really respect children. He told the story of one little boy chasing another little boy with a tiger mask covering his face. The boy being chased was visibly scared. Ferre talked about how he took the little boy onto his lap and talked to him about his fear. He acknowledged the feelings and worked it through with the boy. Too often we adults dismiss the fear with comments such as "There's no need to be scared! It's only a mask!" I hope I can take this insight into my own dealings with children.

Some of the workshops I attended related to leadership and team building. I don't see myself as a "lead from above" sort of person. I'd rather be a "support alongside" sort of person. But, as I reach the top of my "rung in the ladder" I am considering how I can stretch myself further. One of the big messages that kept coming up for me was about relationships. Enriching relationships with the kids, with other teachers and with parents. It's one of those commonsense things that sounds amazing in theory, but takes a lot of time and energy in practice.

The final session I attended was about the care of infants (0-2 years). Now, I must admit, I actually went to this session more out of personal interest for my possible future plans than for the benefit of my class or school! One of the presenters discussed the RIE approach in some detail. According to the website "the RIE Approach helps raise authentic infants who are competent, confident, curious, attentive, exploring, cooperative, secure, peaceful, focused, self-initiating, resourceful, involved, inner-directed, aware and interested." Sounds good to me!
The things that I took from this approach were to really engage with the child in uninterrupted time. Talk to the baby, don't just assume it can't understand you. Unfortunately I didn't get down who said it, but someone clever said "What they can do is not valued. What they can't do is expected." I know I will be looking some more into this approach if I'm ever lucky enough to be a mum.

One other cool thing I wanted to share from the day, there's this guy in New Zealand who makes cool stuff for kids to play with - fancy blocks and magnetic water play equipment. Here's a link to his website - Kidantics.