Why I like the Collins Big Cat apps

I have been thinking about 'inspiring writing' over Christmas and the new year in response to pupil progress at school. I thought it was about time I blogged about some of my favourite apps that lend themselves nicely to the development of literacy skills.

Collins Big Cat apps won a Bett award in 2013. Quite right too! I have been meaning to blog about why I love them for a long while. I will point out at this time that I am not employed by them and have no pecuniary interest, I just like shouting about the things that I find to be effective in the classroom. I recommend these apps to our parents too.

These are the great points about the apps:

• The transition from reading to writing is made simple
• Children can listen to the story before reading it themselves
• The stories are nicely animated with some interactive elements
• Children can practise expression by narrating the story, then naturally self-assess by playing back the audio
• You can use each app to create different stories
• The story creator part has a range of scenes and characters to choose from
• There are 8 different apps
• The apps are FREE

I have used these in a year 2/1 class for guided reading and writing sessions, during book choosing time and for whole class work. The texts range in difficulty, but are perfect for developing language skills from EYFS and infants to children with SEN. Don't forget you can find more great apps on my ipad site too.

You can add text boxes or callouts to your stories

Text is highlighted as words are read to you

Thank you Collins!