Improving working memory

I have played this app a few times, with varying degrees of success I'm ashamed to say! I think it could be a useful app for children who need to improve their working memory, attention and concentration. Ribbit frog Ribbit uses sound and visual cues, much like the old game Simon, but in a linear way. 

First you press to show you are ready. 

Then you listen to the notes, which increase or decrease in amount depending on how you are doing.

At some point when you repeat the sequence of notes, a coloured note pops out of one of the frogs' mouths, which you then have to identify at the end. 

If you get the sequence wrong, the frog falls off the log. I'm not sure how long it would keep a child entertained, but I can see how regular short bursts could improve a child's working memory and attention skills.  It's another one I will be trying in class.

Another EYFS /KS1 computing app

I have been playing with the Foos this morning and it's another nice free app for EYFS and KS1. 

It uses drag and drop blocks that scaffold learning. 

You can change the direction of your blocks by clicking on them, then select from arrows.

After you have mastered basic walking and jumping, it introduces the repeat command.

That's as far as I've got at the moment, but I can see that children will enjoy playing with it from what I have played. I will try it with my mini digital leaders next week. It requires some computational thinking, though doesn't challenge like other apps by asking children to think too much about direction. This is good for the children who find apps such as Beebot too challenging. 

 My only other criticism so far is that you don't have to be overly precise with the jumping/adding blocks. I was successful even when my code wasn't quite accurate. A nice start to early coding though.

Bugs and numbers

This is another lovely EYFS/SEN app made by Little Bit Studio. Like Bugs and Buttons, the graphics and the music are appealing and of high quality. There is a range of games to play, to enhance early maths skills from counting and adding to time and fractions.

As with the last app I reviewed, there is a handy finger to give you a hint should you need it.

The first game I played was number recognition and ordering to 100. If you get the order wrong you get an 'oops', but then continue from where you were, which is good.

At the end you get a score, which I would then encourage children to try and beat.

The next game I looked at was a sequencing game. It shows you the order of the xylophone, which you then shake up before replicating. A nice matching/sequencing game. 

The time game is a simple match the analogue to digital time. I only played this briefly so it may go past hour times. It scaffolds learning by showing the time as you move the small hand, then the train chuffs away if you match the time correctly. 

The adding game uses ants as visual, which I know will appeal to children. It is a great game for independent work for a child with SEN in my class as I know he will experience lots of success with it-which it more important than challenge at times. 

The music is appropriate for each game, with a lovely Italian favour during pizza fractions! 

The measuring lab had suitably scientific kooky music too. If you weren't watching your child at play, you would know exactly what they were doing.

There is also some lovely humour too - during game show addition and subtraction (level 1) I was told that I am a super genius! ☺️ That's what I tell my children all the while!

I haven't played all the games in the app, but from the ones I have played I would recommend it as another quality app for early years education. I will definitely be using this in class.

Bugs and buttons

This morning I am exploring some more apps that are great for EYFS and children with SEN in ks1. Little Bit studio have made a range of 'bug' apps that look beautiful, because of the brightly coloured high-definition graphics. They definitely feel like the high quality resource you would want to be using in the classroom. 

Learning and exploring through play is key for our youngest children and Bugs and Buttons 2 lets children do this. There are 18 games within the app, with different environments for your child to explore. It covers a range of skills, from counting and sorting to manipulating and early computing (computational thinking) skills. The latter happens as children have to think about what they need to do to be successful within the games. It's nice that the games don't get too hard, too quickly, but that is a bit frustrating for me as a reviewer, so I have bought it for my favourite little beta tester to trial too (thanks Ruby!) I will share her views once I have them. 

A quick snapshot of some of the games

The first game I played was a simple match the button to the trolley game. I realised quite soon that you could speed it up by adding more buttons to each trolley, then got it wrong when I was matching by colour, but not by button. Early computational thinking. At one point it seemed quite frantic (in a good way) as I was trying to put all the buttons I had on screen into the trolleys before they rolled away. A nice matching game.

The next game I played is a 1:1 correspondence game, whereby you have to give the right dish of treats according to the number of bugs. It has nice background music for an app- well it didn't irritate me like some have! Before starting the game there is a helping hand to give a hint about what to do. 

This game is a lovely manipulation game that I shall try with a child in my class. (If you use your personal ipad in class it is important that you lock it to the one app so that they don't go wandering.) In this game you pinch the screen to create an elastic band, to bounce the buttons so that they don't hit the bugs. Lovely! 

I will be having a look at the other games, but for just over £2 I really don't think you can go far wrong! Here are the other games that you can play.

I will add my beta testers reviews once I have them, so come back and check them out soon - or subscribe to updates. If you have any thoughts, please comment below!

Another free computing app: Tickle

My good #DLchat friend @clcsimon recommended this app to me during #dlchat a couple of weeks ago. You can use it to program air drones, connected toys and smart home devices, such as Philips Hue lighting system. If you don't have any of these devices you can do like I do and use it to program Orca. There are some 'courses' on their website that you can use ( https://tickleapp.com/courses/) or you can create your own.

Other creatures are available within the app, which is free. It's another one that is as easy to use as Scratch and Hopscotch, but the different 'sprites' will appeal to different children. It also has some quite funky music. The fact that it's free means it is definitely worth getting your digital leaders or code club members to explore and review it. It's their opinions that really count isn't it? I shall add my code clubber's thoughts when they've had a play.

If you've already done that, please share blog posts or your thoughts in the comments. Thank you! 

Blox 3d world

This evening I've been having a quick play with Blox 3d world, which was free yesterday via apps gone free. I liked the look of it because it reminded me of kodu, but on the iPad. Granted it doesn't allow you to program elements like kodu, in fact it is very basic, but I've still had fun creating my very own Westeros. 

There are some tutorials that you can watch, which will show you how to create things based on the type of world you want to build.

I quickly created my land and Castle Black, then added some watchers on the wall and some (white) crows, before starting on Winterfell and the King's road. This took minutes, once I got the hang of adding blocks. The area reduces in size as you start to fill the screen, allowing your world to expand. I initially found it quite tricky to add the land and I think you do have to tap it in the right place (the brown  bit underneath the turf), but it is easy to delete blocks that you misplace - and build them up into hills, walls etc.

Some of the elements interact with each other and it was particularly humorous when I added a tiger (the nearest I could get to Ghost) to the wall as all the watchers ran around with their arms waving in the air. Well it tickled me anyway!

I think it has value in that children can use their imagination and create their own worlds, testing how things interact with each other. 

For more information, check out http://www.blox3d.com. 

Delightful problem solving app for EYFS

I have looked at two apps today that I got via apps gone free (the latter from last week).

Petite Chose is a delightful little problem solving app that an adult will complete in minutes, but will keep our youngsters going a bit longer. There is a bird in a cage with coloured padlocks that you need to find keys for. 

You are then guided to a street and to certain rooms to solve problems,

such as making the televisions work and

matching pairs in the windows. 

Some problems are more simple, but still require thinking about them.

On this one you place the keys on the piano 

and this one the cars become musical instruments. I am sure that there is music to accompany these, but for some reason it wouldn't work. 

A handy finger points the way if your child gets stuck, so they are completely supported whilst thinking. In some ways I think the finger appears too quickly, but I would have to watch a child playing to see if this is true. 

If you are a parent who plays this with your child I would love to know your thoughts - please leave a comment!

The second app is more of a 'do not purchase' warning. I don't usually write about apps that I feel are not good quality, but would hate for anyone to be enticed by Monster maths. The following photos should tell you why.

Twice in a row I was asked to find calculations that = 4 (after finding calculations that = 2 then 3) and the sums were very similar - no progression for multiplication and division.

The thing that made me delete it was the way that the monster defeated the aliens - by hitting them on the head with hammers. Not the sort of behaviours you'd want excitable infants to observe. I deleted it after playing for around 10 minutes. Not impressed.