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.

App reviews from a gorgeous little beta tester!

On Friday I took my iPad with me to the prison cafe, because I had a perfect little beta tester for some of the apps I have reviewed previously. The apps I wanted testing were 3 problem solving activities for EYFS: Petites Choses, Toca Robot lab and Toca hair salon. 

I was interested to see how long the first would take her to complete and how long the Toca apps would keep her amused. Petites Choses , which is available for android too, was free last week and I enjoyed playing then reviewing it. I completed it very quickly, but thought that it would keep a young child amused for much longer. It didn't really, in fact Ruby managed to complete the television challenge more quickly than both Jenni and I did - and we have a combined age of over 80!! Ruby enjoyed playing it though and quickly learned how to navigate around the app and she understood  the expectations of the puzzles with very little input from the adults watching her play. 

Ruby really enjoyed Toca Robot Lab, which I have reviewed here, because she loved making the different robots. She showed fantastic perseverance soon after starting when she got her robot stuck in a tricky position. It is super for developing logical thinking in our young children. Ruby realised that she had to collect stars and was delighted when she had collected 3 within a level. She enjoyed seeing her certificates when she completed the level and then enjoyed creating new robots each time. I may have spoilt her problem solving skills by telling her to avoid the magnet after she had been whizzed off screen a few times in a row. I'm sure she would have worked it out for herself, but equally she may not have had enough experiences with magnets to understand what was happening. She would have kept playing this had I not offered her another app to play, Toca Hair Salon, which I will review very soon (I thought I had done so already!) 

Ruby brings the mighty FC into the 21st century!

The great thing about this app, compared to the other two, is that  it allows children to explore their creativity, whilst making things happen. Ruby chose her 'model' then proceeded very quickly to select the hairdressing tools to change the hair styles. She showed obvious enjoyment at cutting, combing, colouring and drying her models hair. She explored the app independently and it kept her amused for a long while. It kept us amused watching her creations! 

When she got home I believe mum was on strict orders to get some of these apps onto her iPad! I think they have proved to be quality apps for children in EYFS, though I'd love to know which one she would return to first if she had her choice, and how long they would keep her amused when she is more familiar with them. I certainly think they are valuable apps for EYFS education and they are a super introduction to the new computing curriculum. For more quality early years apps, follow the EYFS tag below. 

Snow White - Another Gorgeous Nosy Crow Fairytale App

I have had the Nosy Crow Three Little Pigs and Cinderella apps on my iPad since they first came out and they were two of the first apps to appear on Ipads in Primary because of their high quality and, more importantly, my children's response to them. I added Snow White to my collection today - the newest of the Nosy Crow apps. which you can also see on the Nosy Crow website (there are some film clips and links that I haven't included here). 

I also realised that there is a Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and The Beanstalk app too, which I must have missed at some point during my career change. I have limited time for app reviews and the computing curriculum seems to keep me busy! I shall review these at some point though as these apps are so important for developing children's love of stories - and I am intrigued by the fact that these two are not linear narratives and children can create their own stories by following different paths. 

 Snow White is similar to the other apps in that there are lots of ways that you interact with the story, such as moving the characters, making them speak and making things happen (like tidying things up). In old ICT money you would be modelling effects on screen, in the new computing curriculum you are using technology purposefully to organise and manipulate digital content. 

So, the app. It is as delightful as I expected it to be! The story sticks to the traditional tale, but has been brought into the 21st century with some lovely features. For example, it made me say 'ooh' when I appeared in the mirror and then again in the pond, because it wasn't expected. I would love to see the reaction from a child (though I'm not sure their awe and wonder will differ that greatly from mine!) I will find out!

As with the other apps blue dot appears to point the way if you are not sure what to do next and it also helps to keep the dialogue in some kind of order (although that is not always essential to the story and the way the app works). 

Other nice touches are counting to 10 whilst picking flowers 

matching socks and lots of other interactivity whilst cleaning the dwarfs' cottage. 

There is a handy storyboard to retell the story in your own words - or to use in class, which is what I shall probably do with it. I have been playing for around 30 minutes and am just over half way through (that is a guesstimate, I wasn't timing). 

Snow White has all the features that you come to expect from Nosy Crow and I think the use of children's voices and sound effects add to the storytelling. You can read yourself or have the story read to you, with the words turning red as they are spoken. 

As with Cinderella, the way that the characters are portrayed adds to the story. Can you tell I love it?!

Bossy Ugly Sisters

A lovely Fairy Godmother

There really are some magical elements to the stories and the illustrations are just gorgeous. 

You really do feel like you are part of the story when you do things like swoosh the knitting needles to create the carriage and Cinderella's dress.

Magic knitting needles

There are elements of humour throughout and lots of things to share if you are looking at these with young children. I have shared them with my class and friends' children and they have absolutely loved exploring the pages.

As children become familiar they will no doubt be happy to explore the stories in their own.

I know some of you might be sceptical about digital books for children. As a reader, I jump from reading on my kindle, to iPad, to paperback and hardback books. I've yet to pursue the audio route, though have often regretted not having something to listen to when I'm driving distances. Nosy Crow have provided traditional stories, beautifully done, that will entertain children for a long while and I think these are a valuable addition to a child's storybook collection. I'd love to know what your child thinks about these apps if you have them.

16 (or so) quality ipad apps to use in a year 2 class

In the next couple of weeks my year 2 children will be using the brilliant Scratch Jnr app to create basic polar bear animations. It ties in with the work that we are doing in class and I believe that the app is easy enough for 6 year olds to use, especially with some careful pairing. 

Update: My year 2s used the app independently, check it out on the class blog!         

After the briefest conversation with my HT I have been considering whether I have been using the iPads effectively this year  - and thinking about the apps I use and whether they are high quality. Am I still using them innovatively and is this possible with year two children?  I am one of those people who lives in the moment and I honestly can forget very quickly the things that I have done. I looked back over our class blog this year and am pleased that I think we have used quality apps effectively, though maybe I could use some apps more often. I'm not sure whether it's innovative use - probably not, but they are being used.

So here are my top apps this year for year 2, in no particular order. All photographs of children have been taken from our class blog this year. 

Number 1: Collins Big Cat apps

Fab for guided reading and writing

I use them for guided reading / writing interventions. They are great at keeping my children focused when working independently whilst I am working with a group too.

Number 2: Book creator

We used these to create profiles of ourselves to send off to a school in London. The expectation was that they just create one page. This will be built on this half term when they create an ibook about polar bears, then in the summer term an ibook about nocturnal animals. It doesn't replace paper work as their writing in the app is minimalist in comparison with paper based activities. That's because they are concentrating on so many skills here!

Book creator

Number 3. Puppet Pals

We used this in the autumn term to create animations from our local fen. They designed creatures, took photos at the den, created storyboards then animated!

Puppet pals animations

Number 4: Comic life

A great little app for creating posters across the curriculum. We used it to show knowledge and understanding of Samuel Pepys.

Comic Life (posters about Pepys!)

Number 5: Brushes

Creating art work in the style of Hockney as part of our environmental artists work. We used the ipad to take photographs of our natural art too.

Brushes

Number 6: Google maps/Earth

Use in conjunction with atlases! 

Number 7: Skitch

Not just great for planning journeys, it can be used in lots of ways!

Using Skitch to plan routes

Number 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, programming apps:  Beebot, ALEX, Daisy Dino,  Fix the Factory and Scratch

A.L.E.X

Daisy Dino

Number 13: Twinkl phonics suite

A child in my class uses this daily for the brilliant pairs activity and letter formation as well as phonics practice. Lovely little app!

Number 14: Primary games maths apps

We use these regularly for boosting their rapid recall of number pacts. There are lots of great apps available!

Number 15: Explain everything / screen chomp

I haven't made use of these yet this year. They have been planned for, but my children haven't been secure enough to do what I have wanted them to do. My aim is for my top mathematicians to explain strategies for pencil and paper procedures by using the apps. We will get there by the end of the year!

16: Clicker grids

I can't believe I intially forgot this! Eek! I have used this fabulous app with a child in my class with SEN and it has enabled him to write his own pieces. Equally, a child with ASD who comes to my literacy group has been inspired to use it (he loves tech) and he writes much more quickly with it. I have blogged about the app here, which somehow I reverted to draft after publishing, so have republished it now! I will take a photo very soon.


They are the apps I use regularly - many other quality apps are available and we will be exploring more this year, like Little Fox Music Box and possibly i-movies bu the end of the year. Incidentally, the two top apps that I use regularly as a teacher are popplet and blogger. I also love Nosy Crow books for whole class teaching (they are a little expensive for all ipads).

You can see lots more quality apps from EYFS to KS2 on my ipad site. 

Robo logic LE

A quick app review whilst having a cuppa in bed this morning! Robo logic is another linear, Beebot style game that is not as slick as Fix the Factory, but may appeal to your ks1 and lower ks2 children. There is a handy tutorial to start with, but it really is self-explanatory.

You can be creative with how you run your program by using F1 and F2 for your repeat commands. 

And it's good for children to see their algorithms in different ways. However, I became bored fairly quickly. I shall have to find a little beta tester (my nephew!) to continue playing. He might not be irritated by the synthetic sat nav voice as I was! 

It is nice to have a choice to offer children though and they all have different opinions. The robot games seem to appeal to younger children more than the Beebot ones, or maybe it's because they are shiny new? It's an app worth sharing any way.

Run Marco!

This is a nice little app that will help our young learners apply their computing skills. It is available for both ipad and android. At KS1 children will learn:

• that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions
• to create and debug simple programs
• use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs

and KS2:

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controllingor simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and variousforms of input and output
• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

(Computing programs of study 2014)

There are 10 levels, with 10 more coming soon. 

It starts off with simple steps that are modelled for you, so you can't go wrong. 

It quickly moves on to the repeat command, so that our children can make links between this and the previous steps - and the reason for having a repeat command.

The next step is learning about variables in a very simple way. This again is modelled clearly for you. 

It encourages children to think about shortening their sequences and creating loops, thus making their algorithms more efficient. A great little app that is free too!