I LOVE Mo Willems!

I have to say the pigeon is one of my most favorite characters to read about in grade one.  It just so happens that my own children have that pigeon passion as well.  These wonderful books teach so much expression and voice when reading.  It does not take long and these books have become memorized.  Emerging readers see themselves as "readers of REAL books",  and then I bump it up a notch and turn them into authors of their very own Pigeon book!

So when I stumbled across the pigeon app for $6.99, I only hesitated for a moment and then clicked buy!  I have to admit I have never spent $7 on an app before but I don't regret it for a second!


The app has a few features....
1.  Mo Willems teaches a step by step lesson of how to draw the pigeon.   I have his paper instructions and have always done a good job of teaching it myself, but there is nothing like hearing right from the illustrators mouth!  The downfall of this is once you are done you can take a picture of your pigeon but the app only saves 1 picture.  So with multiple kids it just does not cut it.
2.  There are 3 story modes where the bus driver walks you through creating your own pigeon story.  SOOOOOOOOO cool!  My kids have created numerous books.  Some of the stories even allow for your own voice recording which is super simple for young children to do independently.  The downfall here is I can not seem to figure out the saving procedure.  Sometimes the bus driver comes on and just saves it for you, other times the bus driver pops on and reads you your story once then when the book closes, your story is gone.

I am hoping these kinks will be worked out in some upgrades but my recommendation is if you love the pigeon, you will love this app!

Valentine's Day Apps

I like to find a few apps that are thematic for the kids to use just for fun.

Biscuit is an absolute hit with my kiddos so the Valentine Story was a must have on my list.  It's $2.99.  It has all the same options as the other Biscuit Apps:  Read to Self, Read To Me, Auto Play.  It also has a coloring book, sticker collection, memory game and puzzles.



Valentine Memory App - free

It's your classic memory game.


Cooper's Big Bear Hug App - free  An interactive online story with puzzles and games.



I have a few others as well that I have not yet checked out.  I just simply searched Valentine's Day in the app store and chose apps that were free.  Here is what my organized folder looks like:

Lots of time to get these organized before Valentine's Day.  If you have any favorites, feel free to share.

 

My December Apps!

Seven days into December and I finally have my app folders ready on 4 of the 5 ipads in the pod!
Yup, a pod is a lot of work!

What have I got going on in December?  Some old faves hung around for another month and now that we finally know how to add I threw in a few exciting math newbies!

What's hung around?

Letter School
Teach Me Grade One
Teach Me Kindergarten
Spelling City
Mathletics

What's new?????

Monkey Word


I posted about this great find in early November I believe.  The kids were so excited to see it in the December work folder.  It works on Spelling and High Frequency words in all kinds of fun ways.  Definitely worth the $1.99 in my opinion!

Hungry Guppy


I have used the Hungry Fish app in the past which is for kids who know their addition facts.  This game is the precursor to that introducing numbers and joining sets of numbers.  It's $3.99.... a little pricey in the app world, but if your kiddos are into math they'll love it, especially when the fish gets bigger and bigger!

Meet Biscuit Book App


By December in Grade One most of my kiddos really see themselves as readers and are excited to read "other books" instead of our classroom pm book collection.  I always introduce them to Biscuit, they love this puppy and they love to take home my extensive collection of Biscuit books.  When I discovered there were all kinds of Biscuit book apps I was thrilled!  I was lucky enough to get this book for free, but it is now $2.99.  There are many more Biscuit titles ranging from 99 cents to $2.99.  You can see not only is it a book, it has coloring pages, a sticker collection, memory games and a puzzle!

Math Invaders Kindergarten



This app is loads of fun... well worth the $1.99!  It's like the old school video game where you are shooting at alien spaceships before they get to the ground.  I have the kindergarten and grade one versions of this app and find the kindergarten to be at a more appropriate level based on our Manitoba curriculum.  It begins with counting forward, then backwards and then basic addition.

Max Doodle


We use Max Doodle to practice our spelling words.  It's an alternative to Doodle Buddy and is a fun interactive way to spell.  I have posted about both of these apps in the past, but have just put Max Doodle in our folder for the first time and the kids are THRILLED!

And since it is December I decided we needed some Christmas Apps too, but I made a special Christmas folder instead.......

Toca Christmas Hair

There is absolutely nothing educational about this at all but the kids think it is hilarious to give Santa a new style.  Last year I had a special needs child and this app was EXTREMELY calming for him.  Toca apps are a favorite in my house, unfortunately we have almost outgrown these preschool apps.

Talking Gingerbread


Again nothing educational, but you can dance and play music with the Gingerbread man and record your voice.  It's another freebie for a little Christmas fun!

Draw Santa


Learn to draw all sorts of Christmas characters, then color and select backgrounds!

How The Grinch Stole Christmas - app book

I blogged about this one already!

Jolly Jingle

This festive sing a long app is great for learning Christmas Carols.  We have yet to use this in our classroom but look forward to it:)

And that is all..... I am sure there are many more Christmas apps out there, let me know what you find that's worth while!

December is my last month with the pod, but guess what I am getting for my classroom....... 1 more ipad!  I almost have a pod of my own:)

I got a "Wonderful Awful Idea"

The Grinch is a favorite in our house this year.  My 6 year old has watched the 30 minute cartoon at least 9 times since it's saved on our pvr, we've watched the full length movie and now we own the app!

For $4.99 you can own the electronic version on Dr. Seuss's classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  The app offers a few pretty cool features.

The coolest in my opinion is being able to set yourself as the narrator.  You can then read the book aloud and it will record your reading so next time you choose Read It To Me....... you can choose to listen to your version!  How cool would that be to have grandpa read the book for you!

The app also allows you to click on the pictures and it tells you the vocabulary of the objects in the picture.  You can turn sound effects on or off, and we all know how much Seuss loves his sound effects!  Of course like most book apps, you can choose autoplay, read it to me or read it myself.



For a little fun we also bought the Grinchmas app.  It is totally just for fun!  You get to be a mean Grinch or a merry Grinch and you fling snowballs or presents into chimneys.  It's a little tricky but it added to our love of the Grinch!




 

E - Reading

I  own very few ibooks for my children.  I personally LOVE to read on my iphone.  A new book is only a few clicks away, however, it took awhile for me to make the switch from those beloved paperbacks.  I still feel the need to hold a real book every now and then which is why I spent the summer borrowing real books from the public library.

When it comes to children's literature, I still feel like there is nothing like the real thing.  Those beloved pages looked at over and over again.  I recently read an interesting article on the new blog I began following.  It talked about how enhanced ebooks distract kids from comprehending the narrative details.  Do we get too caught up in all the bells and whistles of the interactive book and lose the meaning of the story?  It also linked to an article about poor sleep habits after reading on an ipad at bedtime.  All very interesting to me and reconfirms my belief in the "real thing".

However I do believe there is a time and place for those lovely interactive books.

Image the beautiful images of this classic on the ipad screen.



Or the interactive sounds in this one.



Happy Reading!

 

Earth Day

I LOVE Earth Day.  I have loaded my wiki with tons of free websites and books to celebrate Earth Day and help enrich the learning experiences of my first graders.  I have also discovered this free app that is an interactive book.  


http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-four-seasons-an-earth/id427865899?mt=8

I came across it on a blog that I love to follow and plan on downloading it tonight.  I have not previewed it myself yet, but thought it was worth sharing!

Also check out my wiki Earth Day page http://mcisaac1w.wikispaces.com/Earth+Day



 

Don't Let the Pigeon Run this App!

I LOVE Mo Willems!  He is the author of some of my most favorite children's books!  So when I saw he had a pigeon app for $6.99 I only hesitated for a moment before I pushed buy this app,  I've never spent $7 on an app before!

So was it worth it....well my own two children absolutely love it!  It has been used daily since the purchase.  I introduced it at school to the Read Along club... a group of second graders whom were introduced to my pigeon passion last year.  I rekindled their love of all things pigeon and had them begging I bring more next week.  My own class of first graders is just going to meet that crazy pigeon this Tuesday.

So what does the app do?  Well Mo Willems himself walks you step by step through the process of drawing a pigeon - LOVE this!  I've had the paper instructions and have done a fair job of teaching it myself in the past, but hey there is nothing the like a real illustrator inspiring young artists!  The downfall....... only 1 pigeon drawing can be saved!  The drawing shows up in other parts of the app, but my 2 children are constantly fighting over who has the pigeon drawing in the frame!

There is also a part where the bus driver comes on asking all kinds of silly questions walking you through the process of creating your own pigeon book.  Now I absolutely love this because I have always had the kids create their own class pigeon book so now the creative process just got a whole lot easier!  There is even a voice recording option so kids get a chance to get their own voice in there.  The downfall of this...... I can not seem to figure out the saving procedure.  Sometimes the bus driver comes on and saves it for you, other times you listen to your story you created, the book closes and it is gone forever.  Hmmmm disappointing, especially if it was a really good one!

My hope is these kinks will be ironed out in the next while since it is a relatively new app!

In the meantime we will keep on loving that crazy pigeon.

Garage Band in the Classroom

Okay so I have heard of the app and thought..... why on earth do I want that?  Well now I know.  This would be great for a listening station, too bad I do not have multiple ipods:(   Although I do own MANY books with cds, this will certainly help with the seasonal books I do not own. 

AND...........................

Could this possibly be the answer to the voice recording of children's reading that we have been looking for???????  I will attempt to check it out in all my spare time - lol.  Soon, I promise!

http://tekyteach.blogspot.com/2011/09/techy-tip-use-any-book-for-your-listen.html

Ipad's in the Summer.......

Well summer vacation has officially begun and my Ipad has come home with me.  Not only has it come home, it has come on 2 long road trips with me.  And I must say it has been a SAVIOR!  I would purchase my children one of these before a dsi  again that is for sure.  The 7 hours road trip had the Ipad in CONSTANT use and yes the battery life lasted and still had 27% upon arrival.  We do not have movies on the Ipad (have not ventured into figuring that out just yet).  So the 7 hours were spent enjoying the apps and many online books.  I LOVE the option that it will read the books to my 4 year old, no longer am I crawling to the back of the van to be the reader. I also absolutley love the interactiveness of some books.  The really great ones cost a few dollars, but really..... it's a book.  It has been read and loved so many times already that the $3.00 spent on it is really no big deal.  It's what I call sanity money!  LOL

My four year old's favorites are:
There's a Monster at the End of the Book - It stars Grover from Seasame Street trying to stop you from turning the pages as he is scared of the monster at the end of the book.  He keeps you busy untying knots etc to prevent you from turning the page.  $3.99

Mickey's Spooky Night Puzzle Book - A Mickey Mouse book that has you searching for ghosts.   $2.99

These books have also thoroughly entertained my 7 year old son as well.  Although I must admit I am still on the search for a few good age appropriate books for him!