Now Tech That!: Appy Friday 4/15/16

Appy Friday Readers!

Another week, another set of links to free iOS and Android apps! I thought I wouldn’t have time to do reviews, but I have a little time after all. My reviews are mostly early childhood oriented this week, but I hope they are still helpful to some of you!

Have a great weekend and happy downloading,

Betsy

Reviews

Early Childhood

Natural Seasons — BabyBus by BABYBUS

https://appsto.re/us/i_iZ2.i

Normally $0.99

*Also free on Google play, see Android section for link

Baby bus makes a whole set of early childhood apps. This one works on presenting a book of puzzle pages for each season. Once the book page’s season is labeled, you can play with the themed puzzles. It’s great for OTs working on visual discrimination, fine motor and finger isolation. What I like is one of the puzzle formats you can select the number of pieces (4, 6 or 9) and the animations are pretty cute. Just a warning, the music is really annoying. I would break out the headphones!

Elementary

Multiplication Table Memorizer by Vyacheslav Zubenko

https://appsto.re/us/VrWtP.i

Normally $2.99

There a lot of math fact apps out there. Most of them get boring quickly so having an arsenal of them to mix things up for your students is a good idea! This app is a little different in that instead of just a field of 3 or 4 to choose the correct answer, this one has 12 to choose from. If you are stuck on a problem, you can tap the question mark and it will split up the problem into a smaller denomination for you to see the problem differently. What I don’t like is you can’t skip ahead to more difficult problems, you have to start with the easiest problems first and move through them all.

Middle-High School

*Nothing exciting this week!

Always Free, Always Awesome!

Gear Pre-writing by Artica (Early Childhood)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gaar-prewriting/id819479130?mt=8

This is a fine motor and visual perceptual app designed for pre-school kids who are working on fine motor, targeting items and simple tracing. I like that it’s in a game format where the user achieves a level after each page. What I don’t like is there seems to be only a couple of levels in each activity area . In addition, I am disappointed that the developer markets the app as working on pre-writing strokes, but some of the tracing apps do not model tracing that follow basic handwriting principals (top down for example). I would not use this connected to handwriting and instead use it for basic finger isolation and targeting.

Also free today:

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Jobi's Fire Station by Yellephant Co., Ltd.

https://appsto.re/us/8Yhd4.i

Normally $1.99

*Also free on Google play, see Android section for link

Wee Subs by Wee Taps

https://appsto.re/us/5cSYI.i

Normally $2.99

Match and Learn™ The Professions by Petita Demas by Petita Demas Ltd

https://appsto.re/us/aUy17.i

Normally $2.99

Educational ZoLO Creative Play Sculpture for Ipad. Original shape game to develop imagination and foster creativity. Amazing visual learning for kids of all ages. Gender neutral by UZU Ltd

https://appsto.re/us/7f6lL.i

Normally $1.99

Nursery Rhymes For Kids by Alex Harris

https://appsto.re/us/vJW16.i

Normally $0.99

*Lite version on Google play, see Android section for link

FINE MOTOR/VISUAL PERCEPTUAL

Paint Kid - Draw for Kids - Doodle, Sketch & Scribble by Hien Van Phan

https://appsto.re/us/J7HJ_.i

Normally $11.99

goPaintPro by Ali golmohammadi

https://appsto.re/us/q0PGJ.i