ABCya!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

I recently found the website ABCya.  It was created by a former teacher and is filled with fun educational games. Check it out at http://www.abcya.com/

I am a former school teacher who started ABCya.com in 2004 because I could not find FREE and nonviolent children’s activities on the web for my classroom.  ABCya.com  is intended to provide free fun and educational games kids to use under the guidance of their parents and teachers.

The site has games for Kindergarten to 5th grade. Abcya.com is a teacher-created website which provides fun and educational games and apps for kids to use under the guidance of their parents and teachers.  The games do not collect personal information and children and adults are able to visit the site and play the games without providing any personal information to ABCya.com. The site is funded through ads placed on the site (but they aren’t overly intrusive.

The navigation features of the website are simple and straightforward.  The homepage provides links to six main grade level categories: Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, Fourth Grade and Fifth Grade.  The grade level categories are broken down by content categories: Letters, Numbers, More (shapes, social studies, art) and Holidays.

The games on the site are fun and educational!  I really can recommend this site for parents and home school families.  I love sites that are educational and not too expensive.  For younger kids, I still recommend the Owlie Boo website to teach preschoolers how to use the keyboard and mouse.  This site goes on my list of resources that I can recommend.

 

 

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Elfishki and the Giant Cake

Posted on March 18, 2012 by


Once upon a time, on the beautiful Rainbow Island in the middle of the Sparkling Sea lived magical little people called Elfishki.
Some of them could fly like butterflies and some could swim like mermaids. They shared the island with animals who could speak and trees who did not talk, but understood everything. All in all, this was a place where miracles happened every day.

Elfizz was an owner of a gloomy restaurant named Chest of Ghosts where the staff was eager to please ghosts. On the opposite side of the square was a bakery, Gingerbread Nook, run by a pretty plump Elfishki lady called Maggie. The two were at odds with each other until one day they had to work side by side…

 

My youngest loved this.  He is a little young to read the pages yet, but enjoyed the games that went with.  The player can design their own cake which can then be photographed and sent through social media or emailed to their friends. Besides normal cake toppings, kids can add creepy-crawlies and other fun things!  Check out the snails and bats!

I could definitely see this becoming a cartoon on PBS sometime in the future.

I remember my oldest playing the Living Books (15 years ago) and loving them and this is comparable, with brighter graphics and very portable.  I can see taking this app along to turn a long car ride or a wait in the doctor’s office into an educational opportunity.

Elfishki and the Giant Cake is currently $2.99 for iPad.   There are several others by this developer also that are also worth checking out. Visit their website for more information.

For a cute video of the app check out: Elfishki and the Giant Cake iPad Book for Kids

 

 

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Review – Question Builder for IPad

Posted on March 13, 2012 by

Remember the ACTs and SATs? (Or even the GRE)  One one of the things I had the most trouble wit

h were the abstract questions.  This app really isn’t on that level of question, but it does help get conversations started and get kids thinking.

Question Builder for IPad is $5.99 and is by Mobile Education.  Mobile Education has several more apps that fit in this category also.  The app includes an evaluation that can be used by a teacher to review the students progress.  There are different levels and it can be used for more than one student (also a plus for schools).  It has great reviews also:

My students enjoy playing Question Builder! The pictures hold their attention and they enjoy the sometimes silly reinforcements. As an SLP, I like having the ability to track their progress and make sure they are at the correct level. Not only does this app help them with answering questions, it also is helping with listening and reading.

I love this type of app, though I have a hard time bringing myself to pay $5.99 I think an app can be worth it.  This app rates in that category and I recommend it for kids working on language skills.  Check out this app and the others by Mobile Education.  Even though my little one is only three I think this app will really help his comprehension.  We are working on language skills with him and this is an app that I can feel good about him playing with.

ITunes Description:

Named a top 12 reading comprehension app by ReadingRockets.com!

Question Builder is designed to help elementary aged children learn to answer abstract questions and create responses based on inference. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. Audio clip reinforcement can be turned on or off for non-special needs children.

Question Builder offers a rich and fun environment for improving the ability to abstract.

FEATURES
-Optimized for iPad
-Simple and intuitive interface to answer questions
-Why, What, Where, How and Random question formats
-1200 audio clips of questions and answers
-3 levels of abstraction
-Optional text and audio reinforcement
-Statistics to track student progress
-60 encouragement animations and audio clips

LANGUAGES
- English

REQUIREMENTS
- Compatible with iPad

Question Builder features SmarTots, the premier mobile education application network for families.

SmarTots provides learning reports and mobile education app reviews that help parents understand what their children are learning. Signing up for SmarTots also gives parents access to fun activities that enhance the educational value of mobile education apps like this one. Click the Parent Button inside this app to get these great features.

Mobile Education Tools is a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families.
Recommended Ages: 3-6, 6-10
Categories: Special Needs

 

 

 

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Review: Enchanted Learning

Posted on March 6, 2012 by

Recently I found the website http://www.enchantedlearning.com/. It looks like it contains a lot of materials, but I have to admit I had a tough time wandering around the site and it took me a while to find printables that didn’t require the subscription.  I did finally find them and once I knew where to look it made more sense.  (It was under “Free Sample Pages” on the front page)  The layout of the site made it a little difficult to find things also.  The membership is $20 for the ad-free membership (one user). I didn’t pay the money to try the subscription ad free service…. But from what I saw there is a lot of great material in printable sheets.

The site could be more user friendly, but if you are willing to search around you can find some great printable resources.  I’ve mentioned before I love to print them and then laminate. If you are a teacher or homeschooling this could be a great resource, and the $20/year subscription makes it not too high priced.  It works out to less than $2 per month.

What subscribers get:

  • You get access to all the content of the Enchanted Learning website — over 20,000 pages.
  • No banner ads! You get an ad-free version of the site plus extra printing capabilities (printer-friendly pages and the ability to enlarge images).
  • Site subscribers can access the members’ website from ANY Internet-connected computer using their logins.
  • Memberships last for a full year, beginning when you join and expiring on the same date in the following year.
  • Note: We do NOT do automatic renewals.

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