Mind Leap

BLOG: Best Classic Family Games Apps

heatherbarber — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:30:54 +0000

There are some great versions of classic board (and board-ish) games for your tablet. Here’s a list of some of our favorites. Yes, they are games, but they have solid educational value and the bonus of fun family interaction. And, for a game with a steep learning curve, like chess, app technology can be a huge bonus for learning and practice. Make sure to download these before your next family weekend getaway – they take up a lot less space in your carry-on than big cardboard boxes.

Boggle
Chess
Guess the Code (think MasterMind)
Dinosaur Chess (Learn to Play!)
Scrabble
Wurdle (similar to Boggle)

Review of Khan Academy

heatherbarber — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:05:08 +0000

We hope you have heard of Khan Academy, and if not you are in for a treat. At the forefront of open source education, Khan Academy’s goal is to provide free world-class education to anyone anywhere. They do this in the form of video lessons (more than 3000 of them to date). Currently topics include math (K-12), science, finance and economics, and humanities (history, civics and art history). The videos are generally a little less than ten minutes long and are really specific and good. Teachers – these can be great review for your students (using this app, or accessing them through the website at www.khanacademy.org), and are a good recommendation for a student who needs to catch up after missing your lesson. Parents – here is the way you can stay ahead of all those questions that are coming as your kids take more advanced math and science…and to answer that question inevitably coming this Fall – what is the electoral college? These are also great to watch and learn together. Note – videos are not divided by level – only by subject matter, and they are audio dependent (i.e. no subtitles). Also, the app doesn’t come with all the videos, but you can choose to download them by subject. And be aware that it has a pop-up that asks for you to login to the website to keep track of your progress, but it is easy to ignore if you aren’t interested. Have fun!

Skills: Math, Science, History, Art History, Economics, Finance, Computer Science
Cost: Free
Platform: iPad
Grade(s): 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, Middle School

Review of Study Package Chemistry 1

heatherbarber — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:39:20 +0000

Study Package Chemistry 1 iPad app for middle school chemistry is a simple little app that could be useful when your child or student just needs a different medium for studying/memorizing. There are basic questions and answers about the following subjects: Properties of Matter, Particle Theory, Solutions & Mixtures, Atoms & Molecules, and the Periodic Table. For some, you think of the answer, then use a finger-drag to reveal the answer, and for others you drag the answer to the correct position. Teachers – there is just basic content here, i.e. 3 states of matter to equations for converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit – but it could be a useful pre-test review. Parents – note, a lot of the content is good for 3rd-5th graders if they are asking science questions and you want good easy answers, and in the info section there is a list of website references.

Skills: Chemistry review
Cost: $1.99
Platform: iPad
Grade(s): 5th grade, Middle School

BLOG: Become a Mind Leap Reviewer!

heatherbarber — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:52:23 +0000

Stay up to date on what’s happening in educational apps for kids, get access to the latest educational apps, and have your name and bio on our website…become a Mind Leap Reviewer! You must be a current or former teacher/educator and use the Mind Leap evaluation matrix when evaluating apps.

Interested?
Submit a letter of interest with a brief bio, and draft app review to our Contact Us page. Please include details about your teaching experience (# of years, positions, grade level) and philosophy, and review an app that has educational value. We won’t post the review on our site, but will use it to get a sense of your style and how you evaluate an app for its educational value. Please use the Mind Leap evaluation matrix.

BLOG: Ten Apps to Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer

heatherbarber — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:20:29 +0000

Avoid brain drain this summer with fun learning apps. Whether for reviewing material, getting a leg up on the school year, or exploring a special interest, there are many apps that can boost your child’s motivation and learning.

Here are 10 apps to keep your child’s smart juices flowing all summer (and they are good for almost all ages):

For Exploring New or Special Interests

1) Toontastic – This (iPad only) app is a great literary tool that supports young learner’s creative thinking. Children create mini cartoon movies by choosing characters, determining a setting, developing a plot and then recording dialogue. A story arc supports the development of more complex story lines.

2) BrainPOP - Get a short new educational movie each day that comes with a quiz on what you just watched. The BrainPOP app is pretty cool! Learn about Thomas Edison, mars, the Harlem Renaissance, Yo-Yo Ma, the international space station, and much more. Topics include science, social studies, math, English, technology, arts, music, health…This is a great app for a little dose of daily learning.

3) Brain Quest Blast Off - This is a trivia app available for all grade levels. This one – for 2nd graders – worked for a car full of PK through 3rd graders recently. Brain Quest App is based on their popular trivia cards you may have taken with you on road trips. You choose the subject, or a mix of Science, Social Studies, Math, Language Arts.

4) Britannica Kids- Summer is a great time to explore special interests. Britannica kids has a variety of great apps that bring out the natural curiosity of children (and adults!). Check out dinosaurs, rainforests, volcanoes, the solar system or ancient Egypt. Lots of information with some simple games.

To Brush Up On Skills

5) Rocket Math- The Rocket Math app is lots of fun and great for both the enthusiastic and slightly reluctant math student. You must do math to make your rocket cool. You decide a mission, do math to earn money to buy accessories for your rocket, and then launch it. Basically your kids will be forced to do math problems because they love creating and launching rockets. You can choose the math level – easy, med, hard (hard is akin to 11×12 or 234/13), and the equation type – addition, sub, mult, division. A built-in scribble pad is handy to work out the larger equations.

6) Pop Math - This is a simple math practice app. Pop the bubbles that are equivalent (i.e. 6×4 and 24). You don’t have the ability to choose the level at the beginning, but quickly advance to higher levels. You can choose to practice a level or move on. Not a lot of variety here, but a solid app for quick summer practice.

To Stretch Your Brain

7) Symmetry Shuffle - A fun and addictive app that helps children explore spatial reasoning and geometry. This is a very easy app to learn but intricate enough to keep kids entertained for a long time. It uses mini geometry puzzles that require strategic thinking and develop spatial sense. By flipping and sliding one shape over another in order to match them up, users must come up with mathematical strategies and solutions.

8) Slice It! is another fantastic geometry and spatial reasoning app! You are given a shape and a limited number of lines with which you must create a specific number of smaller shapes. The trick is in getting the shapes to each have the same area. Various levels extend the shelf like of this app and can challenge even the clever adult.

9) Touch Physics – Anything with the word physics in it sounds hard. But this app is delightful while creating a stimulating challenge. All you have to do is get a small ball to touch the star. Using your finger you can draw whatever you think will work to make it happen Drawn objects will fall according to the laws of gravity

10) Casey’s Contraptions – Explore the elements of physics with each mini game. You can use a variety of available materials (think slingshots, RC trucks, darts, ropes, magnets, balloons, trapdoors, punching gloves, and more) to achieve a required result. Complex and challenging but not impossible each game will get your child (and you) thinking.

BLOG: Early Reading Apps Your PK-1st Grade Kids Will Love

heatherbarber — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 06:46:34 +0000

Early reading, pre-reading, call it what you want. Either way, it is an exciting and often challenging time. Luckily, apps work beautifully to provide simple learning tools to promote letter sense and writing and sight word practice. We list some of our favorites below.
You may find your child wanting to use and re-use an app that you deem too easy. Remember, feeling successful is especially important for early readers, so let them continue to review what they already know as it just cements the knowledge, and makes them feel good. This learning is the foundation for all the rest!

ALPHABET
1. iWrite Words
iWriteWords is a great letter forming tool for preschoolers and kindergartners. Your child will practice recognizing and writing letters, using their finger to trace each letter. You can choose upper or lower case. We like that it shows correct directionality for forming each letter. Also check out iWriteWords in Spanish/En Español.

EARLIEST PHONETIC READING
2. Bob Books #1
We were fans of the hard copy version of these books when our kids were just starting to read. They are a series of very short books that advance step by step (i.e. the first book enables your pre-reader to read an entire book of words written only with the letters M, A, T and S). In this app when your child clicks on a moving figure they are taken to an activity that supports them in spelling the name of the figure. It’s a fun, simple and effective app.

3. Pocket Phonics
Pocket Phonics is very good to practice hearing letter sounds, writing letters and sounding out short words. This isn’t a beautiful app, but it is useful. You may need to show your child the button that says Play Sound, so that they can hear the letter sound again before they choose the corresponding letter. The visual and verbal reinforcement is good.

BASIC SIGHT WORDS
4. Teach Me Kindergarten
Teach Me provides strong practicing opportunity for sight words and spelling, and kids particularly like the rewards (you earn coins and can spend them to “buy” stickers to put on screen backdrops). This app keeps track of the progress of multiple players, and you have the option to choose which subjects to work on.

MORE SIGHT WORDS
5. Word Bingo
Lots of sight word and spelling opportunities here. This app includes a spelling practice section, sight-word bingo (all Dolch sight words), and two other sight-word games – each with fun incentives to earn a Bingo bug. There are grade level options (PK-3rd), and progress is tracked.

Review of Guess the Code

heatherbarber — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:57:25 +0000

Guess the Code is like MasterMind that you used to play – except the code is determined randomly. Use logic to determine the code of colors in the correct sequence, in as few tries as possible. Each time you guess, you get feedback as to how many correct colors and correct positions you have (but not which ones they are) and you can work out the solution by logic. Note – you can choose to break a code of letters instead of color (good if you are colorblind).

Skills: strategy, critical thinking, problem solving, memory
Cost: Free or $1.99 for ad-free
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Grade(s): 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, middle school

Review of Dinosaur Chess (Learn to Play!)

heatherbarber — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:53:20 +0000

Dinosaur Chess App is a great way for kids to learn to play chess. It goes step by step, with lessons introducing the pieces and their roles (sound must be on). In the Play section you play games using only some of the pieces, learning strategy and applying what you learned in the lessons. Each level adds additional pieces – and they get tough! A nice feature is that you can view progress, and see how many lessons your child/student has gone through, and the results of their drills. There is also a bit of built-in incentive – when you complete all the lessons, your Dino gets bigger and becomes more likely to win the silly and short Dino Fight game. Summary – this is a really good way to get your child interested in chess, and could also be a nice complement to lessons. Note – to just play a full game of chess download Chess.

Skills: strategy, chess, critical thinking, problem solving, memory
Cost: $1.99/$2.99
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Grade(s): 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade

Review of Chess

heatherbarber — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:53:36 +0000

This is a nice chess app for kids and adults who already know the basics of chess and just want to play. There is no teaching involved (to learn to play download Dinosaur Chess). There are options for two players to play together, or to simply compete against the app. There is an excellent range of difficulty levels, from very beginner to expert(?). Also check out Chess with Friends which allows you to play chess against your friends/family who also have the app. Chess with Friends a great app for an older kid to do with a grandparent or aunt or uncle – however PLEASE note, there are no security options for Chess with Friends, i.e. your kid or student could start a game (and communicate via the in-app text message feature) with a stranger. The basic chess app is good for all ages.

Skills: strategy, logic, sequence
Cost: Free
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Grade(s): 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, Middle School

Review of Alien Buddies

heatherbarber — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:44:25 +0000

Alien Buddies is a simple and cleanly designed app for early pre-schoolers. They will work on color, shape, letter and number identification, and sequential counting, with cute (not scary) alien graphics. One games that is nice is the matching of upper and lower case letters. Users can earn stickers by exploring the different games, but there are some immediately available to play with. There won’t be any frustration with this app, even while working on fine motor skills with the puzzles or dot-to-dot. There isn’t anything new in this app, but we appreciate the design. Feel free to turn off the music.

Skills: matching, and shape, color, number and letter recognition, sequential counting, fine motor
Cost: $1.99
Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Grade(s): Preschool, Kindergarten