Great Interactive Reading Books for Kids

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.



This fully-animated, interactive version of The Three Little Pigs fairy tale is unlike any printed picture book, or even any storybook app, and will dazzle children aged 3 and up. “It is interactive in unique and fun ways that make the story feel more ‘alive’ than any other ebook I’ve read with my child...it’s a multi-media reading experience you and your kids won’t soon forget.”— Digital Storytime. “This shows the exciting possibilities for story telling in the digital age... Nosy Crow has just raised the bar, the best children’s book app to date.”

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-three-little-pigs-nosy/id418543664?mt=8

AstroJammies $4.99 AU
Follow Jimmy into outer space in an action-packed storybook adventure. Jimmy has magical pajamas that have the power to turn him into an astronaut! What sort of things will he encounter when he flies past Saturn, Earth and Mars? Written and illustrated by Stacey Williams-Ng, the fantastic tale of Jimmy and his magical jammies are brought to life in richly-textured paintings and rhyming verse. Created in an interactive format, this story includes a dreamlike original music score by Steve Dixon, professional narration and amazing special effects.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/astrojammies/id408466505?mt=8

The Penelope Rose HD $7.49 AU
"Every click within this colorful tale unlocks magic and wonders, as its pop-out three-dimensional visuals will mesmerize kids and parents alike." - Apple. The premiere Peek 'n Play book from Mobad Games is a stunning 3D experience that will encourage reading and entertain you with animations and interactivity on every exquisitely crafted page. The Penelope Rose is a magical fairytale of how roses were saved and fairies became the artists of the winged world. Enter a dazzling 3D world that can be experienced without the need for special glasses.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-penelope-rose-hd/id421422482?mt=8

Experience an interactive storybook that is out of this world! Join Cozmo in his adventure across the stars, and enjoy games and activities along the way. From the illustrations and original story, to the sound effects and built in activities, this app is a winner from start to finish Made for the iPad and now compatible with iPhone and iPod devices, this App was one of three finalists for the 2010 DBW Publishing Innovation Awards. It is produced simply and cleanly but filled with movie-quality animation, voice talent and multimedia features.  This retro-futurist app is out of this world in many ways. This is what an e-book for kids should look like!

 http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/cozmos-day-off-childrens-interactive/id409177911

Do you know a child who never seems to sit still? Grab your running shoes and follow a day in the life of Zanny, a little boy who simply CANNOT stop moving! Award-winning writer Pamela Sloane-Bradbury and veteran cartoonist Allison Garwood created these fun, witty, picture books as a way of helping children with limitations understand their behavior better in a positive and engaging way while boosting their self-esteem. "Zanny, Born to Run" is part of the very first book series ever written expressly FOR children with special needs. All kids go crazy for Zanny's antics, but particularly "extra special" kids who love to see themselves in living color. 

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/zanny-born-to-run/id409817073?mt=8

A fully interactive reading experience packed with Games, Movie Clips, Coloring Pages, Sing-along Tunes, and Surprises on every page. Hear the story read aloud, record your own narration, or explore at your own pace. Meet Woody, a cowboy doll that comes to life when humans aren’t around. . Woody’s plan to get rid of Buzz backfires and he ends up lost outside the world of Andy’s room, with Buzz as his only companion! The toys work together to find their way back to Andy and discover the meaning of true friendship along the way.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/toy-story-read-along/id364376920?mt=8

Watch, read, listen, and play as this beloved, classic picture book magically comes to life. Miss Spider is hosting a tea party—but nobuggy will come! What’s an eight-legged lady to do? Find out in this heartwarming tale of a kindly spider’s search for friends. Told in rhyming verse, this enchanting story can also be read as a counting book. With multi-touch animation, painting, puzzles, and games, the Miss Spider’s Tea Party App reinvents the reading experience for the whole family.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/miss-spiders-tea-party-for/id365173247?mt=8

Four adventurous penguins living at the New York Zoo are now on the iPad. As their fearless leader Skipper would say, they’re an elite strike force with top-tier commando skills in world-class clandestine headquarters.This app is packed with books and activities that will delight and entertain kids of all ages, including two Storybooks, a Joke book, and interactive activities such as Create a Scene (digital sticker book), Kaleidoscope (using the Penguins' binoculars), Spot the Difference, Mazes, and Coloring Board with nine coloring pages.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-penguins-madagascar-read/id397489149?mt=8

Monster at the end of the Book $4.49 AU
This Book enhances the classic Sesame Street book with a completely immersive experience that draws children right into the story. Join lovable, furry old Grover as he tries his very hardest to tie down pages and build brick walls— all to keep readers away from the monster at the end of this book. The all-time favorite you loved as a child comes alive for today’s young readers with interactive play, plus touch-point animation. Families can share this giggle-filled story together in a brand-new way that children will ask to read again and again.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-monster-at-end-this-book/id409467802?mt=8

Little Bella’s - I close my eyes FREE
Read along with Little Bella and enjoy music and animated adventures all activated by touch. With beautiful high quality animations and imaginative easy listening music you can read along with Little Bella with the interactive text. Animated shorts include Bella flying through clouds, jumping like a frog and being a slippery, slimy slug as she talks us through the world of her imagination. Perfect for a bedtime story, in the back seat of the car or to avoid hearing the dreaded “I’m bored!”. I Close My Eyes has been created specifically for the iPhone and has been carefully designed so children of all ages can easily navigate it - all by themselves.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/little-bellas-i-close-my-eyes/id307214153?mt=8


Tilt your iPad to make Alice grow big as a house, or shrink to just six inches tall. Enjoy Alice in Wonderland digitally remastered for the iPad.Throw tarts at the Queen of Hearts - they realistically bounce off her. Witness the Cheshire Cat disappear, and help the Caterpillar smoke his hookah pipe. This wonderful book includes hundreds of pages and amazing animated scenes. Watch as full screen physics modeling brings illustrations to life.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/alice-for-the-ipad/id354537426?mt=8

Teddy’s Day $4.99 AU
Winner of the 2011 Appy Awards - Book category. One of the most loved kids apps on the market, Teddy's Day unites innovative technology and high quality animation to create an interactive, entertaining and fully immersive children's storybook experience. The app is based on the bestselling print edition, "What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Day?" written by Bruno Hachler, illustrated by Birte Muller and published by Minedition, who co-released the app with Auryn.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/auryn-teddys-day/id400989528?mt=8



Dr Suess Series $4.49 AU





iOS 5 Features Video

I downloaded the iOS 5 software update last night and wanted to make the most of the features the first place I looked was the Apple site. This is their video explaining iOS5 features and what some of the major upgrades are. Enjoy!

P.S Allow a good hour for the upgrade - especially if you are doing both your laptop and your iPad.

Apps for Handwritten Notes

How many times have you been in a meeting or a conference and just wanted to jot down an ideas or sketch. You don't want to become totally distracted by typing reams but you do want to record it so it doesn't get lost. The following apps allow you to do just that. You can write with your finger or use a stylus if that is more comfortable. These apps will let you record, organise and then share these musings. Great for your classroom or students as well.

Many of these apps are excellent in their own right. They do exactly what the developers say they will. They are note taking apps, but, one or two do a little more. The Soundnote app I have blogged about before and is an interesting take on multimedia notetaking. It is something that I have used to keep digital voice recordings as minutes to meetings.

iStudious
Another that I think offers more than expected is iStudious. It's a complete note taking app designed for students and performs in a similar way to other apps. You can create notebooks for each class and organize the notebook by lectures etc.  iStudious is, however more than just another note taking app. After you have spent the time organising your notes you can then turn them automatically into flashcards that help you study the information you have just recorded.

This is the major difference between iStudious and other apps. It is a note taking app that includes an integrated flashcards feature. This added feature turns iStudious into an app that delivers the ability to record and then study your notes within the same app. It is also possible to import sets of flashcards from Quizlet another app I have used with some success with my classes. You also have the added ability to handwrite or solve an equation on top of flashcards - really good for those cards that you continue to stumble on.

This note taking app not only offers smooth fluid handwriting capabilties for note taking but it offers multiple options with pen sizes and colour options - great for organising your notes so you use different colours for different components of your course. The app also offers rich text formatting for those people who are visual learners and like to organise their notes graphically. I like the approach that the developer have taken on this app. It is a student centred tool designed to allow the students to optimise their own learning.

It is great to see app developers continually improving their product and looking for ways to improve the educational outcomes of the students who use their apps. iStudious is well worth a look


What other apps are available that allow you to use your own handwriting to record notes, diagrams or voice recordings. Here are a selection;


WritePad: $10.49 AU
WritePad lets you take handwritten notes with a stylus or even your finger. The handwriting recognition software will adapt and learn your style of writing. You can use simple gestures to select text, cut, copy, paste, and insert special characters. It has a spell checker with its own custom dictionary, auto-corrector, and a Shorthand feature that fills-in words. WritePad lets you save and transfer files over Wi-Fi from your iPhone or iPad to another iPhone or iPad.
Penultimate: $1.99 AU
The original handwriting app now includes photo annotation. It gives you the fast, tactile gratification of writing on paper, with digital power and flexibility. Take notes, keep sketches, or share your next breakthrough idea -- in the office, on the go, or home on the sofa. Store your thoughts in separate notebooks for each project. Penultimate can manage as many notebooks as you can create. You can browse quickly through all pages, or insert, delete, duplicate, and reorder them.
Notetaker HD: $5.49 AU
Note Taker HD is a powerful app for writing and organizing handwritten notes, diagrams, etc., on the iPad. It can shrink your writing so you can easily fit a lot of text on a page. You can read the reduced-size "ink" as if you had written those letters with a very fine pen. Documents are flexibly organized by tags, date/time last modified or favorites. You can email one or more pages as a single PDF file, "Open In" other apps like Evernote and Dropbox, or, if your iPad supports it, print.
Notes Plus: $5.49 AU
Notes Plus is a note-taking tool that supports handwriting, typing and audio recording. It offers close-up writing mode for small text, stroke smoothing, vector shape auto-detection, palm handling, complete folder structure, PDF exporting, emailing, Google Docs uploading, and more. Hand write comfortably with your big finger, your text will show up as fine as with pen and paper. 2010 Best App Ever nominated in both categories: Best Productivity and Most Innovative.
Noteshelf: $5.49 AU
Noteshelf is the handwriting note taker that features super natural digital ink, a stunning UI and a comprehensive toolset that will increase the benefits of owning an iPad by leaps and bounds. Neatly organize all your notebooks on the shelf, each with a cover and title of your choosing. Group related notebooks together and label the groups appropriately for better organization. Password protect groups of notebooks on the shelf for privacy. Rearrange pages within a notebook to reorganize your notes.
Adobe Ideas: $6.49 AU
Adobe Ideas is an ideal companion for the design applications from Adobe that you love, including Adobe Illustrator® and Adobe Photoshop®. Easily sketch using vectors, and choose and save color themes. With the option to purchase additional layers within the application, you can enjoy 10 drawing layers plus a photo layer for each sketch as well the ability to transform layers- control specific layer opacity and move, rotate and scale 
each layer independently.
Note Taker makes it easy for you to quickly write down and organize names, phone numbers, addresses, shopping lists, notes, and more. You write directly on the screen with your finger. It's like having a stack of note cards and a pencil always with you. Pages are flexibly organized by date/time last modified, tags, favorites, and more, with thumbnail images of part of each page to help you find them later. It automatically shrinks your writing and Note Taker automatically adds new writing next to the old.
UPAD: $5.49
Equipped with an excellent handwriting/drawing engine, UPAD will surprise you when you start to write on it with a stylus pen or your finger – because it brings a feeling very close to writing on an actual paper! UPAD promised smoothness and speed, on top of countless differentiated features from other similar apps. Let us enlighten you with what UPAD can do. 3 in 1. UPAD is the answer ! This is an Note taking app, a PDF annotating + reader app as well as a Photo editor.
Have you ever wanted to write fast, beautiful notes with no length limit and without having to use the popup keyboard? How about just using your finger on your iPad’s gorgeous screen? Use Your Handwriting (UYH) is a simple way to organize and express yourself. Instead of typing items in, Use Your Handwriting lets you write them by hand (well, by finger) - and with its unique graphic rendering engine, makes what you write look like your actual handwriting!
SoundNote: $5.49 AU
SoundNote is the best way to take notes in meetings, lectures, and interviews. It tracks what you type and draw while recording audio, so you'll never worry about missing an important detail. During playback, just tap a word: SoundNote will jump right to the proper time in the audio. SoundNote is perfect for students or journalists. When you're done, share your notes via email, or transfer them directly to your PC. Audio notes are recorded in standard M4A format: 




10 Animation Apps

I have blogged previously about the power of apps that tell stories as an educational activity. It stimulates higher order thinking skills, it provides opportunities for reflection and it enriches the learning experience for our students. So here I have listed apps that allow your students to create animations. I love the simplicity with which animations allow difficult concepts to be easily explained. These apps provide you with another set of tools to enhance your students learning.

Animation Studio $0.99AU
Why take the time to create your Animation if you can't add a Soundtrack or Export as a .mov File? Animation Studio allows you to create and share your animations!. Anyone can animate. You can easily create your own animated movies, add characters and a soundtrack w/ voice, music + text to speech, then share with anyone, anywhere in HD via .mov file export, email, YouTube, or broadcast on Apple TV via AirPlay™!



Animation Desk for iPad $4.99AU
Animation Desk for iPad is a mobile app that allows users to create hand-drawn animations on iPad. The drawing interface provided by the app resembles the real working environment of a professional animator who completes each frame of an animation on a specially-designed desk, the animation desk. Despite its professional design, Animation Desk for iPad is easy and intuitive to work with.



Toonastic $1.99 AU
Making cartoons is as easy as putting on a puppet show - simply press the button, move characters, and tell your stories through play. Once you are done, Toontastic will playback your animation and voice asa cartoon for you to share with firends and classmates. Toontastic teaches key storytelling principles that help to promote Creativity at a young age. Its drawing tools bring kids’ wildest ideas to life alongside virtual sets chock full of characters and settings to spark the imagination.



Kids Animation FREE
This free version of the successful 'Animation Studio' App provides all the tools you need to create great Animations on your iPad! Paint, draw, add Fun Stamps and even your own Soundtrack! For Help, Tap the "?" Button and check out our full In-App Tutorial! Easy! The 'Kid' Series Apps are built for Kids of all Ages to be Wholesome Entertainment and Family Safe. Advertisers have even been asked to be considerate of Ad Content!



Animation Creator HD $1.99
Animation Creator HD allows your creativity to come to life on your iPad and iPad 2! You are the director! With simple, yet powerful drawing tools, color palettes, color sliders, and easy to use frame management, you're only limited by your imagination! Animate till your heart's content. Your animations will look smooth and life-like with the high frame rate playback of Animation Creator HD! This is an really cool app.



PuppetPals: FREE + $2.99
Create your own animated stories. Simply pick out the characters, drag them onstage and tap record. Movements and audio are recorded for your performance. You get to be a silly as you like making funny voices to match your characters. If you get the Directors Pass for the extra charge you can act out a story of Pirates on the high seas, fight scary monsters or play the part of a wild west bandit. It is more expensive but gives you heaps more options for the budding animator.



Flip Boom Lite: FREE
Draw and animate cartoons on your iPad with FlipBoom Lite from Toon Boom Animation! A light version of ToonBoom's award-winning software Flip Boom Classic, this fun and intuitive drawing application makes it easy to doodle and create simple smooth-looking cartoon animations. FlipBoom Lite is ideal for learning how to sketch and animate your drawings to create cartoons.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/flipboom-lite-free/id385135145?mt=8


Flickmation Lite or Flickmation $4.49
Create hand (finger?) drawn animations on your iPad and bring life to those stickmen. Flickmation lets you create animations (flickbooks or flipbooks) on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You draw each frame and then play through the frames bringing your creation to life. When connected to a WiFi network you can copy your animations and stamps to and from your computer. FlickmationHelper, a Java application for your computer, makes this simple and easy to do.



iAnimator $0.99
iAnimator allows you to create animations based on photos you have taken on the camera or photos you have loaded onto your ipad from itunes. Select up to twenty images to create an animation. Take multiple photos in sequence then load them into the app in the order you require. Them adjust the speed and frequency of the animation with the slider bar and the loop counter. Once you have setup your animation you can select play to view your animation.



Doink Animation $5.49 AU
This has been one of the most fun apps I have played with for some time. This was another app I could not get near because my 12 year old commandeered it for the whole day after I downloaded it. She had her first animation up and running in under 5 minutes. I was impressed! She was impressed! This is always a good sign from a tech savvy kid who is aware of what will and won't work with her peers at school. I liked the way the app can be operated with simple gestures.

DoInk Animation is also a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families.

As an art teacher this is the type of app that really excites me, not only for what we could do with it in art but because we could showcase the possibility of an app like this to other subject areas as well. Being so easy to use was one of the things that immediately struck me with DoInk. I love the concept. The ghosted image of the previous drawing means that sophisticated gestures and movements can be obtained even by the youngest of kids. The older students would really take this to the next level. Using a stylus does give you a better experience but it is not really needed.

Storytelling as an educational activity is experiencing strong support at the moment from educationalists. The higher order thinking skills needed to analyse a situation and then illustrate it to a perceived audience is one which many teachers and parents are looking to emulate. The storytelling aspect of a tools like this is excellent.

As an educator I am all about making information entertaining as well as educational. So many times in my classroom my students have achieved the most stunning outcomes when they have not realised they were involved in the activity of learning. DoInk looks like an excellent app for replicating this learning. Check out the youtube clip from the guys over at iPadCreative. I have directed you to these guys before because they have some really cool stuff on their website. They are also generous with their time on evaluating apps for education. Enjoy!




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