We’re back with the 42nd app report and a double-sized helping of the latest news and product announcements from our network of family-friendly app developers.
Please take a moment to read the full app descriptions, and to screen the apps you download, in order to fully understand the features and elements in the app. If you find an app you like, please support independent app developers by writing a review.
Pre-School Phonic Crosswords by The Pre School Apps Academy: Excellent learning app for children aged 3½ -5½ yrs. Five fun levels of simple crosswords which use phonic letter sounds. Children earn points and can unlock prizes for completing each level. Designed with teachers & early childhood development experts. Customers can sign up for FREE printable pack of crosswords. *UK English Voice Over* iPhone and iPad: $1.99
Ice Cream Truck by fantastoonic: Now you can turn your iPad/iPhone into The Ice Cream Truck with a new app for kids from fantastoonic! Drive around, sell ice cream, make frozen yogurt or stack your ice cream cone with as many scoops as you can. The Ice Cream Truck uses the camera on the iPad/ iPhone so you can see where your truck is heading. iPhone and iPad: Free
Kids Trains, Planes & Sea Vehicles – Puzzle for Toddlers by Pixel Envision: A high quality puzzle game for toddlers and kids from ages 1 to 6 featuring 12 cartoon vehicles in 15 puzzles! When a puzzle is completed kids are rewarded with a variety of “celebrations” and interactions. iPhone and iPad: Free + $1.99 In-App Purchase, Amazon
Books
Elfishki and The Peformance in the Fountain multilingual fairy tale storybook for kids by kidsiphoneapps.net: The little Sea Elfishki Rinka had always dreamed of becoming a circus performer, but most of the time her tricks did not work out so well. When school holidays began, her mother sent her to the old cat, Mr. Thomas, who agreed to look after Rinka while she swam in the city fountain. But it was so boring to swim all day long in the little pool, that one day Rinka decided to perform a circus act… (Watch Video) iPad: $3.99
Dinosaur – Picture Me by Oceanhouse Media: Take new pictures or add photos from your library and this app will place your children in fierce and fun dinosaur costumes of all shapes and colors. Children will have grrreat fun with the playful sounds and interactive objects on every page as they flip through the story and see themselves (and other costumed characters) in each illustration. iPhone and iPad: $0.99
Gerry the Giraffe HD by PicPocket Books: Gerry the Giraffe wants to join the volleyball team but they think he’s too small and not strong enough. Upset because he isn’t invited to summer volleyball camp, he finally realizes what he has to do. Over the summer, while the team is away, something amazing happens from Gerry’s hard work. Written by Melissa Northway, Illustrated by Jennifer Mercede iPad: $2.99
Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book by Oceanhouse Media: Dr. Seuss’s delightful Sleep Book follows one small yawn that spreads from bedroom to bedroom across the country until finally ninety-nine zillion, nine trillion and three Seussian creatures are sound asleep. Perfect for nap or bedtime, this story features wild Seussian characters and scenes that you’ll want to come back to night after night. iPhone and iPad: $3.99
Flora’s Forest by HabitatSeven: Flora’s Forest is a magical interactive book for 2-5 year olds. Explore the forest and meet Flora’s strange new friends as they try to help her find her kite. Each page has many things to discover. Start the book and tap away to reveal beautiful designs, surprising sounds and fun animations that will make your kids giggle and want to explore the natural world around them. (Watch Video) iPad: $1.99
Creative Play
Make Me Music by FeeFiFoFun: Play your bread box or didgeridoo, make water glasses sing, or pluck a kalimba and let’s MAKE ME MUSIC! Welcome to the sound garden, a world where everything you tap becomes a musical instrument. Learn about melodies, rhythms, glissandos and more. Illustrated by Alan Aldridge, “His Royal Master of Images to Their Majesties The Beatles”, this fun and funky first music game for is for ages 3+. (Watch Video) iPhone and iPad: $1.99
Monsters vs Superheroes Comic Book Maker by Duck Duck Moose: Create your own animated comic book featuring monsters and superheroes! Create and record your own stories! Put multiple scenes together to make a comic strip. Includes 55 scenes and coloring pages with 170+ stickers. Splat! Ka-pow! Whizz! (Watch Video) iPhone: $1.99, iPad: $1.99
Spy Tools for Kids by Thinkamingo: Spy Tools for Kids is a collection of tools for creative pretend play. We’ve brought together several exciting completely functional tools for budding spies to use: a disguise kit, identification kit, fingerprint scanner, voice changer, and night vision goggles. iPhone: $2.99
Toybox Racer by Gryphus Enterprises: Build your own tracks and race on them! Ultimate creative power meets good old-fashioned toyroom fun! With 38 unique wooden track segments and jumps to choose out of the digital toybox, you can design your own 3-D race tracks AND drive them — or race against other cars or against the clock! (Watch Video) iPhone and iPad: $0.99
Games
theGames: Sporty Mind Puzzles by maypopdesigns: theGames: Sporty Mind Puzzles is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that exercises your mind and develops critical thinking and learning with fun summer sport game images. The game allows 4 contestants to play 18 different events that exercise critical thinking skills through various spatial relationship visual puzzles. For ages 5 and up – the graphics are sophisticated enough for adults as well. iPhone: $0.99
Literacy
Reading For All Learners: Little Books Set 1 by Staytoooned: This research-based reading program has been used in print form around the world to successfully teach readers who are proficient or struggling and those with disabilities. Now the program is available as an app with many new research-aligned, engaging, interactive features. This app contains the 27 kindergarten level books. Each book focuses on specific reading skills, with successive books gradually adding new skills while providing practice with those previously introduced. The Little Books Set 1 app is aligned with the Reading Foundational Skills (RF) and the Reading Literature (RL) standards in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). (Watch Video) Full Version for iPhone and iPad: $19.99, Lite Version for iPhone and iPad: Free
Smarty Britches: Nouns by Sascyn Publishing, Inc.: Travel to the deep South and discover NOUNS! Join a boy with a magical pair of Smarty Britches as he explores fascinating people, animals, places, things, and ideas. Created for teachers by a National Board Certified Teacher, aligned with Common Core State Standards, and designed to engage and inspire kids as they learn about NOUNS! iPad: $3.99
Tenth Grade English Vocabulary by Abitalk: This App includes 492 words that every 10th grader should know. Learning these words will increase your Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score, improve your reading comprehension, and help your appreciation of literature and language. iPhone and iPad: $1.99
Second Grade Reading Comprehension by Abitalk: This reading comprehension app has twenty fictional stories about children’s daily life. You can also create and add your own stories to the app. Each story has about 150 words. Each story introduces new vocabulary and concepts, and is followed by a set of exercises that measure the student’s comprehension. iPad: $2.99
Math
Rainbow Math by Emmy Chen: This app makes learning basic arithmetic fun! Your child can learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, by solving problems and then pick a right raindrop with the correct answer to make rain. The animated flower will appear after the rain to encourage the child. After each exercise, the animated rainbow appears on the screen and a little bird flies over the screen. iPhone and iPad: $1.99
Chocolate Chip Cookie Factory: Place Value by Vertical Learning Labs: As owner of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Factory, your job is to ship and deliver cookies to your customers as fast as possible. Cookies are sold by ones… or in stacks, boxes, cartons, crates, pallets, and trucks. Tap on an item to add it to an order. The order will ship or be delivered when the cookie count matches the cookie order. But keep an eye on the clock. If you are too slow, your customers will buy their cookies from someone else! (Watch Video) iPad: $1.99
Math Test Prep – 4th Grade by Innovative Mobile Systems Inc: Math can be a daunting subject if you are not prepared. Do you want to wait till year end test to find out if your student/child is ready? Be proactive and monitor your student’s progress regularly. Math Test Prep – Grade 4 allows you to do just that. The app allows your student to practice using hundreds of questions related to specific topics at their grade level. iPhone and iPad: $4.99
Science
Ecosystems HD by Sprout Labs: Ecosystems HD is a visually engaging and fun exploration of the major biomes of the Earth. Ever wondered why plants and animals have specific adaptations. Why do plants in the rainforest have drip tip leaves? Why do conifers have needle leaves? Why does the jackrabbit have large ears? How has the camel adapted to the desert? What are some adaptations of marine organisms? The Ecosystems HD app is an amazing treat for the curious learner. iPad: $2.99
Telling Time
Tell Time – Interactive elementary app to learn telling time by StudyPad, Inc.: Tell time is an engaging and interactive app for iPad that teaches time to elementary kids in an exciting Jungle theme using beautiful clock designs and encouraging voice-overs. iPad: $1.99
News
Enchanted Dictionary – another must for the Teacher’s Toolkit. Read the review of Enchanted Dictionary by Golden Communications LLC at On Sarah’s iPad
From 1st to 31st of August all versions of Kids Fun for iPad and iPhone are sold for only $0.99! (or equivalent amount in other currencies) View the apps on the App Store
Numberland (iPhone/iPod) – is now only $0.99 until the end of August! Want your kids to brush up on their numbers before school starts? Want them to truly learn to count? Numberland teaches numbers 1 to 9 in depth and unveils the secret of zero with the support of Montessori Materials. Designed by Montessori Teachers, at this price, it’s a steal! iPhone: $0.99
To celebrate back to school season, all three Elmer the Patchwork Elephant omBooks are now on sale for $1.99 each. The Elmer series teaches children about friendship, diversity and self-confidence with lovable characters and fun stories (http://www.oceanhousemedia.com/products/elmer/).
The Lorax, one of Oceanhouse Media’s most popular Dr. Seuss omBooks, is on sale for $1.99 for a limited time.
Updates
The Adventures of Bobik Bombastinov by JustKidsApps – Katrin Draemann Barothy: Updated with revised english text with voice-over by a young professional voice actress iPad: $0.99
