Happy App Friday!
Learn the ABCs, but this time in Sign Language with Grace Signs’ Sign Me ABCs, then learn about musical instruments, rhythm and melody in Mussila Music School. Plus, Apple releases its free Everyone Can Create curriculum, and KQED gives us five ways to encourage learning in your little one.
Garry Froehlich
Jellybean Tunes
Sign Me ABCs
Grace Signs
Grace Signs is a nonprofit organization creating sign language and reading apps with a focus on inclusion. They feature children with and without disabilities in sign language demonstrators. The latest app, Sign Me ABCs, was released this past spring. In Sign Me ABCs, people can learn the building blocks of Sign Language, including 26 letters of the alphabet and 26 animal signs. Download the app and see colorful cartoons, real kid videos, lively music and an interactive game which all make Sign Language fun and exciting to learn, for adults and children alike.
Mussila Music School
by Rosamosi ehf.
Mussila introduces kids to musical instruments, rhythms, melodies and keyboards. The main game is largely multiple-choice. An instrument or melody will audibly play, and the user must choose the correct picture or musical notation from several choices. It starts simply and grows more complex throughout the levels. A band mode is also included for fun where kids can assign instruments to band members, and play along with the songs on a virtual keyboard. The app can require a bit of trial-and-error since there are no written or verbal instructions, and it sometimes switches from portrait to landscape, but is otherwise pretty solid. Mussila offers a good amount of content for free, but certain features, such as learning about the notes on a keyboard, require an in-app purchase.
Simple Ways to Encourage Brain Development in Your Little One
“And yet, there’s a whole body of research on how caregivers can encourage brain development before a child starts any formal learning. It’s another example, Ferguson says, of the disconnect between research and practice. So he set out to translate the research into five simple and free ways adults can help their little ones.”
The article presents some sensible, uncomplicated tips. We found that something as simple as pointing to words while we read them worked remarkably well with our own son. Read more: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52259/5-simple-ways-to-encourage-brain-development-in-your-little-one.
Apple’s Everyone Can Create Curriculum
“Each student guide, which is free to download in the Books app, includes projects designed to help students learn new creative skills progressively. There is also a teacher guide with over 300 lesson ideas that can be used in a variety of subjects.”
The guides, not surprisingly, cover topics the iPad is well suited for, such as music, drawing, photo and video.
Apple Releases Materials for the Everyone Can Create Curriculum
