Tuesday, 20 May 2014



Walk Safely to School Day      Friday 23 May 2014

Andrea Rowe blogs:

How did walking to school become the exception?
  • "There's a smaller proportion of children walking to school than at any time in history, but most parents say they'd prefer to walk if they could. So what's the problem? Andrea Rowe looks into the barriers and benefits of walking to school." 





                                              http://www.walk.com.au/wstsd/material.asp
Further reading:
The Link Between Kids Who Walk or Bike to School and Concentration

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Apraxia Awareness Day & you get the presents!!

Multimedia Speech Pathology are celebrating Apraxia Awareness Day on May 14 by setting these two apps to FREE FOR TODAY ONLY!
Both apps are available in US English and Australian English. 

Apraxia is a poorly understood neurological condition. People who have it find it difficult or impossible to make certain motor movements, even though their muscles are normal. Milder forms of apraxia are known as dyspraxia.

"There are two forms of apraxia of speech -- acquired apraxia and developmental apraxia. Acquired apraxia can occur in people of all ages. 
 Children with speech apraxia often have far greater abilities to understand speech than to express themselves with spoken words."    http://www.webmd.com/brain/apraxia-symptoms-causes-tests-treatments.

To speak correctly, your child's brain has to learn how to make plans that tell his or her speech muscles how to move the lips, jaw and tongue in ways that result in accurate sounds and words. Your child's brain also plans these movements so that he or she speaks with normal speed and rhythm.

Speech Sounds on Cue for iPad (Australian English)

iPad Screenshot 3 Screenshot

By Mulitmedia Speech Pathology

Speech therapy treatment software for articulation difficulty caused by apraxia of speech or other speech difficulties. The aim of this app is to increase the intensity of treatment for people with apraxia, combining J. Rosenbek's integral stimulation approach with B. Hill's carrier phrase facilitation drills
Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 9.57.24 PM
iPad only - normally $24.99 - FREE TODAY ONLY
Speech Sound for Kids is an app for promoting phonemic awareness, auditory discrimination and speech sound production using a multi-sensory approach.

This app can provide many hours of speech therapy and early literacy programming


EXTRA BONUS

Released yesterday, and free for a LIMITED TIME ONLY this app has it all

ABC Genius PRO - Alphabet Letters, Phonics, and Handwriting Games


By Innovative Mobile Apps

ABC Genius comes with many interactive games and
activities that are great for kids of all ages. Whether you have
a toddler or a kids starting kindergarten, they will know their
ABC in no time with ABC Genius.

YES THERE'SEVEN  MORE!!! ALL FREE ATM

Work Time HD by Nick Fanger  Usially $2.99 US
Measure Map By Global DPI, LLC Usually $1.99 US
Encore- Concert Ticketys. photos & videos Usually $4.49 US
Stampede Run by Zynga Inc Usually $1.29 US

ProCam XL 2 by Samer Azzam Usually $1.29 

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Earth & Space Science resources & info from Paul Floyd.

 In this post I am sharing a message from Paul Floyd-
"a passionate amateur astronomer with 24 years experience (as at 2014)
 in running a range of education and public astronomy outreach activities." http://nightskyonline.info/?page_id=2

Paul Floyd in April 2012: 
He had just finished a simulated walk on Mars at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre 
(http://www.vssec.vic.edu.au). http://nightskyonline.info/?page_id=2
For those covering the 'Space Sciences' component of the Australian Curriculum: Science curriculum (or equivalent) this term, make sure you ask your students to look at the Moon Wednesday night as it occults Saturn. 

Essentially what they will see is Saturn (looking like a moderately bright pale yellow star) disappear behind the Moon then reappear on the other side of the Moon. How long this takes will depend on where you are in Australia. Observing this provides a nice and relatively rare demonstration of the 3D nature of space, and of the fact that the Moon is orbiting the Earth (causing the occultation).


Binoculars are recommending for observing the occultation due to the fact that the Moon is very close to being full, and therefore as Saturn draws closer to the Moon, the glare from the Moon will make it more difficult to see Saturn disappear and reappear. 

Event times and a chart for different locations in Eastern Australian for this occulation can be found here: http://nightskyonline.info/?page_id=11288

Regards,
Paul Floyd.
I recommend that you visit Paul's website and check out the valuable resources available including The Australian Curriculum "Earth & Space Science" resources that he is developing and The Free Student astonomy newsletter for each term.

 I love his scale model of the Sun, Earth & Moon System which would help "you to achieve part of one of the following elaborations from either the Year 3 or the Year 5 The Australian Curriculum, Science / Science Understanding / Earth and space science content areas.
  • Year 3 Elaboration 4: Modelling the relative sizes and movement of the sun, Earth and moon (ACSSU048).
  • Year 5 Elaboration 2: Modelling the relative sizes and movement of the sun, Earth and moon  modelling the relative size of and distance between Earth, other planets in the solar system and the sun (ACSSU078)." http://nightskyonline.info/?p=2122


Sunday, 11 May 2014

EDUCATIONAL iPad Apps FREE for limited time AND worth downloading

ALL FREE for a limited time!
MEEGENIUS

Happy Mother's Day!

We're giving you a FREE 3-month subscription accessing over 700 books -

iZip Pro is the Pro Version of iZip, the No. 1 App for ZIP file management on iPhone/iPad.

Usually $8.99

 Besides all the features available on iZip, the Pro Version has more features, which are essential to business and professional users, including Box and GoogleDrive access. iZip Pro has many features:


- Compress files into ZIP file. 
- Compress photos and videos from Camera Roll. 
- Compress songs from iTunes Music. 
- Open and extract files from ZIP format, including password protected and AES encrypted ZIP files. 
- Open and extract many other compressed file formats: RAR, 7Z, ZIPX, TAR, GZIP. 
- Open and view many document types: DOC, Excel, PPT, PDF, TXT, RTF, Pages, JPG, GIF, PNG, videos, etc.. 
- Append files to a ZIP file. 
- Send files in Email. ............... from iPad Preview


Timeline 3D - Create and present timelines

       iOS Universal Usually $12.99 
NOW FREE for a limited time


Timeline 3D for iOS 7 is the most simple way to create beautiful multimedia timelines. 

NEW: Export Slideshows to PowerPoint and Keynote!

Operation Math - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division for Kids

FREE today for a limited time. Ages 9-11

Comes highly regarded:

 • Parents' Choice Award Winner
• Best App for Teaching and Learning — American Association of School Librarians
• Featured in New York Times
• Top 10 Classroom Math Apps — Teachers With Apps
• Top Innovative Elementary School Math Apps — PadGadget
• No. 1 Recommended Math Game in Apple's Education Collection
• Featured in Apple's Apps for Elementary School
• Featured in Apple's Apps for Kids

Looks very engaging:

Dr. Odd is on a global quest to eliminate the world’s even numbers. And it’s your job to stop him, by destroying his menacing mainframes and making the world a safer place for math. Complete your mission by solving the equations that block your escape and earn all the uniforms and watches of a seasoned Base 10 spy. The faster you work the further you'll go in the exciting spy game that takes you from the pyramids of Egypt to a seat at the front of the class.

Operation Math Pocket - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division for Kids

for iPhone
See it in action: http://www.spinlight.com/apps/operationmath/

Four McGraw-Hill apps that usually cost but are now FREE fro the month of MAY!! 

Word Wonderland Elementary 
Sort out the right path to guide the astronaut crab through the space station.
Word Wonderland Primary
Sort out the right path to guide this friendly frog through the pond.
Hop, eat, and shake your way to word sorting mastery. Who knew word sorting could be so much fun?

Grammar Wonderland Elementary
Grammar Wonderland Primary
Fly, swim, feed, and toss your way to grammar mastery. Who knew grammar practice could be so much fun?
Lead your character through many wonderful adventures as you practice using nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more!
Grammar Wonderland Elementary
Grammar Wonderland Primary

PhonicsFarm 

WONDERFULLY COMPREHENSIVE READING PACKAGE FOR BEGINNING READERS (AGES 2-7). 

PHONEMIC AWARENESS, INTRODUCTION TO LETTER-SOUND RELATIONSHIPS, LETTER WRITING, LETTER RECOGNITION, SPELLING, AND READING WORDS AND SENTENCES.
12 FABULOUS FUN GAMES THAT TEACH ESSENTIAL READING SKILLS:

1) Matching Sounds
2) Initial Sounds
3) Flash Cards
4) Letter Sounds
5) Tracing Letters
6) Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
7) Blending Sounds
8) Spelling
9) Reading
10) Sight Words
11) Fluent Reading
12) Word Bingo

Adobe Voice
Adobe Voice - Show Your Story
itunes.apple.com
Get Adobe Voice - Show Your Story on the App Store. See screenshots and ratings, and read customer reviews.







"Voice helps you create stunning animated videos in minutes. No filming — just talk to tell your story. Pick from over 25,000 beautiful iconic images to show your ideas and Voice automatically adds cinematic motion and a soundtrack. Persuade, inform and inspire anyone online. Make an impact." 

Video Touch Vehicles for the younger students

Usually $2.49 now free
Great 48 videos to entertain and educate your child! When choosing one of the vehicles (cars, planes, trains, etc.), your child will watch 10-20 seconds video clips. For example - fire trucks with their sirens screeching, motorcycles revving by, and water slapping the sides of an oncoming boat. Each vehicle rotates through 4 separate videos with each tap from your child. Perfect and simple!