Wagner’s App Recommendations/Favorites: February 2017
Helen H. Wagner, M.S., CCC-SLP
In my classroom, we do lots of apps with our Bluebee Friends, to learn communication, language and academic skills. Learning with Bluebees is always entertaining, engaging, and fun!
In February, we celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and we read lots of his classic stories with our Bluebee classroom friends. We use these books with lots of repetitive text to develop attending, listening comprehension, rhyming, sequencing, wh-questions and more! My students are always thrilled to read along with a Bluebee Pal! Dr. Seuss books are classic reads, great to elicit lots of conversation, emotions and opinions! Some of my students’ favorite Dr. Seuss storybook apps, from Oceanhouse Media, are:
Another app we have been having fun learning with is the Reading Train Learn to Read Books, Songs & Games from The Learning Station, LLC. This is a great app for beginning readers. Featuring three levels of play, there are storybooks and related games which help build phonics, vocabulary and reading skills.
I love that Bluebee Pals integrate very nicely with the Reading Train! Listen, read, and record books! We like to let our Bluebee Pal read a letter book to us, (like the D book), then we read it back to him, and then we record the books in our voices and our Bluebee Pal, in return, reads it to us in our own voices! What interactive fun! Teaches colors, numbers, shapes, life science, animals, letters and lots more!
For Valentine’s week, my preschoolers will be learning about Valentine’s Day and some of its’ traditions. Our Bluebee friends will be reading Biscuit’s Valentine’s Day, by iStoryTime. It is a simple, sweet story about passing out Valentines. We will work on Valentines’ vocabulary, asking and answering wh-questions, talk about sharing, loving our friends and family, and talk about making valentines (before we make our own valentines). The app also has a coloring book, sticker book, memory game and puzzle…great for cognitive skills development and early learning fun.