by Laura Jiencke | Oct 18, 2017 | Bluebee News, Helen's Corner |
Oh Boy! It’s October! My students and I are getting all geared up for plenty of good books and apps! Here are some of our favorites for this month! Grab your Bluebee Pal and try one out!
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Loud Crow Interactive Inc
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown/id552498441?mt=8. Gather around with your Bluebee Friends and enjoy this classic Halloween tale, complete with the original narration! Create your own avatar and costume, and carve a pumpkin! All of your Peanuts friends are here to celebrate the big event! Will the Great Pumpkin make an appearance?This is a great book to read and discuss, retell, and practice sequencing!
Mystery Word Town – Sight Word Spelling by Artgig Studio
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-word-town-sight-word-spelling/id983733111?mt=8 This is a fun app to practice spelling skills! Your goal is to find the gold and capture the outlaws in Word Town! Explore the buildings to complete spelling challenges. Featuring 3 levels of difficulty, you can use the included word lists, or create your own. You can even record your voice to use with your own words. This is an excellent way to easily practice spelling and vocabulary words. For use with single or multiple players. My kids have so much fun, they forget they are learning! You can play this game with your Bluebee Pal by your side!
Mystery Math Museum by Artgig Studio
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-math-museum/id640754583?mt= This is an engaging app for practicing math skills while exploring 8 museums while helping a friendly ghost rescue dragonflies! Unlock rooms and passages as you practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills. Select the skills you want to work on by customizing the activities to suit your needs! Great for problem-solving and critical thinking skills!
Room on the Broom: Flying by Magic Light Pictures Ltd.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/room-on-the-broom-flying/id949494519?mt=8Take control of the friendly witch’s broom and fly across the sky! Collect stars along the way to see how high you can score! Pick up all of your friends, but watch out for the fire-breathing dragon! Catch letters to spell words! What fun!
Room on the Broom: Games by Magic Light Pictures Ltd.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/room-on-the-broom-games/id705107094?mt=8 There are 8 magical games to play to foster creativity and critical thinking skills, all while having fun! Collect medals while playing the games, which feature all of the wonderful characters from the book! You can fly from star to star making pictures in the sky, help the dragon eat his favorite food, help find things the friendly witch has dropped, and much, much more!
“Room on the Broom”
https://www.amazon.com/Room-Broom-Julia-Donaldson/dp/0142501123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507780874&sr=8-1&keywords=room+on+the+broom .One of our favorite books to read in October is “Room on the Broom”. We complete language learning activities centered around the book. the book, from Amazon: “The witch and the cat are happily flying through the sky on a broomstick when the wind picks up and blows away the witch’s hat, then her bow, and then her wand! Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items, and they all return to ride on the broom. But is there room for so many friends? And when disaster strikes, will they be able to save the witch from a hungry dragon?”After reading the book, I let my students play the companion games which are available in the iTunes App Store. There are 2 apps and we love to play both!
by Jo Booth | Oct 14, 2017 | Bluebee News |
With a lot of novel stimuli coming at your child this Halloween, it makes sense to use Bluebee to help your child prepare for a variance in routine. The Halloween Holiday Apps listed on the website here and here are all ways to practice the sequence of what the celebration is all about. It also habituates a child to the sights and more importantly the sounds of the holiday.
By playing or engaging in Halloween activities, it will help a child learn to self-regulate in a safe environment. They can practice facing fears, learn perspective taking, and get into all sorts of scary silly fun in the comforts of home and with loved ones like Bluebee. Some kids that are sensory sensitive may need rehearsals to wear a costume or have costumes made from simple comfortable clothing. One of my sons was sensitive to the fabrics used for most costumes, and so I learned to adapt to his needs through the use of everyday clothing or a sweatshirt and pant that I could paint or alter. It made participation more about the joys of the season rather than the scratchy outfit he was made to wear. By being aware of your child’s cues and adapting – the pay-off is big. The focus is then on fun and how to use these new-found skills appropriately. The biggest plus, however, is that all actions are reinforced with laughter, family fun, and CANDY simply for partaking in the traditions!
Tips for Using Bluebee to prepare for Halloween
To Habituate to Wearing Costumes:
- Have your child dress up Bluebee in silly costumes. I have found that clothing size 6 months to a year fits Bluebee, with 6-9-months being the best fit. If dressing up Bluebee, a child can desensitize to the variations in fabrics and textures and won’t be so freaked out when trying to wear them if he/she has had familiarity with them.
- There is no need to buy new clothing, I buy most of our Bluebee clothes at a Church Thrift Shop. That way I help others and don’t spend a lot.
- And if these tips still do not work, your child can take Bluebee dressed in costume to trick-or-treat and collect candy and goodies for the two of them to share.
To Habituate to the Sounds and Loud Animated Decorations
- Visits stores if able and listen to the displays
- Play Halloween songs, games or apps to familiarize your child with the sound of ghosts, witches, and all things scary. Model appropriate behaviors and responses “Oh, that sounds like that silly ghost toy”.
- And if this does not work, sound deadening headphones may give your child relief.
To Prepare for the Big Day
- Use a visual schedule or a social story to outline the sequence of events. You can make your own social story by taking pictures of your child or using pictures of Bluebee or family members Trick or Treating.
- PLAY, PLAY, PLAY at Trick or Treating and use real treats!
- Again play games, music, and apps to ready your child for the big event.
And if you should get scared….Hold on to Bluebee tight, because FRIENDS ALWAYS get you through those tough spots!
by Becca Eisenberg | Oct 11, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News, Speech and Language Apps |
Fun Spanish Language Learning games is a free and engaging app for children who want to learn Spanish. This app is part of series of many different apps by Study Cat include Fun Chinese, Fun French and much more. The app includes 2 Free Lessons and 13 Learning Games. The app is designed for children ages 3-10 and includes courses for preschool, early learners and young children learning different languages. The app combines a language course with different games to keep a child engaged and entertained while learning. The course is divided into lessons with each lesson including core vocabulary in several contexts. Both male and female voices are included with appropriate intonation and expression to learn the pronunciation correctly. The free lessons included are colors and animals. More lessons are available for purchase including numbers, body, fruits, food, clothes, vehicles, the house, sea animals, school bag lesson, and actions. Children love learning and languages introducing at an early age are considered easier to absorb than in later teen years.
These lessons can be purchased individually or in a pack.
Connect your Bluebee Pal!
1. Connect your Bluebee Pal via Bluetooth to your tablet.
2. Let the fun begin. Bluebee Pal can provide the audio feedback during all of the games by helping your child learn new Spanish vocabulary in addition to aiding your child with the sounds of the letters for early learners.
3. Practice the free games in the category of Animals such as Silhouettes (identifying each animal), Two by Two (learn plurals), Spellbounce (spell the animals in Spanish), Whack (singular and plural), Animal Band (reviewing the animals) or Voice Choice (provide your own voice). With Bluebee Pal, learning Spanish will be endless fun for you and your child. Now they have a tech companion that can also teach and motivate them.
by Becca Eisenberg | Oct 8, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Literacy, Speech and Language Apps |
is fun and free! It allows you to learn up to 23 languages- Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swahili. How does the app work? You can choose to create an account or start without signing in. Next, choose a language!
Do you want to learn the language casually (5 minutes a day), regular (10 minutes a day), serious (15 minutes a day) or insane (20 minutes a day). Then you either choose the option, beginner or not a beginner which will lead you to a placement test. For children, choose beginner and start the course! The app will open up and start asking multiple choice questions with visuals.
Once a choice is activated, you will hear the correct pronunciation of the word and the app will continue. This free version has ads but an ad-free version of this app can be purchased through the app which also includes additional lessons. The free version contains the first lesson which gives you the opportunity to try the app and see if you want to purchase the full version. The app also gives you the ability to have a practice conversation with a Bot. In order to have the conversation, you need to build up your skills.
Bring Bluebee Pal along for the ride of learning a new language!
- Connect your Bluebee Pal to your favorite tablet via Bluetooth.
- Get started with Duolingo by learning new vocabulary and gaining skills along the way. Bluebee Pal can provide the audio feedback with the correct pronunciations of the words as the child is practicing and learning the chosen language.
- Have a conversation with Bluebee Pal once 3 skills are completed. This is an excellent way to practice conversation with a new language, learn new words that you just learned and turn take with a partner!
by Alison | Oct 3, 2017 | Ages 3-5, The Imums Blog By Alison |
Old MacDonald by Loeschware features an interactive farm where children spin an animal wheel to select various animals to put on the farm. The company was founded by a brother and sister who have designed all of the music and artwork for the apps. If children select the right animal such as a cow, they are rewarded with the cow piece which they then put into the barn. If they select the wrong animal such as a fox or an octopus one of four actions happens to help them remove the wrong animal from the farm. They range from a tractor removing the errant animal to a puff of clouds. The app is primarily designed for toddlers and early preschoolers. It provides audio cues and music designed to engage players throughout the game. The app helps children practice spacial awareness, improve attention span, as well as practice fine motor skills and matching. My toddler loved this app especially when we paired Leo the Lion – he thought it was hilarious to hear him make all the different animal sounds. I found myself singing the catchy song as we played along too!
I liked the various animals that the game included – my son’s personal favorite was the duck. We also really enjoyed spinning the wheel to pick the appropriate animals and liked the fact that as you picked each animal it had a checkmark on it. The musical elements as well as the art in the app are fun and encourage children to sing along. I also thought the fact that the place where the appropriate animal was supposed to be placed was helpful, I can see this being really good for young children who may have trouble matching with the spot on the page.
I wish that the Old MacDonald song would be repeated with the names of all the animals after you have completed the puzzle. After finishing it, I would have also liked the ability to touch each of the animals, it finishes up rather quickly, so prior to dropping the last puzzle piece I usually do this step with my son. In addition, if a wrong animal is picked, I would have liked the action to vary a bit. My son picked the wrong animal twice in a row and the animal was kicked by the donkey each of the times rather than changing to a different action.
This is a great app to introduce children to a farmyard scene and animals. You may even find yourself singing along to the Old MacDonald song! Other apps by this developer include My ABC Train, Five Little Monkeys, and Big Top Circus. This app is currently part of an Apple handpicked selection for the “App Store Essentials: Apps for Toddlers”.
iPhone $0.99
iPad $2.99
Note – prices above were as of article publishing and are subject to change at any time
This post was originally posted at The iMums – it has been slightly edited for content.
by Punam Desormes | Sep 22, 2017 | Bluebee News, Punam |
Bluebee Pals are great therapeutic tools for speech therapists and behavior therapists. They have already proven themselves to be invaluable in the classroom setting and are now making their way into therapy centers around the United States. Bluebee Pals are a great assistive technology device that enhances the overall experience of iPad or Android Tablet.Turns therapy activities on the iPad into a more engaging experience, giving kids additional sensory component as they have to hold and touch the animals.Children respond to these huggable furry tech animals adding another dimension to therapy. https://www.bluebeepals.com/therapists/
Beyond the Spectrum, a therapeutic and educational center for children with Autism in Sarasota, FL recently used Bluebee Pals helped motivate a child to use the potty for the first time! A speech-language pathologist with Apple Patch Therapy in Orlando, Florida also found success using the Sammy the Bear to encourage a client to participate in language and articulation therapy and following directions tasks when Bluebee gives the actual directions. Her client increased attention to task dramatically to earn time with his Bluebee Pal! Affiliates centers with AblePlay-Lekotek in Georgia, Illinois, North Dakota, New York, L.A. and North Dakota have been using Bluebee Pals to engage students in therapeutic play!
The Apps section of the Bluebee Pal website lists many of the therapeutic apps that these therapists are using to address therapy goals in a fun and innovative way. These include Text to Speech, Articulate It, Super Duper Following Directions, Food Frenzy, Super Duper Category App, Autism iHelp Apps, See Touch Learn,
Speech Flip Book and many many more! Tablet and iPad technology are used almost daily in most therapeutic settings making it very easy for therapists to connect the Bluebee Pals and begin using them during sessions instantly!
So, get your Bluebee Pal and start taking your therapy to the next level!
