Frame Artist with Templates Pro

It's always nice to come across a great app that can be used with creation activities.  Frame Artist with Templates Pro is one of those apps.  You can create newsletters, calendars, cards, magazine pages, and much more.  There are many choices within the app to embed your own characteristics on your created documents.

You begin by creating a template from a grid, say 5x5 set of blocks.  Next, merge blocks together to form your template and region. Like shown in the image blow where I've merged two sections of cells into larger blocks.  Inside each cell you can insert pictures, text, or stickers.  Yes, text may also go on pictures, rotated, re-sized, and more.  After the insertion you can format text with fonts and colors, format the cells, and format the background.  When finished share with many of the online communities, or simply save it to your photo gallery.

The app does come in a lite and Pro version.  For a limited time only, the Pro version is free.  Have students create trading cards of themselves, recipe cards for Mothers Day, magazine pages for a research topic, or a calendar page containing photos demonstrating a progression of a science project.

Apps for Preschool and Kindergarten

I was visiting with an adorable little special needs student the other day and spent the morning looking for  free apps that are simple, fun, and engaging..  Some of these are free only for a limited time so if you work with primary, now is the time to download!



Wee Sing & Learn ABC - **Free for a limited time**  4+ star rating
Read along, ABC Song, explore the ABCs, play along, or explore some animals.... all from the Wee Sing company.  No ads!






Squiggles! by Lazoo Worldwide    **Free**  4+ star rating
This app is a simple drawing app that has children practice their fine motor skills by creating different squiggles for pictures that come to life.  No ads, audio instructions, bright and colorful.  It also includes a storybook that can be read aloud to the child with interactive pictures.  In the "parent" zone it allows for teachers or parents to record themselves reading the book..... or better yet, have a sibling or older student do it!





Little Writer - Tracing Letters, Numbers, Words, and Shapes **Free** 4+ star rating
I love the layout and ease of this app.  The shapes and letters that they trace are large and easy to follow.   There are no ads, a reassuring voice that tells them what they have drawn or written.  Colors are bright and nice animation.





i Learn with Polo:  Seasons and Weather!  HD   **Free for a limited time** 4+ star rating
There are many versions of the iLearnwith apps with most costing about $0.99.  This one is a science educational apps designed for preschool and kinder aged children.  No ads, all audio instructions, allows for an adult to set up a monitoring account for progress as well.

Britannica goes Mobile!

With the announcement that Encyclopedia Britannica is ending it's print version and going digital, on comes the mobile apps.  Mobile apps are being created for edu use focused on popular subject area.

 I came across Brittanica Kids:  Rainforests which is free as of now.  Other topic areas include: knights, snakes, us presidents, volcanoes, ancient rome, etc.... Encyclopedia Britannica's Mobile Site takes you to a complete list, with more coming soon.  All priced from free (rainforest) to $4.99.

 Britannica Kids: Rainforest   **FREE**

I put this on my ipad and had fun looking at the article, with great vocabulary (linkable to the definition), games, video and picture resources, interactive maps, etc.  There are also a rainforest animal resources page which lists over 20 animals with an article about each.




Of course....Encyclopedia Britannica has a free app listed as well... but requires a $1.99 subscription per month for full privledges.  Always free is the this day in history or the most popular articles.  Within the articles it links to images that are scrollable and has a great web of related articles.  (See picture)

Take Photos with Earbuds

OK, so you are like everyone else when taking photos with a camera in that you have a hard time keeping the camera still.  Or, you want to use the iPhone and take a picture of yourself, but your arms are too short.  Here is a helpful tip.

Set the camera down and plug in your ear buds.  Yes, those earbuds have a button that when clicked will take a photo with the camera on your iPhone or iPad.  If you are on video mode, clicking the button will turn on and off the record action.

Note: you do need the earbuds with the built in microphone.

Follow Up to Photos on the iPad

As a follow up to last week's cadre here are a few more fun apps that use photos!

Redstamp - as simply described on the itunes website

    "Email, text, post, or paper mail personalized cards, notes, invitations + announcements effortlessly, right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch."


Lots of fun premade format choices on this free app!  


 
Want to make a collage?  Photo Wall Pro - Collage App    

**** no longer a free app *****
 
There is a lite version of this app - 
but pro is good if you can get it while it's free?

iDevice Cadre - 4Rivers April 16

Agenda

Cadre Starts promptly at 4:00.

Please Sign In Here

1. Welcome - Please remember to Sign In!
2. Install and Play Draw a Stickman
3. Basic iPad Camera Functions and Organizations
4. Pick a Project
• Create a Postcard
• Postcards! HD iPad
• Postcards! iPhone/iTouch
• Create a Personalized Photo Card
• RedStamp - iPad and iPhone Touch
• Create a Photo Story
• Story Kit - iPad and iPhone/iTouch
• Create a 360 Panoramic
• Photosynth - iPad and iPhone/iTouch
• Create a Comic
• Comic Touch Lite - iPad and iPhone/iTouch
5. Share Out - in small groups of 3-4
• What project/s you did and what you might use this app/project for down the road.
6. Extra Resource with Photos if there is time  : Try Faceswitch
• Are there any other Photo Apps to share from particpants?
7. Next Cadre:
• Wednesday, May 9th 4:00 to 5:30pm
• Registration is open for PadCamp Pendleton June 14th & July 24th
8. Announcement: FYI Google Summit in LaGrande May 19th

iDevice Cadre - Pendleton April 9th

iDevice Cadre Agenda - Pendleton - April 9th 

Cadre Starts promptly at 4:00.

Please Sign In Here

1. Welcome - Please remember to Sign In! 
2. Install and Play      Draw a Stickman  
3. Basic iPad Camera Functions and Organizations 
4. Apps for Photo Alteration
5. Pick a Project
• Create a Postcard
• Postcards! HD  iPad 
• Postcards!  iPhone/iTouch
• Create a Photo Story
• Story Kit - iPad and iPhone/iTouch 
• Create a 360 Panoramic
• Photosynth - iPad and iPhone/iTouch
• Create a Comic
• Comic Touch Lite - iPad and iPhone/iTouch
  
6. Share Out
• What project/s you did and what you might use this app/project for down the road. 
7. Other Resource for Photos 
8. Next Cadre:
• Wednesday, May 9th 4:00 to 5:30pm
• Registration is open for PadCamp Pendleton June 14th & July 24th
9. Announcement: FYI Google Summit in LaGrande May 19th

103 and counting.... ways to use the iPad in the Classroom

Tom Barrett from EDTE.CH created a fun google presentation called

 "103 Interesting Ways to use the iPad in the Classroom".  

Since I opened this in my google docs, it has continued to grow.  That is the awesome benefit of collaboration online.... allowing other users to add their ideas to the growing presentation. 

 When you have time, check it out, look through the slides, or even add to it!  And while you are at it, visit his blog and check out the other Interesting Ways to page to check out other online ideas! 

Pendleton iDevice Cadre for Monday April 9th Register Now!

Monday, April 9th from 4:00 - 5:30pm

Lodgepole-Ponderosa Room at Pendleton IMESD

REGISTRATION LINK 

We will be looking into using the camera and the many uses with still pictures.  

Come ready to take some pictures and tap into your creative side! 

A Tuesday Trick for the iPad

A little trick that my 5 year old found for me over break, funny how we learn new things.  

We've shown in a few iPad trainings that there are multitask gestures like sliding all 4 fingers up on your screen to reveal the multi-task bar. From there you can see all apps you have recently used, and if you swipe the bar to the right, it gives you brightness adjustment, volume control, and play/pause button. (See above picture)  This makes a fast swipe of the fingers to turn on and off your music, pause your audiobook, or move to the next podcast..... but if you are like me, your ipad goes to sleep while playing and if you have a passcode lock on your screen, to quickly pause your podcast can be a pain!

Like I said, my 5 year old showed me this.... of course he found it by accident by hitting the HOME BUTTON two times while the iPad was locked.  Notice in the picture above that I now have controls that have appeared for what you have playing.  Much faster and convenient and the screen is still locked!

Free Apps for World Autism Awareness Day

On most holidays or World ____ Days you will find a collection of paid apps that will be free in honor of the day.  So is true with today!  Make sure when you go to download it that it is still listed as free!

A $50 App for free.... today only.  Autism Track

This may not be an app for every educational professional but for those that do behavioral data tracking of children, this may be one to download while it's free and check it out!

Toca Store 

Another App that is free today is one of the Toca Boca apps that allows for children to play store on the ipad!  This would definitely be a pre-k to kinder level game, as the items only cost between 1 to 5.  This is for two players.

Memory Game: Addition 

Practice as a one player game, play against a friend in two player, or play against the computer!  Three levels of difficulty and NO ads!  

Normally a $.99 game - free today! 

and to finish up.... a estory book.

Hide Run Growl     

This is a storybook for pre-k to 1st grade level readers.  It has a "Read to Me" and a "Read it Myself" as well as games and activities to go along with the story.  Very cute storybook!