My Story

This app is a simple book creator app and is great for making multi-modal texts. Children can insert photographs, clipart, saved images. They can also record their voice and there are a range of mark making tools for them to write and record their ideas. Read more about introducing My Story on this post here.

Puppet Pals

This is a puppet show app and children can quickly create a story with characters and backgrounds in 3 simple steps. The app records their voice and playback is instant. Puppet shows export as videos to the iPad’s camera roll.

Puppet Pals is so versatile and can be used beyond story telling. It can support non-fiction, instruction texts, science and mathematics. Find out more about using Puppet Pals beyond story telling here.

Green Screen Movie FX, Morfo and iMovie
These apps are great for creating content on iPads making use of audio and visuals. I showcased the possibilities of these Apps when used with an iPad 2. You can read more about these on my blog here.

BeeBot

The beloved BeeBot which is common in most settings now has launched as a free App on iPad. The App works the same as the programmable toy, but progresses through a series of levels which increases the difficulty. After using the real toy, children can move back to the App to progress to the harder levels. Here are some more programming apps for early years. Read about computing in the early years here.

Toca Boca role play games

These are a series of great role play games than enhance talking and imaginative play beyond the screen.

Pocket Phonics

We enjoy this app as it is one of only a few which has a changeable font, the ability to increase/decrease the sensitivity of mark making for tracing letter shapes and it also voices our phonemes as we would following the Letters and Sounds guidance. The App also follows the Letters and Sounds phases and sets.

AlphaWriter

This App works like magnetic letters on a magnetic board. Child have access to all the graphemes and phonemes they will be taught across the phases and they simply scroll and select the ones they need to spell a word or sentence. It’s great because it can take a lot of time to set up your magnetic letters and then children might want to spell something you haven’t got the right digraphs or letters for, this app has everything ready for you. The authors of this app also has a letter formation app which allows you to record your own sounds for so your children hear the correct pronunciation. There’s a number and counting App from these guys too which is worth a look.

Sparkle Paint or Doodle Buddy.

This is simple mark making App which supports emergent writing just like any other mark making provision in our settings. The App creates a sparkly line as children trace their finger over the screens, this is accompanied by magical sounds too.

Apps for Topic Planning

Check out these featured collections of apps for themed learning:

Be sure to check out my Recommended Apps page for more apps to use in your setting and if you have purchased multiple iPads, read about enrolling to the Volume Purchase Program and using mobile device management here.

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Enabling Environments: iPads in the Early Years

This book has been designed to introduce you to iPads and how they can be used within Early Years. Marc Faulder is a practising Early Years teacher from Nottingham, UK. As an Apple Distinguished Educator, Marc offers practical advice in this book, with video tutorials and examples of children’s work straight from his classroom. The book guides you through a Portfolio of Changes, helping you to understand how each section can transform learning in your setting.