Endless Alphabet App

Endless Alphabet App created by the team at Originator, Inc. Available on iTunes for iPhone and iPad. $6.99

Annotation: Imagine: words like gargantuan and ruckus being easily tossed into everyday conversation by preschoolers. How could this be? Chalk it up to the positive influence of some silly vocabulary monsters in the Endless Alphabet app.

Summary: This is a cleverly designed interactive app which introduces letter sounds, spelling, and definitions of featured words. Over fifty vocabulary words are included with the app, and these are not typical beginner words like cat or dog. Instead, preschoolers are challenged with words such as demolish and bellow. As the scattered letters of the selected word are dragged to their proper place within the word, not only do they move and wiggle, but they produce their phonetic sounds.



Once the word has been completely filled in with its letters, the friendly monsters stampede past, cheering all the while, and then an animated short plays which demonstrates the definition of the vocabulary word.




Critical Evaluation: This app has been designed to move at the pace of each individual child. Navigation is intuitive, and children will move easily from the main menu where vocabulary words are selected to the individual word modules and back again. The animated monsters are eye-catching, and their antics while defining each word are extremely entertaining. The accompanying sound effects and music are not overpowering, and add an additional level of interactivity to the app.

While the app is priced higher than other similar educational games, I believe that the complexity of the learning experience make it worth the cost. Children not only will learn to recognize each letter, but will gain experience with the phonetic sounds of each, how the letters are put together to make words, and what the words mean, and all while having fun.

Originator has also released Endless Numbers, Endless Reader, and most recently, Endless Wordplay. These apps are wonderful tools to boost a child's reading and mathematical skills while developing a love of learning.

Age or Interest Level: Ages 3 to 5

Awards: 2013 App of the Year Runner-up ; App Store's Editor's Choice

Why Included? I purchased this app for my son a couple of years ago, and he really enjoyed making the words from the squiggly talking letters. An interactive app such as Endless Alphabet that can make learning so much fun is a valuable addition to any library's collection of resources.

Plants: a Science App

Plants App created by the team at Tinybop, Inc. Available on iTunes for iPhone and iPad. $2.99

Annotation: Imagine an open-ended digital world where you are in charge of not only the weather, pollination, flora and fauna, but also the passing of time. This cleverly designed app allows the participant to do just that, and learn a great deal about life cycles and the interconnected web of nature at the same time.

Summary: Second in the Explorers Library Series by Tinybop, this open-ended app presents three diorama-style biomes (forest, grassland, and desert) where touch screen capabilities enable the participant to interact with multiple aspects of the landscape, weather, flora and fauna, and time.

There is no instruction booklet, and as children explore the app, swiping here or tapping there, the discovery of a possible action invites further investigation. Pollination, weather events, decomposition, fire, and animal and plant life cycles can be initiated and better understood as each stage of the processes is illustrated.



Accompanying the visual depiction of the dioramas are labels which specify the names of the plants and animals. These labels are also interactive, and are available in over 50 languages. Natural sounds play in the background, but never at a distracting frequency or volume.



As updates are developed, Tinybop plans on releasing additional biomes and animal species to allow more complex natural worlds to emerge. Additionally, Tinybop has provided a free downloadable handbook for parents and educators who wish to encourage conversation about the outcomes in the Plants world.

Critical Evaluation: This science app has been designed to appeal to the natural inquisitiveness of children, and each participant's experience will be highly individualized. Many of the aspects of nature that are explored in Plants support STEM learning outcomes. This would be a valuable app to offer in a school or public library setting, particularly in conjunction with other materials focusing on life cycles and the interconnected structure of the natural world.

French illustrator Marie Caudry's drawings of the plants, landscapes, and animals are playful and attractive while remaining accurate. The many interactive details invite closer study and inspire wonder. Her palette changes with the time of day and with the seasons, but is consistently vibrant and richly hued.

The Plants app is priced very reasonably for the included content. The complexity of the learning experience, as well as the projected expansion of available biomes and animal species make it well worth the cost. Tinybop has released two other titles in the Explorer's Library Series: Human Body and Homes, which are available purchase as a bundle for even greater cost-effectiveness.

Age or Interest Level: Ages 6 to 8

Awards: ---

Why Included? Children's lives are often so structured by daily life in our society that it is not often that they are completely in charge. Plants gives them a chance to do things exactly as they want to, and then observe the results.