Play and Learn Science

Play and Learn Science
By PBS Kids
Available as a free download from the App Store, Amazon, and Google Play.

This free app was the first ever winner of the award for Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media which recognizes distinguished apps for an early learning audience.

This app teaches basic science concepts to preschool and kindergarten age children with several different games and includes a "parents" side of the app with supplemental material and an explanation of core concepts learned in the games. This might all sound a little boring and school-y, but this app is seriously fun. For kids - it's fun, brightly colored, easy to use, and doesn't rely on text explanations as so many toddler apps confusingly do. One of my favorite games is called "Shadow Scenes" where kids can add things (like animals, plants, houses, etc.) to a landscape and watch how their shadows change over the course of a day. It's simple, it's effective, it's wonderfully educational.

Comments

Review: Faker

Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...

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