Free APP Friday TCEA Style

I can't tell you how excited I am that I get to write the post for Free App Friday and that it falls during the weeks that we are writing about things we learned at TCEA.  Why? Because this post is going to allow me to talk about some of my favorite things:  iPads, free things for the classroom, fun for students and most of all ... talking animals. In fact around our office, they are referred to as "my talking animals" because I love them so much.

Most of the animals found in the iPad Talking Friends Collection by Outfit7 are free!!  You may have to pay 99 cents here and there if you want them to wear "special" clothes or do "special" things.  There is a large family, too many to name, but after you download one you will be introduced to all of the family members.  There is Talking Tom (my favorite), Ben the Dog, Gina the Giraffe, Roby the Robot, Harry the Hedgehog, and Larry the Bird to name a few.

All of the animal apps have these features in common:

• speak and the animal repeats what you say by changing your voice
• tap on different parts of the screen to get different reactions
• record a 30 second video and upload it directly to YouTube, send it via email or text message 

Although I have used the apps extensively to have fun with family and friends, I grabbed some great classroom ideas from the Techchef4u ladies at TCEA.  I combined their ideas with some of my own below.  The coolest lesson they showed was a Math Facts Lesson that a teacher created after she read their blog.  So, I think you should take the time to visit the Techchef4u blog.....only after you read our blog.  : )

Classroom Integration Ideas:

• An animal friend can give instructions, introduce an activity or lesson objective
• An animal friend could give a shout out to a student or the class as a reward
• Students use the animal friends to demonstrate learning:  Solve word problems, vocabulary, fact families, word families.  Here is an example of students demonstrating their understanding of weather terms and data - Add Some Spice to Your Weather Study