Story Patch

Story Patch

Category: Education

StoryPatch is a great app which makes story writing fun for younger children and reluctant readers.  This app provides prompts and choices allowing the child to see the process of story writing.  You can then take advantage of the creative functions such as adding images, backgrounds, making your own character or adding your own images.  The stories can then be saved and read later.

http://storypatch.com/

Apply to Learning:

This a fun way to develop literacy skills by making decisions about the story.  Children can then personalise their creation by adding visual images which best reflect the story.

Talking WeeMee

Talking WeeMee

Category: Entertainment

Created by WeeWorld

I have always loved WeeMees.  I like the design of them and all the accessories and choices you have.  So I was very excited when I came across this app.  You can now bring your WeeMees to life and add voice to create videos.

You can select how you want your voice to sound.

You can use WeeMees which have already been generated or you can import your own from the WeeMee Avatar Creator app, this allows you to personalise your video.

You can also select a background for your Talking WeeMee.

You can record your voice by selecting the Film Camera icon.  There are also a few animations you can choose from.

Once you have recorded you can save the video.



Apply to Learning:

This is a fun app to play with.  The great thing about Talking WeeMee is you can select the character you want to talk.  You can personalise the video.  This makes it great for creating messages, imagine a virtual gift card where you have created a WeeMee of yourself singing Happy Birthday.  It is also great for storytelling, giving instructions and practicing speaking.  Teachers could create one which represents themselves and play it at the beginning of the lesson to engage students.  For more ideas got to Avatars and Talking Characters.

Sock Puppets

Sock Puppets

Category: Entertainment

Designed for iPhone and iPad

Sock Puppets is a fun app which allows you to create talking animations.  First you select the character which are sock puppets, you can then select background and then add props.  As you record you can move the character and record your voice.  The animations can be saved.

Apply to Learning:

By recording your voice you can create stories, role play or read stories.  This is a great way to practice speaking and understanding the concept of characters and settings.

Animal Creator

Animal Creator Lite

Animal Creator

Category: Entertainment

This app allows you to create creatures by adding sections of different animals together.  The image is divided into four and you can select a different animal for each quarter.  You can then colour the creature, add it to a background and save the image.  A name for the creature is also generated.

Apply to learning:

This app can be used as a stimulus activity for further art projects or story writing.

WeeMee Avatar Creator

WeeMee Avatar Creator

Category: Social Networking

This app allows you to create great WeeMee avatars similar to the WeeWorld site.  This can be used on iphone, ipod and ipad.  It is easy to using the swiping action until you have made your selection.  You can purchase further closet choices and some are provided free.

Apply to learning:

You can create avatars of yourself, characters for stories, reflect a particular colour, use characters for descriptions.  The great thing about this particular avatar maker is the range of accessories.  You can create characters and reflect their personality through the accessories you select.