Swipe! March April 2015

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Swipe! Issue 3: March/April 2015

This issue of Swipe! is focusing on WORDS. Words can be so powerful as they can heal or hurt….inform or deceive…..make us happy or sad. We rely on words to communicate our needs, hopes, fears, likes and dislikes all tied up in a neat little package of consonants and vowels, strung together like twinkling lights into hopefully meaningful sentences to get our message across to the listener. The English language is so complex with semantics, syntax, and pragmatics all changing depending upon who you are talk with, where you are talking, when you are talking and context of the conversation posing so many variables! It’s a wonder we even learn how to communicate at all, but somehow we do and all thanks to “words”.

March is a very long month with a lot of days to provide therapy, so I’ve created a “31 Days-31 Apps” March calendar. These are all apps that I’ve tried out or my colleagues have used and recommended. The apps chosen target and promote opportunities for verbalizations, vocabulary growth, grammar models/practice and meaningful discourse. Some of the apps you may already know and use, while others may not be familiar. Many are free and some are paid apps. So take a look at them, try out a few and hopefully you’ll find a new favorite.

Melissa-

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes can be truly endless.

Mother Theresa

Words are also actions, and act ions are a kind of words.

!Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

!Buddha

Words about Words

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Vocabulary is a key part of language acquisition. As a child grows, they understand and use more and more words. This happens at a very rapid rate. In typically developing children the rate can be up to 8 new words per day.

How exactly do children learn new vocabulary? One way is through 2 processes called “fast mapping” and “extended mapping”. Susan Carey and Elsa Bartlett in the 1970s and 1980s researched this area and coined these terms.

Fast mapping is the idea that children can learn a word based on a single exposure. They are 'fast' at picking the word up and figuring out how to use it. They hear the word once, create a map of where it is stored in the brain and it is there forever.

What about fast mapping abilities in children with language deficits? One study done by Dollaghan (1987) compared children with normal language to those with expressive syntactic deficits,. The study found that normal and language impaired children did not differ in their ability to connect the novel word to referent or to comprehend the novel word after a single exposure. The only difference was that the language-impaired children were less successful in their production of the novel word. This implies that expressive language deficits are unrelated to the ability to connect word and referent in a single exposure. The problem for children with those deficits arises only when trying to convert that mental representation into verbal speech.

A few researchers looked at fast mapping abilities in boys with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and boys with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). The experimental procedure consisted of a presentation phase where two objects were presented, one of which was a novel object with a nonsense word name. This was followed by a comprehension testing phase, which assessed the boys ability to remember and correctly select the novel objects. Boys with ASD and FXS demonstrated much more difficulty in comprehending and remembering names assigned to the novel objects. The authors concluded that initial processes involved in associative learning, such as fast mapping, are hindered in boys with FXS and ASD; McDuffie, A., Kover, S. T., Hagerman, R., & Abbeduto, L. (2013).

Lastly, an experiment was performed to assess fast mapping in adults with typical language abilities, disorders of spoken/written language (hDSWL), and adults with hDSWL and ADHD. The conclusion draw from the experiment revealed that adults with ADHD were the least accurate at "mapping semantic features and slower to respond to lexical labels." The article reasoned that the tasks of fast mapping requires high attentional demand and so "a lapse in attention could lead to diminished encoding of the new information” Mary, Alt; Michelle L. Gutmann (April 5, 2009).

As you can see, depending upon the type of disorder, different parts of the fast mapping process are effected…..difficulties converting mental representation to verbal speech or difficulty comprehending and remembering names of objects or slower at naming objects.

How Do We Learn New Vocabulary?

Fast Mapping

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The concept is pretty simple. A new word is heard and is fast mapped into the brain then over time the word is encountered in different contexts and more information is learned and attached to that word.

So how can we help to improve the vocabulary of our students? We can only directly access the meanings of words we already know. What this means is that the referents of new words can be verbally explained only in terms of old words. This can be done either explicitly, by presenting their definitions, or implicitly, by setting them in a context of old words that effectively constrains their meanings. (Adams, 1990, p. 205). The results of Boucher's (1986) study imply that students with poor vocabularies use the words they are taught as appropriately as students with rich vocabularies. Therefore, it appears that key to increasing vocabulary development is ensuring that students with poor vocabularies not only learn the meaning of words, but have the opportunity to use them frequently.

On the next page there is a “Weekly Oral Language Activity” checklist that was used by a SLP when she was asked to provide consultation services for a few students who were having a difficult time with classroom vocabulary.

The SLP gave one of each of these sheets to the teacher for the 3 students who where struggling and then collected them at the end of each week for a total of 9 weeks. At the end of that time, the SLP and the teacher met and analyzed the weekly sheets. What they found was that 2 of 3 students were having a difficult time verbalizing and spelling the target vocabulary words rather than describing them or actually defining them.

Extended Mapping

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RTI – Teacher Intervention: Weekly Oral Language Activities

Student Name: ________________________________ Date: ___________________

£ Monday – Naming 1. Naming objects related to a topic 2. Naming people related to a topic 3. Naming objects related by categories 4. Naming parts or objects related to topic by attributes

£ Tuesday – More Naming (Review/Extend) 1. Naming similar objects 2. Naming objects associated in some way 3. Verbally describing more detailed associations with this object

£ Wednesday – Describing (2-3 objects/pictures) Naming category, class or group, function 1. Who might use the object? 2. How would they use the object? 3. Where might I find this object? Where would I got to buy it? 4. Attributes: describe the color, size, shape, texture, taste, etc. 5. Compare: How is this object different from similar objects in the same class?

£ Thursday –Things to Think About 1. Counting syllables 2. General Knowledge

£ Friday – Critical Thinking Using Relationships 1. How do these 2 words go together? 2. List synonyms for these words. 3. List antonyms of these words.

£ Try to incorporate the new vocabulary during entire school day.

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What else helps to improve vocabulary? Roots and Affixes!!!

I came across this Word Vine game the other day and thought it would be a great way to enhance new vocabulary. A group of my 5th graders played it and actually liked it! You can grab it here: Word Vine Game

Suffixes 16 suffixes account for 87% of suffixed words -s/-es, -ed, -ing (65%) -ly, -er/-or, -ion/-tion, -able/-ible, -al, -y, -ness, -ity, -ment (22 %)

Prefixes Deserve Instruction Too! 20 most common prefixes account for 97% of all prefixed words: un-[not], re- [back, again], in- (im-, il-, ir-) [not] dis- [not; apart] (58%) en-/em- [in], non- [not], in-/im- [in], over- [above, more], mis- [not], sub [under], pre- [before], inter- [between], fore-[ in front], de- [away, from], trans- [across], super- [more than], semi- [half], anti- [against], mid- [middle], under- [below, less] com-/con-/col-/cor- [together, with] (39%)

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March 1st

Heads Up App - .99 This, my friends may be the best way to squeeze a whole lot of entertainment out of .99 cents that has come along in awhile! If you’ve watched the Ellen Show then you’ll know how much fun playing this game can be. From naming celebrities, to singing, to silly accents -- guess the word on the card on the iPad (that’s held up in front of your head) from your friends' clues before the timer runs out! Play one of the many exciting categories, or create a category all your own! Features: - Play with one friend, or one hundred at the same time. - Draw a new card simply by tilting your phone. - Keep videos of your hilarious game play for your own amusement, or share them right to Facebook. - Diverse categories let you challenge your smarty-pants friends and entertain your kids for hours, all from one app! With 18 themed decks packed to the brim with exciting gameplay cards, the fun will never stop! Each additional deck is .99 cents.

Language therapy connection: This app is great for giving students practice in using descriptive words and thinking quickly because of the time constraint. I’ve even used with struggling readers as I just whisper the word to the student when they are playing in pairs.

Artic connection: Use this with students who are at the self monitoring/conversational level for their target artic sound. It taxes their artic due to the time constraint and their excitement level.

You can even buy the “Build Your Own Deck” for .99 cents and customize it with vocabulary students are working on. I made one with action verbs the other day and the kids had a ball with it!

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March 2nd

World’s Worst Pet - Vocabulary – free

Students will stay motivated through great game play, as this app is a take on the ever popular Cut the Rope. That, combined with sharp knives, scary spiders, old attics, toxic dumps and so much more, kids LOVE it! Word definitions are learned in several different ways and the player(s) needs to be on their toes. This game is quick paced and formats change quickly. Snargg, the dog – otherwise know as the worst pet ever – traverses through all kinds of sticky situations, while words and phrases are matched by differing categories. Ten dog bowls need to be filled by playing four different games, each bowl represents a new group of words. The games are set up as a fill-in-the-blank or stack the pulley scenario, synonym and antonym identification, and word definition. The answers are not always obvious and some deeper thinking is required to progress. A great Try Again box appears when a mistake is made reminding students of the task and giving a definition of the word. And no fun tweaks for getting the wrong answer! Pupcakes are earned along the way as a fun incentive with the goal being to fill all of the dog bowls, as well as earning Badges along the way. This app is stacked with 1100 vocabulary words and six levels, geared for grades four through eight. All the words are in line with what kids should know for reading on level literary and informational text and they appear several times in each lesson to reinforce meaning. Each lesson concludes with a thought-provoking writing prompt teachers can assign their students. RESEARCH BASED World’s Worst Pet leverages best practices from Reading research • Targets Tier Two words, selected from research-based lists. • Also targets domain-specific words, including science and social studies words. • Teaches words in conceptually related clusters • Provides clear student-friendly explanations • Provides multiple exposures and repeated practice across a variety of contexts • Helps students make multiple connections between words and their experiences. • Explores word relationships, including synonyms and antonyms • Includes writing prompts focused on the target words in each cluster

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March 3rd

Marco Polo Ocean App - $1.99 Marco Polo Ocean is a state of the art 3D undersea adventure that promotes exciting exploration and discovery through gorgeous graphics for the younger set. This app has what it takes to grab a child and foster their curiosity, which in turn adds intrinsic motivation and hours of playful learning! The student chooses from five different activities, all geared for self-discovery about the ocean and its unique environment. Make dolphins jump. Build a coral reef. Explore the deep

sea. Create your own aquarium. These are just some of the fun things you can do with MarcoPolo Ocean, a “digital sandbox” for kids to play in that sparks their interest in the most unexplored part of our planet – the ocean. Build and Explore Five build-and-play activities bring the language and the images of the ocean to life. Ocean is playfully narrated and

animated to reinforce vocabulary, physical attributes and the following ocean concepts: Coral Reef , Marine Mammals , Fish , Boats, Submersible.

What can students do with this app? First kids can build a coral reef and then freely navigate around it at varying depths. This allows for lots of free play and conversation about what’s going on in the scene. Next up is a puzzle like activity to build a herring and learn specifics about this fish and a bit about eight other fish throughout the goings-on. Same with an orca whale. From there, the expedition focuses on a large ship and all of its varied spaces with the different attributes for different functions….again a great time to use and reinforce the loads of new vocabulary and the use of verbs. Children can motor about the ocean with the boat that they built. The submarine is the last selection, which is much the same as the boat building and incorporates some very cool window treatments. And of course the sub gets to explore the underwater world and all of its diversity.

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Marco Polo Ocean App

Review of the Marco Polo Ocean App: Part One Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmkqdIm0G1E Part Two Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xI3cPjmLs0

Best Part: These educational app developers included a guide for parents (or teachers) to explore the ocean topic further by recommending great books and ideas for wonderful activities to extend the screen time. Parents are encouraged to explore the science of the sink or float concept, go on a field trip to an aquarium or the shore or even to a pet store.

Speech & Language Therapy Connection: This app can be used in a variety of ways for both expressive and receptive language skills. As you all know I like to use both manipulatives along with the app to slow down the student, give an opportunity for verbalizations and to give a little wait time to let the concept or vocabulary word sink in. I made parts of the boat cards along with the words for them. You can grab them here: http://tinyurl.com/knzpxww

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March 4th

March 5th

Winning Words – Antonym Match - free

The object of the game is to reveal pairs of Antonyms by turning over the cards. HIGHLIGHTS: * Choose from three levels of difficulty. * Choice of four different game boards. * The game can be enjoyed by up to four players at a time on the same device or you can play on your own. Playing this game is the perfect way to increase vocabulary development, reading, spelling and concentration.

Winning Words – Singular & Plural Match – free

The object of the game is to match the singular and plural form of a word.

HIGHLIGHTS: - Choose from three levels of difficulty. - Choice of four different game boards. - The game can be enjoyed by up to four players at a time on the same device or you can play on your own.

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March 6th

Idiom Stories - $1.99

Laugh out loud while you learn important and essential English Language idioms. Created by teachers and tested by students, this app offers maximum fun with hilarious illustrations and lots of jokes! Play this Idiom Stories game to quickly learn and enjoy knowing the most important English idioms for TOEFL, English Language proficiency tests such as Cambridge, CAEL, ELPT and IELPT.

Idioms can be very difficult to teach and for students to retain. I like this app because it puts the idiom in the context of a story and gives choices for the meaning of it. If the student chooses the wrong answer, the meaning is then given. Most apps and books which teach idioms give the most absured pictues to show the concrete meaning, wrong meaning of them instead of the correct meaning, but this app puts them into context which is a good thing for students that have not had a lot of experience with idioms.

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March 7th

Chatterpix Kids - free

Grab your camera! Let’s ChatterPix! Chatterpix Kids can make anything talk -- pets, friends, doodles, and more. Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. And best of all, it’s FREE!

This app really get’s the hesitant speaking talking! Here are some ideas: 1. Animate characters in a book to retell part of the story. 2. Animate objects such as a cup to tell the steps of how to make hot chocolate. 3. Animate seasonal objects to celebrate holidays or special occasions. 4. Give a historical figure a voice. While still an enjoyable activity, using ChatterPix to put

‘researched’ words into the mouths of historical figures or famous faces has a little more educational merit than making a cupcake sing. Try tasking your students with researching a well known figure for a particular topic or area of study in your classroom. Then, as part of their research they can deliver notable quotes, poems or phrases from the individual using ChatterPix. This is also great for students to practice their articulation targets. 5. Put some personality into a student’s own artwork. Each student painted their own self portrait and used the app to have their portrait speak a few words about the method used to create the piece. A further step that could work well if parents are invited to view the gallery would be to link each ChatterPix animation to QR codes, so that parents can use their own devices as they browse the

gallery. 6. Ask some questions! Have a character ask 3 questions about the story. 7. Describe a function. Have an object describe their function.

This video shows you how to take several Chatterpixs your student create and put them into one video by “appsmashing” (using 2 apps to make one project). The app “Perfect Video” which is free is used with the Chatterpix Kids app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZHp0UzjY8

Chatterpix Kids Pinterest Board: https://www.pinterest.com/duckmoose/chatterpix/

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March 8th

Grammar Quiz K-5 - free

This app is a fun and effective learning tool for kids to learn grammar. Perfect for your K-5 student! - Challenge your child to reach a target score. You can check back later to view his/her latest result, as well as the overall score. Review mistakes together with your child. Review all attempted questions at once and reinforce the learning. Compete with friends and family for the best grammar score! Grammar Quiz has been developed by professional educators to improve children’s grammatical understanding through multiple choice challenges. In

order to reinforce classroom learning, it is important that young students continue their grammar development away from school. Children who come to class prepared are more likely to succeed.

This app is good for a little bit of skill and drill or assessment after therapy targeting grammatical structures. It’s not one I’d use a whole lot but it does have its use every now and then.

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March 9th

Phrasalstein - free

Phrasalstein is the definitive app to help you lose your fear of the horrifying phrasal verbs once and for all. The star of this app is Doctor Phrasalstein who, with the help of his friends, will teach us 100 phrasal verbs using animations inspired by the classic “horror movie” genre, with a touch of humor and irony. Frequently, phrasal verbs have more than one meaning. For the examples we’ve selected, we’ve used the most common and well-known meaning for some while going with the more obscure meaning for others. In any case, you’ll always find an example sentence in English as well as other meanings whenever they are useful or necessary.

The graphics and animation are very cool in this app. The students really like it. I have them tell me what they think the phrase means and we talk about additional meanings before they play the animation and see the definition. I then have them use the phrase in a sentence they make up themselves.

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March 10th

Let’s Name Things Fun Deck - free

This colorful, educational vocabulary App for the iPhone®, iPad®, and iPod touch® has all 52 illustrated picture flash cards (plus audio of each card text) from the Let's Name Things Fun Deck® by Super Duper® Publications. Select the cards you want students to see, and have them name items to practice vocabulary, categorizing, and thinking skills. The prompts include statements like, “Let’s name… things that live in the ocean.”

Imagistory – free with in app purchases

Bring your child's imagination to life with Imagistory! A wordless picture book app that encourages anyone to be the storyteller, no matter what your age or language. Designed for children aged 3 and up, the idea behind the app is simple, using wordless picture books it's up to you and your child to use your imaginations to create a story with the pictures. The stories you create can be recorded and saved so you can listen to them again later and share

them with loved ones. Imagistory provides an entirely new reading experience, not only is it very fun and easy to use, it's also highly educational! Helping foster creativity, imagination and to develop language and early literacy skills. Kids have the wildest imaginations and are already natural storytellers, so help them discover this and unleash their storytelling potential! There are currently 6 wordless stories to choose from in the app with many more on the way, the first two are free and new stories are only $2 USD each!

March 11th

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March 12th

Word Stack - free

Stack and match words that are associated to each other! Words can be synonyms. Words can be antonyms. Words can be compound. Words just have to be related!

This app is appropriate for older students as it requires higher level thinking. I am personally kind of hooked on it!

March 13th

4 Pics 1 Word - free

You are given 4 pictures that have 1 word in common and you have to decide what it is! This is nice quick little game to improve categorization skills.

March 14th

Futaba – lite & $2.99

Futaba is a multiplayer educational gaming app that can support up 4 players at a time. This outrageously fun word quiz game can be used at home or in the classroom as a entertaining way to build language skills. You can even design your own games with the $2.99 version but using your own pictures. It's ideal for supporting class room activities of all types. The idea is simple; Each player takes a seat around the iPad and taps in to start. The game begins as images zoom into the playing area. The first player to match the word (given the choice of 4 words) to the image scores a point. Win 3 rounds and you'll be awarded a giant friendly seedling (this is because Futaba is the Japanese word for seedling).

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Futaba App Continued……

My students love this game! What’s really nice is that this app comes with a bunch of preloaded games such as: learning letters, currency, time, basic number patterns, animals, 50 US States, shapes, site words (K through 3rd grade), sums not greater than 10, synonyms, phonics, etc. You can search by subject, grade and level. The ability to create and customize your own games for your students is really nice too. One drawback is that your kids have to be readers. It would be nice if the question choices where pictures….perhaps this will occur in future updates.

Brief Video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49fwQdv7RQ

Go here to download the Futaba User Guide in iBooks: http://www.inkidseducation.com/futaba/

Steps to create your own game: 1. First create a new “set” (see picture below) and give it a name.

2. Choose “image based” or “text based” question. 3. Type your questions and preview how it looks. 4. Select an image from the camera roll or take a picture. 5. Add your correct answer and optional incorrect answers and see s preview of questions you’ve typed.

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March 15th - half way there!

March 16th

WH Expert 2 - $3.99

WH Expert 2 helps kids who have trouble with reading comprehension. The app targets one of the basic building blocks of comprehension: understanding how parts of a sentence combine to add meaning. WH Expert 2 is targeted to children in Grade 2 and above who can read the words (decode), but don't understand what they read. Key Features: Builds comprehension skills step-by-step until mastery. Incremental learning. New levels are unlocked only when your child is ready. It can be used independently (just hand it over, your child will know what to do) or with a therapist or teacher. The guided learning provides for less frustration. The child will always arrive at the correct answer. There is a built in fun and engaging Reward Center to increase motivation. The kids love the silly sentences and it keeps learning from being boring! Advanced levels include timers to ensure fluency. Detailed reporting for up to 10 students to meet the needs of teachers, therapists and parents.

Curious Words - $1.99 Curious Words is a visual storytelling app. Random words stimulate the child to explore the world around them, illustrating such words with what they see. Instead of drawing the word with a still picture, they can shoot a one second video – just the right length to capture a gesture, a movement, a

shadow, or a smile. A final movie is assembled with voice over and music once the child has “illustrated” up to 12 words. The final results are unique mini films that capture the way a child sees the world.

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March 17th - Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Word Mover - free

Word Mover allows children and teens to create "found poetry" by choosing from word banks and existing famous works; additionally, users can add new words to create a piece of poetry by moving/manipulating the text. It allows for multi-user poem storage and user management with the ability to delete or restore within 2 weeks . There are 6 poem categories, each with the ability to personalize and 12 backgrounds for stylizing poems. Helpful how-to information is available throughout app along with auto-saving of poems as

they are created. You can view the finished poem for proofreading and you have the ability to save the poem to the photo roll. You can also print the poem on a wireless printer or send it by e-mail.

Although this app is designed for creating poetry, I use it for teaching syntax for putting together complete sentences. I’ve also used it for teaching words with multiple meanings by creating 2 different sentences, mixing up the words and having the student put the words in order so they make sense. I have a friend who uses it to teach how to formulate questions two different ways using the same mixed up words. The thing I like about this app is that you can customize it and add your own words.

March 18th

Phrasal Verbs Machine - free

The Amazing Phraso, the phrasal verb expert has created this app to help students visualize the phrase. In this application, we can find animated illustrations of 100 phrasal verbs set in the circus world of our main character Phraso and his friends. -Frequently, phrasal verbs can have more than one meaning. In the examples chosen, you can sometimes find the most common and well-known meaning while other times more obscure ones are used. In any case, you can always find an example sentence in English and the translation into five different languages. Other meanings are also included when they are useful or necessary to fully understand the phrasal verb.

Nice animated graphics!

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March 19th

March 20th

The Real Vocabulary App - lite is free; $29.99 for Pro

This a comprehensive and flexible language program for kindergarten-5th grade students targeting core curriculum vocabulary*. The Real Vocabulary app includes over 1500 pictures and over 5000 pre-recorded audio. The pro version of the app and the All Words in - app program allow the users to add their own words, pictures and audio recordings, making therapy more individualized and allowing school speech therapists to add their own curriculum based vocabulary. The app offers both

receptive and expressive tasks in the following categories: antonyms, synonyms, definitions, words with multiple meanings and idioms. Students will be motivated to learn and practice thousands of words since they will be rewarded with three different games: Wobbly Waiter, Sling Challenge, Catch the Dish.

Word To Word – free Challenge yourself with this fun and addictive free word association game. If you love crossword, word search, or hangman, you will love this new twist on word association. Match words that can be opposites, mean the same thing, compound words or just related! As puzzles get harder, a word can have multiple matches and associations so you'll

have to get the right combination of words to complete each puzzle and solve all the pairs. Word to Word comes with 40 free puzzles, and you also have the option to buy more puzzle packs, mega-packs, or buying all the puzzles for one low price.

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March 21st

With YAKiT Kids, take any picture and make it talk! Let your kids take pictures of you, siblings, friends or even pets, let them add some audio and expressive animated stickers - including facial features, props, characters, and special effects. If more than one person is yaking , no worries you can add more than one audio! Once done, watch it all together! Your kids will have fun and

boost their creativity. All newly created video are saved on your device and can be shared. This app is much like the Chatterkids apps and you can use it in the same way in therapy, however this app takes it a step further and allows you to include facial features stickers, props and special effects.

March 22nd

The Word Creativity Kit - $2.99 The Word Creativity Kit offers users a playground to make creations with words, colors, designs and pictures. Limited only by their imaginations and vision, users make virtual books that can serve as journals, notebooks, or canvases to be shared with others. Features include: • 7 categories of words or add your own • Manipulate fonts, colors, backgrounds, designs and

pictures • Place words anywhere on the page, change the angle, or resize • Includes over 4500 words Save as many books as you wish

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Definitionado - free

What is a Definitionado? It’s a noun - [def-uh-nish-un-ah-doh] which is a person who knows fun and interesting definitions. Use your sharp intellect and knowledge of word meanings, idioms, riddles, and trivia to solve these fun puzzles!

March 23rd

March 24th

Marco Polo Weather - $1.99 and lite Three little anthropomorphic creatures, bunny Willow, bear Scout, and “hippo” Gorbie, teach kids about weather through free-play in this app. Icons at the top of the screen allow you to control weather, temperature, and day/night for the meadow where the critters play. By adjusting these factors, you create a wide range of conditions to which the animals and their environment respond. A toolbar of the three characters plus their clothing and food appears at the bottom of the screen. This toolbar also adapts to the current conditions by offering warmer clothing options in colder temperatures, a flashlight at night, or an

umbrella in the rain. The animals’ reactions to the weather vary based on which character you are playing and whether or not they are appropriately dressed/accessorized: they shiver when underdressed for the cold or sweat when bundled up in the heat. The characters can also participate in seasonal activities like throwing snowballs or flying a kite. Similarly, the environment and the objects you place into it show the effects of the weather. Place flowers into the meadow and rain on them to make them bloom; turn up the heat to make your winter-weather snowmen and igloo melt; watch a pinwheel spin faster when the wind blows harder. Small animals (owl, songbird, skunk, squirrel, etc.) in the habitat come and go according to the time of day and the season. A voiceover offers basic information on the meteorological conditions and how they are measured. This is a great little app to use with younger kids (preschool through 1st grade). It allows for a lot of opportunities to discuss weather vocabulary, the use of action verbs and cause and effect. Check out the video of the app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GOqq7zA0s

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March 25th

SparkleFish - Free

SparkleFish is a hilarious audio story completion game that will have you laughing uncontrollably. It inspires kids to think creatively and helps them learn parts of speech as well. The first story entitled “The Cold Remedy” is free. There are 4 additional stories for $1.99 each or all four for $3.99. With SparkleFish you can record creative words in your own voice for playback inside surprising, ad-lib stories. If you

enjoy Mad Libs, then you’ll really love SparkleFish. It’s fun for all ages, species, individuals, groups, etc. FEATURES: * Record your voice to complete each story * Comes with 5 stories for free * Save your recordings and listen to them later * Buy "story packs" (each with 5 stories) for more fun! * Record the stories as many times as you'd like. * Great for Teachers, SLPs, and Occupational Therapists * Also great for people who just like being silly

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March 26th

Bluster – free to $1.99 per pack

This word matching game develops vocabulary and word understanding for school-aged children, or anyone brave enough to battle the elements. Shine bright in single-player mode as you learn and practice important word skills. Match rhyming words, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, and more.

Collaborate with a friend in team mode. The multi-touch iPad screen allows both players to play simultaneously, so you can work together to weather the vocabulary storm. Switch to versus mode and play head-to-head for the ultimate test of your lightning quickness. Disrupt your opponent with weather attacks like tornadoes and blizzards - it’s thunderous fun and

just might give you the edge you need to reign supreme!

Bluster includes over 800 vocabulary words. Players choose a skill to practice and then try to make matches of three. Ten matches wins a round.

Features: • Three different play modes - including two-player action. • A variety of grade level appropriate content. • Engaging animated gameplay with sound effects. • Head-to-head and High Scores tables. • Plays on the iPad in both landscape and portrait mode. • In app purchases for additional vocabulary, $1.99 per pack.

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March 27th

Timbuktu Pizza – lite version for free & $3.99 for full version

Learn how to make a real Italian pizza and become a real Pizza Chef! Choose between 3 classic Italian pizzas! Serve the pizza you create to Eegor the monster and see if he likes it! Win a Pizza Chef certificate with your picture! The features on the free version include 3 classic Italian pizzas made with 14 deliciously healthy ingredients! There is a an easy to use kid-friendly interface with fantastic original artwork and music. If you do not follow the recipe correctly, Eegor will throw the pizza at you!

Once the kids have mastered the pizzas, the app can be upgraded to the full app with 10 classic pizzas and 16 ingredients for $3.99. There is plenty of content available with the free version to keep kids entertained while feeding Eegor their pizza creations.

There are so many ways to use this app in therapy and one way is auditory memory. Read the ingredients to the student and see how many things they can remember. Depending on the ability of the student, have them remember a few of the items and build up to whole list. With only five or six ingredients it is possible for a student to develop and improve their auditory memory. To add to the challenge have the student recall the items in order. Vocabulary for cooking can also be I also use this app for students to practice requesting items.

I created these ingredient recipe cards for this app. These are actual screen shots of the recipes from the app. Just print them out, laminate and cut them out. Having the menu right in front of the student helps to focus visual attention, plus the student doesn’t have to keep swiping down the ingredients recipe.

You can grab these recipe cards here: http://tinyurl.com/peryyku

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Extending the Timbuktu Pizza App……….

There are times when I like to extend the activity beyond the app or tie it onto the app. I created these cards using Symbol Stix pictures of different pizza toppings and verbs to go with other language activities such as using “he/she”,

requesting, telling the steps to making a pizza and layering the toppings, giving directions to each other, categorizing toppings, etc.

You can grab this collection of tasty pizza toppings here to print out:

http://tinyurl.com/kn4mksy

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March 28th

March 29th

The Bag Game - $1.99

Bag Game is an interactive app for iPad and other iDevices (iPhone, iPod) that brings the game of “20 Questions” to the iPad format. Using Bag Game (the folks at all4mychild emphasize that it is a social game that can’t be played alone) children can choose an object from various categories, hide it “in a bag” and engage in a clue-giving/guessing process with another child or you as the therapist. Question prompts are provided (e.g. “Is it in the ___ group?”) that also function as a question/clue tally and gear the game toward the use of Yes/No questions. However, this activity can easily be modified to target use of key semantic attributes, with the “hider” providing clues about category, function, location, associations, and appearance to a communication partner. Guessing games of this type address a number of objectives, including semantics, listening, question formation, turn-taking and other social-pragmatic skills.

Grammaropolis – free noun version; $1.99 to $12.99

Grammaropolis (full version) is a teaching and practice tool to help students learn the parts of speech. The Nouns section is free, and the other seven parts of speech are available as separate in-app purchases of $1.99 each or $12.99 for the entire set. Each section includes explanatory videos and interactive books as well as brief multiple choice activities and two quizzes.

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Chicken Little with WordWinks and Retell, Record – $3.99

(MCESC SLPs & teachers - email Andrew and request one, we purchased many of these when they were on Free App Friday. He will push the app out to you.) * WordWinks technique weaves onscreen questions and comments into the story to maximize vocabulary, comprehension and listening skills * Retell, Record & Share: -Give your child a special gift: “retelling” the story is important practice for developing listening and speaking skills. It offers a chance to learn and utilize new vocabulary…put ideas in order so they make sense…identify important details…and build memory -Help your child record his or her own version of the story and share it with Grandma and other loved ones, teachers and friends…right from the app! * Pages cannot be turned until the child hears the entire narration, which promotes listening and comprehension skills * There is built-in narration with entertaining character voices.

March 31st

March 30th

Mad Libs – free

This app is played just like the paper and pencil Mad Libs!

21 free Mad Libs stories with new free content added all the time.

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Here is a partial look at the March calendar. Click on the link below to download the complete calendar with hyperlinks on each picture straight to the iTunes store.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_7HLVQM-7EucmpQLUQ5XzRQVWc/view?usp=sharing

March 31 Days – 31 Apps 2015

Apps to improve semantics & syntax !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"##$!%&'!(&''!)*+'$$!*,-'.!/0-1!-1'!#&02'!!

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 Heads Up - .99 2 World’s Worst Pet Vocabulary

3 Marco Polo Ocean - $1.99

4 Winning Words Antonym Match

5 Winning Words Singular & Plural

6 Idiom Stories $1.99

7 Chatterkids

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8 Grammar Quiz 9 Phrasalstein 10 Let’s Name Things Fun Deck

11 Imagistory 12 Stack 13 4 pics 1 word 14 Futaba "#$%!&!'()**!

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M.Ustik ©2015

That’s all folks for this addition of Swipe! Hope you enjoyed it! M- [email protected]

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Swipe! March April 2015