Starfall Gingerbread By Starfall Education - Review

This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad

• $0.99
• Category: Education
• Updated: Nov 20, 2011
• Version: 1.2
• Size: 10.0 MB
• Seller: Starfall Education, LLC
• © 2011 Starfall Education

Rated 4+

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS APP PLEASE DO SO VIA THIS LINK - iTunes

Starfall Gingerbread is a universal app from StarFall Education. It is based on a small piece of the award winning starfall.com website or the paid companion morestarfall.com. Like the website it is appropriate for children from preschool to 2nd grade. All of the activities created by Starfall are built on research proven teaching strategies that are designed to make learning fun and engaging.

This app is designed to teach the user about two and three dimensional shapes as well as early literacy skills through two activities. The first activity is called “Make Gingerbread”. Users create gingerbread cookies by reading or listening to the on screen text. Two and three dimensional shapes are used to create the eyes, nose and buttons. Then color can be added to each shape. After the gingerbread person is created, a one page story/poem/chat is read. During the reading the cookie that was just created acts out the reading while the text is being highlighted and scanned as it is spoken.

The second activity is titled “Shape Maze”. Each gingerbread cookie created is required to find its way through a maze of shapes by following the correct shape of shape pattern. It changes regularly so it can be repeated over and over again.
Like other Starfall apps there is a gallery present where users can store gingerbread cookies that have been previously created. The images in this gallery can be cleared by entering the Preferences.
In Preferences you are also able to customize setting for the following two areas; 1) Auto Read – Here users chose whether each page is read automatically when the screen is changed or the user needs to read themselves or click or on the “ear” to have the sentence read. 2) Customize Maze – You can determine if the “Shape Maze” creates a path with one shape or a repeating AB pattern.

This app is appropriate for the special needs population and can grow with the learner by customizing it through setting preferences. It teaches early maths and literacy skills in a fun and engaging manner. It does not contain a large variety of content but can be an inexpensive way to access Starfall’s award winning lessons without internet access. Because of its low cost, it just might be a perfect choice for the holiday season.

You can find out more information about Starfall by following these links.
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