Shiny Picnic
© 2013 Shiny Things
Three well designed activities with limited content are embedded in a simple story, creating a playful logic and language experience. From the main menu, you can choose from two modes: Story and Game. In the story mode, you follow Charlie the Monkey and his friends as they get ready for a picnic, by gathering food items to put in a picnic basket. The games are well designed, providing a context where children can play with one-to-one correspondence, matching, noticing attributes and using a simple grid. Playing the games earns a sticker, but progress can't be saved or bookmarked. The text has touch-and-hear scaffolding, increasing the literacy value of the experience. It's hard to go wrong with this app. Need to know: Past progress is not remembered in the games, you can't control background music, and the narration has an Australian accent (this app was published by a studio in Australia). All external links are behind a parent gate. For $1.99 this app is well worth the download.
$1.99, iPad
Teaches: math, classification, sorting, logic, reading
CTR Rating: 86%