Teachers` Guide - Cupcake Digital

 Teachers’ Guide About Cupcake Digital Apps Cupcake Digital is dedicated to developing engaging, high-­‐quality apps for preschool, kindergarten and early elementary aged children. We believe young children can have an enriching experience with tablet technology when an app is designed to help them learn while they play. Our apps are lovingly crafted to feature fun stories, educational activities, playful interactions and creative opportunities. We also believe that what kids learn while interacting with apps should be practiced offline to further the teaching value, so we provide easily accessible, downloadable activity sheets on our website. Cupcake Digital's apps and companion worksheets have been educator-­‐vetted to ensure the learning activities address specific Common Core State Standards (CCSS). For bilingual instruction, we also offer some of our popular apps in Spanish to jump-­‐start the learning of a new language. This Teachers’ Guide was created to assist you in talking to kids and parents about the best way to incorporate apps into their learning. Kindergarten Preparation: Cupcake Digital focuses on designing apps for children ages 4 and up, with their developmental needs in mind. Educational games, activities and questions within these apps are designed to foster pre-­‐kindergarten and kindergarten skills. Each app also includes a Grown-­‐Up’s Corner and a Common Core Corner, highlighting Common Core State Standards (CCSS) within the app, designed to help parents prepare their children for school. •
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Grown-­‐Up’s Corner: This featured page in Cupcake Digital’s enhanced story apps is designed to help parents have a conversation with their kids about what they read in the app. Questions are open-­‐ended to encourage children to think and explain their responses. This section supports standards for English Language Arts (ELA) as it explores story elements to prompt children to think and respond to character and setting questions as well as sequence events of the story. Common Core Corner: This page indicates the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) being addressed within the app. Cupcake Digital is dedicated to creating a wide variety of games designed to meet many kindergarten standards. Vocabulary Development: The language in Cupcake Digital’s apps is playful, age-­‐appropriate, and challenging enough to aid in expanding a young child’s vocabulary. The wording used in the instructions for each activity is meant to be clear for young children to navigate on their own. Many Cupcake Digital games say and repeat number and sight words. They also include labels to give children many opportunities to see and hear language. Cupcake Digital has also added the narration of color options on the coloring page feature as an easy way for children to learn to recognize their colors. ELA Games: Children can practice a variety of skills such as letter and word writing, working with initial letters and sounds, rhyming words and sight words while using them in each app. Most of Cupcake Digital’s apps include at least one ELA game while many include several. •
Math Games: These games are designed to encourage children to count, read, represent and understand quantities. Children can practice plane and solid shape names, sorting, completing patterns, and puzzles. Offline activities Cupcake Digital provides free downloadable worksheets to extend what has been learned within an app to offline practice. These activities are available on CupcakeDigital.com in the Education Corner. For example, in Fraggle Friends Forever, an app that brings to life the wonderful world of Fraggle Rock, kids can help guide one of the cute Fraggle Rock friends through a radish patch maze. The corresponding offline activity, kids are able to cut out radishes and use them for addition and subtraction problems. In Animal Planet Hide & Seek Pets, kids interact with playful household pets and engage in various games and learning activities. On the Pet Pairing worksheet, kids will enjoy matching the animals to a written number to make pairs on a set of cards. Teachers and parents can access the downloadable educational activities to accompany each Cupcake Digital app and practice worksheets for each letter of the alphabet and numbers 1-­‐10 for home or classroom use. Parents’ Guide We recognize that preschool and kindergarten teachers are often asked for advice and support by their students’ families. Cupcake Digital’s Parents’ Guide is a great resource for families who want ideas for working with their children outside of school. The guide includes a detailed explanation of teachers’ social and academic expectations of children prior to entering kindergarten and ways to encourage that development. You can download the Parents’ Guide here. Common Core Planning English Language Arts Common Core In Kindergarten: The Common Core is not a concrete list of skills to teach, but rather long-­‐term goals for learning, building upon the previous year’s knowledge and instruction. Each Common Core Standard builds upon skills learned in the previous grade. Curriculum leaders Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe share a helpful five part series on Common Core for teachers here. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/common-­‐core-­‐new-­‐emphases-­‐jay-­‐mctighe-­‐grant-­‐wiggins The standards for kindergarten are like steps on a ladder. The top step is the long-­‐term goal for what students will be able to do by the end of second grade. The first step is where students start in kindergarten. If by the end of the second grade, kids need to be able to write opinion pieces, they will be working on and building upon that skill in kindergarten. Since CCSS is built on continuums of learning, children may fall above or below the set grade level’s standards. Each student may work on different steps on the ladder, but they are still working toward the same standard, such as writing an opinion piece. Look at the long-­‐term outcomes rather than a set of individual skills. Foster kids’ ability to reach these long-­‐term goals by: o
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Having children listen to and read a variety of texts (including lots of non-­‐fiction) Having collaborative conversations where students are expected to express an opinion (and have the skills and language to do that orally before doing it in written form). Uncover more details about the Common Core State Standards with Mastery Connects’ (www.masteryconnect.com) easy to use app detailing the standards. Planning Math Common Core in Kindergarten: Common Core Math Standards require students to think, problem solve and explain their reasoning from kindergarten on. There is a learning progression within the math standards, building upon concepts from grade to grade. For example, by the second grade students need to understand number and operations in base ten. In order to do this, starting in kindergarten, students need to work with numbers 11-­‐19 to understand place value. Kindergarten teachers need to encourage students to explain in pictures, numbers and words as well as their methods for solving these problems. Many of Cupcake Digital’s math games are embedded within the story. They can be used in isolation to practice a variety of skills from matching quantities to written numbers (Wubbzy Loves You), matching plane and solid figures (Wubbzy’s Magic School) or counting objects (Wubbzy The Superhero). These can easily become a supplement to the CCSS you’re teaching. Varied approaches and opinions are valued and encouraged in the Common Core, as long as students can support their strategies and opinions with evidence from the text (in ELA) and mathematical reasoning (in Math). Apps in the Classroom: There are many companies creating apps for preschool and kindergarten aged students. By taking a look at the games offered by these companies, you can see how they might fit into classroom learning. Classrooms all over the country are using tablets to aide in daily instruction. Some classrooms are quickly replacing textbooks for their ease of use and ability to provide up-­‐to-­‐date information instantly. Cupcake Digital’s deluxe story apps and learn and play activity apps are a great addition to the classroom and can be used to practice reading. Many of Cupcake Digital’s apps include three unique modes of reading designed with a different level of reading support that could be useful in your classroom. o
Just a Book turns off all interactions in-­‐app and is designed for students who can read independently. We prefer Just a Book for quiet reading and snuggle time. o
Read to Me is perfect for students to intently listen to a story. As the narrator models good reading, students learn what fluent reading sounds like. In this mode, words are highlighted to teach young learners directionality (that text moves from left to right and top to bottom) and one-­‐to-­‐one correspondence (that each word read is one written word).
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Read and Play is designed for independent reading. Young learners can tap on unknown words for narrator assistance. If a young student has heard a story multiple times, it might be time to try this mode.
From practicing letter writing in Animal Planet’s Hide & Seek Pets to word recognition in Wubbzy and The Princess, Cupcake Digital’s apps provide many opportunities for students to practice the concepts that you are teaching in class. Learn More About Cupcake Digital’s Top-­‐Rated Apps Choose from one of many educator-­‐vetted deluxe story apps or a learn & play app to enhance the educational experience: Deluxe Story Apps: Strawberry Shortcake Berry Best Friends: Join Strawberry Shortcake and her berry best friends as they practice their special talents for the Berry Bitty City Talent Show in their very first interactive story adventure! Who will win first prize? Kids will love the engaging story packed with adorable animations and fanciful activities that bring this wonderfully spirited redheaded girl’s sweet, sweet world to life! Wubbzy and The Princess: It’s a rainy day in Wuzzleburg, and Wubbzy and his friends are stuck playing indoors. To pass the time, they pretend to live in a kingdom complete with beautiful princesses and brave knights. When Daizy’s princess crown is accidentally broken, Widget uses the Storymaker 3000 to transport her and Wubbzy into a magical world filled with friendly trolls, enchanted meadows and beany-­‐beanstalks so she can find a sparkly new crown! Wubbzy’s Space Adventure (Available in English and Spanish): 3, 2, 1 . . . blast off with Wubbzy, Walden, Widget and Daizy for an out-­‐of-­‐this-­‐world space adventure! Explore the galaxy, take a tour of Planet Fun, meet one-­‐eyed Gorks and nine-­‐armed Gaks, and lots more in this fun-­‐filled, deluxe storybook. Will Wubbzy and his friends make it in time to wake up the Man in the Moon before sunrise? Hop on board to find out! Wubbzy’s Dinosaur Adventure (Available in English and Spanish): Join Wubbzy and friends in this interactive storybook that takes young readers on a wild adventure all the way to Dino Island. See what happens when Wubbzy meets the Stomposaurus, Tweezertops, Pointy Beakadon . . . and, of course, the giant Sillyasaurus. Watch out for falling coconuts and tasty cupcakes along the way! The Jim Henson Company’s Fraggle Rock – Fraggle Friends Forever: a great experience for fans old and new to jump into the one-­‐of-­‐a-­‐kind world of Fraggle Rock. This new enhanced story app includes tap-­‐and-­‐play animations on every page, hilarious special effects and entertaining games! When Boober comes face to face with a very big, very hungry, very ticklish Slurp, he realizes that a Fraggle has to do what a Fraggle has to do. Can Boober save the Great Hall? And will his friends arrive in time to help? The app includes fun interactions, games, coloring and more! Wubbzy’s Dance Party: Dance and read along with Wubbzy and his pals, Daizy, Walden and Widget. The Wubb Club is planning the most Wubbtastic Dance Party ever! But who will take over as lead singer when Wubbzy has too much lemony-­‐lemon juice? Based on the popular “Meet the Wuzzles” episode, young readers will discover all new ways to learn and play with this interactive storybook app. Wubbzy’s Magic School: Presto-­‐change-­‐o! Wubbzy and his friends have a lot of magic to do in this feature-­‐rich, deluxe storybook app, Wubbzy’s Magic School! After a day at Moo Moo the Magician’s Castle, the friends learn that magic really does happen when you believe in yourself and try your hardest. Wubbzy The Superhero: It’s Wonder Wubbzy and Flower Power Daizy to the rescue in this feature-­‐rich, deluxe storybook app, Wubbzy The Superhero. No job is too big—or too small—for these superheroes. Help Wubbzy and Daizy rescue a poodle in a tree, find the lost key to Wuzzleburg and more in this madcap adventure. Kids and grown-­‐ups will love the tap-­‐and-­‐play interactivity, read-­‐along narration and fun-­‐filled mini-­‐games throughout. Wubbzy Loves You: Wubbzy and his friends can’t wait to celebrate Friendship Day by exchanging friendship lovey love cards and attending the annual Friendship Day Parade. But when the postman catches a yucky, icky cold, Friendship Day may not happen! It’s up to Wubbzy and Daizy to deliver the heaping piles of friendship cards to a kooky collection of Wuzzleburg residents. Can they make all of their deliveries before the big parade? Join Wubbzy and Daizy on their journey to spread friendship and love on this very special day! Wubbzy’s Fire Engine Adventure: Trouble at the Spaghetti and Meatball Factory sends meatballs raining down on Wuzzleburg! When the Fire Chief forklifts the oodles of noodles out of Wuzzleburg, Wubbzy’s decides he wants to help, too. After rescuing Earl with the ladder and filling the birdy birdbath with the hose, Wubbzy learns to leave the real emergencies to the firefighters. Filled with hilarious tap-­‐and-­‐play interactivity, Wubbzy’s Fire Engine Adventure gets kids revved up and ready to learn! Wubbzy’s The Night Before Christmas: a festive deluxe storybook adaptation of the classic The Night Before Christmas holiday poem. The story takes place on a very special Christmas Eve, where Wubbzy and his friends are snuggly-­‐snug in their beds until they are awakened by the pitter-­‐patter, jingle-­‐jangle and merry sounds of Santa Claus and his reindeer. Kids will love this new take on a holiday tradition from the magical world of Wuzzleburg! Wubbzy’s Train Adventure (Coming Soon in Spanish): Toot Toot! In the new storybook app, Wubbzy’s Train Adventure, Wubbzy and his friends take a ride on the Wuzzleburg Express. Destined for their favorite Kooky Karnival, the characters must overcome fun, silly and unexpected obstacles when the train breaks down. Can the Wuzzle friends get the train back on track before the fair closes? Wubbzy’s Pirate Treasure: Join Wubbzy and his friends in this fun-­‐filled storybook adventure from the Emmy® Award winning Nick Jr.® television series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!® Bright, colorful art with playful sound effects, fun music and 100+ animations. This book is filled with tappable story moments, narration, music videos, games and more. Currently available in English, more languages coming soon! Good Night Wubbzy -­‐ Bedtime Counting (Coming Soon): Help Wubbzy, Walden, Widget, Daizy, and some of Wuzzleburg’s kookiest residents get ready for beddy-­‐bye in this special sleepy time story. Kids will enjoy turning off the lights, counting to sleep, and saying goodnight to their favorite “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!®” friends. Learn & Play Apps: Wubbzy’s ABC Learn & Play (Lite Version Also Available): an alphabet teaching adventure that promotes the fundamentals of reading and writing in three entertaining ways! Kids will love tracing letters A through Z, playing Common Core infused alphabet games and getting creative with tap-­‐to-­‐paint Wow! Wow! coloring book pages and sing-­‐
along music videos featuring Wubbzy and his very best friends! Wubbzy’s 123 Learn & Play: Learning to count is as easy as 1-­‐2-­‐3 in this NEW educational app. Interactive tracing activities promote number recognition and writing, while playful counting games help develop early math skills. Fun tap-­‐
to-­‐paint coloring pages and sing-­‐along music videos starring Wubbzy and his friends add to the excitement. Wubbzy’s Animal Coloring Book: kids tap-­‐to-­‐paint bright, colorful scenes starring Wuzzleburg’s favorite residents. Meet the giant sillyasaurus, style the snappity snap turtles, and discover many more lovable Wubbzy friends! Animal Planet Hide & Seek Pets: Spin the wheel and get ready to play! This vibrant app brings six adorable pets to life for kids ages 3 and up. Peek at the puppy! Swish with the fish! Squawk for the bird and much more! Kids begin their journey of discovery with this feature-­‐rich app, packed with playful pet animations, engaging games and skill-­‐building activities. Includes letter tracing, memory matching, puzzle play, creative coloring—plus a special interactive animal piano! Beautifully designed and easy to navigate, this app brings kids and their favorite pets together.