'Tiny Tap' is one such App where quite quickly it's great potential becomes apparent. Add to that it's completely Free, without annoying pop ups or adverts, and it's a winner!
In short, the application allows you to create your own games which you tap to play. These can be shared with the Tiny Tap community and similarly, you will have access to hundreds (if not more) of games and activities created by others.
Below is a quick over view of Tiny Tap and some examples showing its use and potential.
From the main screen you will be presented with a book shelf that allows you to:
- create your own activity.
- play activities already in your library.
- or visit the market place.
As you can see, this is all presented in a colourful and child friendly way.
I had fully expected this to be the 'catch' with the App, anticipating a large number of activities with a price. However, refreshingly, this isn't the case and the majority of games or activities are free as they have been created by the community of Tiny Tap users.
Simply search for what you are hoping to find, see something you like, tap to download and away you go. Simple and effective.
Instead if trawling the internet looking for a game or activity that almost fits the requirements, you can quickly create an activity that does exactly what you need it too. No need to make do with a slightly too easy / challenging alternative. No need to choose one that isn't quite the skill you are trying to look at.
Creating an activity.
As you can see from the photo below, you can draw whatever you need using a range of tools, add photos from your camera roll or add pictures from a wide range of themes already built into the app.
One your backgrounds are set (be it your own design, a photo, text or a combination of them all) you can then Set up your activity.
This included:
- Recording your own question or instruction followed by choosing the correct answer / area on the screen by drawing around it with your finger. Responses for current / incorrect choices can also be recorded. (Some examples being can you find the word with and 'igh' sound? Can you find cat? What is 35 x 100 and so on? Click in the verb in this sentence... And so on.
- Cutting out and area which then has to matches to its place on the screen. Again there is plenty of potential such as competing spellings, dragging answers to a maths question to the correct number sentence, balancing equations etc
Below is a video from Tiny Tap showing how quickly an activity can be set up:
Pre-School Activity Example:
As with many discoveries, the first port of call in investigating Tiny Tap was at home. Downloading it for the first time at the weekend, and not having a class to try my ideas out on, meant my 3 year old became the guinea pig.
In the short video, you can see the simplicity but effective nature of Tiny Tap where the correct word has to be found based on the oral instruction.
There are also a large number of simple activities available on the marketplace suitable for younger children. And the colorful nature of the in built resources, make this a great app for EYFS and KS1 children.
Similarly, Tiny Tap was also used to create quick SPAG games in Year 5&6, where children created 'silly sentences' and then used the App to record their own questions putting their knowledge to the test including:
Children created questions asking to find the article, adjective, noun, verb, adverb, preposition etc.
As part of keeping equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages fresh in our minds, we all designed our own game card.
These were then photographed and added to Tiny Tap before recording our questions such as:
'What is equivalent to three quarters?'
'What is the same as 100%' and so forth.
The children thoroughly enjoyed this and were hooked in knowing they were making their own game but had to think carefully whilst setting their questions, drawing on their own knowledge of equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages. The children then swapped their iPads and played each other's games, further testing their understanding.
The game creation also served as an assessment activity for myself as I was able to observe the extent to which children felt comfortable in pushing their understanding whilst creating their games.
For example most children stuck to the safety of working with tenths in their comparison to decimals and percentages. However it was interesting to see who included improper fractions, equivalents to tenths, quarters and so on. Some setting their fractions as 100ths and 1000ths and asking for the decimal or percentage equivalents.
Below are some photos of the children making and testing their activities.
As part of 'Safer Internet Day' children in Year 5 and 6 used the application to create their own Safer Internet Quiz activities. This was a great way for them to reinforce the themes of the day! Below are just some examples.