Good Free App of the Day #1 : Chalk Walk

 (Also check out our GFAOTD #2 here)

Chalk Walk has gone free again!!  It's a great app that Heather rated 4 Stars and said it's "An innovative app designed to help develop the pincer grasp skill and is also helpful for preparing for cursive writing. Pay close attention to this one."

iPad only

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** Only the app's developer can control when an app is free or not. All apps that we post as Good Free Apps of the Day are verified to be free at the time of this post. We make no guarantees otherwise. **

 

From iTunes:

Introduce your kids to the first app to help children to develop the pincer grip needed at school. Many children are coming into school unable to properly hold a pencil. As time spent drawing on paper or coloring with crayons is swapped for screen time, key fine motor skills remain underdeveloped. But screen time can also solve the problem and prepare kids for the pencil-and-paper tasks they encounter in school. Mrs. Judd’s Games’ new app, CHALK WALK, is designed to fill in the blank: young hands get needed exercise as they use a thumb & finger pincer grip to play this fun, innovative, teacher-designed game.

Typical iPad tracing games ignore this need for children build awareness of hand positioning required for success in school. CHALK WALK helps focus a child's attention on this skill and offers clever tracing lines that bend and twist before the player's eyes. Children can relate to the familiar activity of drawing and after playing CHALK WALK, we hope they are encouraged to practice their new skills by creating their own drawings with real sidewalk chalk. 

CHALK WALK's colorful, fanciful maps offer children a journey through the unique sidewalks of places like Kitty City and Crown Town. Players collect alphabet puzzle pieces and chase prizes as they make their way to Silly Town, where they are encouraged to create their own designs with loops and squiggles that will give their hands—and imaginations—a workout!

The video playback feature offers children a chance to study their own moving "chalk lines" and motivate them to try again, just for fun!


FEATURES:
- encourages fine-motor flexibility/exercise
- builds awareness of hand positioning 
- left-hand icon option is included in settings menu
- clearly demonstrates/reinforces thumb-finger pincer grip
- alphabet puzzle pieces create an emerging literacy task
- animated tracing lines promote left-to-right progression
- photos of unique sidewalks inspire an awareness of beauty and diversity in our world
- fanciful maps point the way to pretend worlds and imaginative thinking.
- endless opportunity to revisit, and refine one's work
- video play-back motivates a child to study their progress in an active way
- reset button offers teachers and parents the option to give new players a fresh start

 

 

 

Lisa M lives in Australia with her three kids aged 3,4,6, & 7.  She wishes one day to have a pet teacup pig running around her back yard.  

 

 

Every day we pick what we affectionately call the Good Free App of the Day, an app that we have downloaded, tested and certified: It can't have a ton of ads or just a little content with in-app purchases.

We then present them to you to read, download, and share. So, based on which ones got the most hits from you, here are your Top 100 Free Apps for Kids! Enjoy!

-- Please support smartappsforkids.com and use our links to download each app! --

 

For older kids (6+) please see our Top Free Apps for Older Kids list. For parents/teachers please see Our Top Free Apps for Parents/Teachers list.

 

(** indicates that the app contains in-app purchases/is very closely tied to a purchase or has ads)

1) LEGO App 4+ (build a vehicle and then use it in activities)

2) Open Wide Snap (we rated five stars)

3) Disneyland Explorer

4) ** Toddler/Preschool Flash Cards (warning! now has ads!)

5) Toy Story Read Along

6) Little Stars - Toddler Games  (letters, numbers, shapes, colors, words)

7) Hide Run Growl (we rated five stars)

8) Play 123

9) Peggy Storybook 1

10) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally Appisode

 

11) Little Writer - Tracing Letters, Numbers, Words and Shapes (awesome app)

12) ** Build a Word Express

13) ABC Alphabet Phonics

14) ** Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten

15) I Can Write 2 (make sentences about images)

16) Disney's Jake's Never Land Pirate School

17) Rover (flash-enabled web browser for kids)

18) PBS Kids Video (all their favorites, U.S. only)

19) Miss Spider apps (Bedtime Story and Tea Party)

20) Toca Kitchen Monsters (all kids need Toca Boca)

 

21) Rocket Speller

22) Touch the Sound

23) Easy Bake Treats (Easy Bake Oven)

24) ** Goodnight Safari (baby animals!)

25) Lego Duplo Jams

26) ** Puzzingo

27) The Elephant's Bath

28) ** Let's Color (drawings come to life)

29) WordWorld's PlaySquare

30) Songs for Kids 1 and 2

 

31) ** Alphabet Tracing

32) Chugginton - Be Safe

33) eggzoo

34) Hungry Hungry Hippos (now with balls you can't lose!)

35) Kids Learning - Photo Touch Learning Concepts

36) Madagascar Storybook Collection (book one for free)

37) Toca Tailor Fairy Tales

38) Lego Duplo Zoo

39) ** MeeGenius (six ebooks for free!)

40) Hickory Dickory Dock

 

41) ** Buzzle (11 free puzzles)

42) Scooby-Doo Whos Are You? by Hallmark (Zoinks!)

43) Mindshapes (three apps, including Bobo's Birthday Challenge)

44) 6-in-1 Children's Games (lite version)

45) Whole Foods' Awesome Eats

46) Sprout's Doodle Dots 

47) ABC Mouse Zoo Sets 1, 2 and 3

48) Feel Electric (The Electric Company is back!)

49) Tim and Tom

50) Colors that Luli Loves

 

51) Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle

52) Fisher Price's Lets Count Animals

53) Super Monkey Jr. - Mini Games (excellent)

54) Hannah Habeebee McHats

55) Jack and the Beanstalk (modern version of the classic tale)

56) Make A Scene - Farmyard

57) Sam Phibian (count to feed the frog bugs!)

58) ABC Mouse Grand Canyon

59) Beginning Phonics

60) Jeff the Mis-Fish

 

61) Stewie The Duck Learns To Swim

62) Hallmark's Jingle All the Way

63) A Not-So Fading Light (two kids worry about the sun burning out in 4.8b years)

64) Little Stars - Word Wizard

65) ** BrainPop Jr. Movie of the Week

66) Tooney Tunes

67) JibJab Jr. Books

68) Math with Springbird

69) Sprout's Good Night Star (nighttime routine, brusha! brusha! brusha!)

70) Barney's Storybook Treasury (first book is free)

 

71) Squiggles (bring scribbles to life, one of our Top Picks)

72) Chipper's Rainy Day Adventure

73) Astrid & Siri (A fashion designer whose assistant is an Arctic fox?)

74) Zoobert's Big (or Bigger Day)

75) The Icky Mr. Fox/Mr Fox and Mr. Rabbit (two ebooks)

76) ** i Learn with Boing - Ice Land Adventures HD (now only one section free)

77) Bean Bag Kids present Little Red Riding Hood (bean bag characters!)

78) Fisher Price's Laugh & Learn Animal Sounds

79) Wombi Christmas Toys

 

80)  i Luv Drawing Santa (awesome holiday app)

81) There is a Star (lovely animated video)

82) Little Bird's Internet Security Adventure (help teach online safety)

83) 2 Tigers (sibling rivalry of sisters)

84) Bamba Ice Cream (build desserts and eat them!)

85) PaddleDuck Color and Story App (a duck with a backpack!)

86) Spot the Jungle Animal (spot the jungle animal)

87) Jellytoons (two apps including Birthday Countdown)

88) Gymtastic! (American Girl app)

89) Elfishki Halloween Spooky Decorate Cake Game

90) Cut the Rope Holiday Gift

 

91) Christmas Eve (awesome book app) 

92) ABC Theater

93) Henry Motlies' Christmas Adventure

94) Treetop Ted (Ted gets itchy, twitchy, scritchy, scratchy from bugs)

95) Toca's Hair Salon - Christmas Gift (one of only two free Toca Bocas)

96) Disney Movies

97) Become Santa Claus in 24 Days

98) Macleans Nurdle Time (Australia only)

99) Preschool Fun

100) Play Hospital

 

 

 

We've done our best to only include apps that are permanently free, but sometimes developers do change their minds, so please leave a comment if you find an app that's no longer free.

(** indicates that the app contains in-app purchases/is very closely tied to a purchase or has ads)