Today’s What’s Up Wednesday post comes from the creative and thrifty Diana of, The Budget SLP. She has been gracious enough to share some wonderful book apps with us and how to use them in your sessions. Here is What’s Up Wednesday 🙂
Thank you to Maureen for allowing me to post as a guest on her wonderful blog!
Last month, it was Free App February on the The Budget SLP. All of my posts were about free iTunes apps to use during your speech-language therapy sessions. I ran out of time (and steam) and neglected to post anything about free book apps. So, today, I am writing about those free book apps and I hope that this post will lead you to some new resources for your therapy sessions.
There are many free book apps available at iTunes, but very few come without ads or a push to purchase books. I prefer books apps without ads as they can be distracting. When a student accidentally taps on the ad, it takes him or her out of the app and disrupts learning. Many other free books apps are “lite” versions – you read the first few pages and have to purchase the app to finish the book. Below are some book apps that contain the complete story and no noticeable ads when reading the stories.
Toy Story Read-Along by Disney
The first time that I saw this app being used, it was during a “first-then” task. The child needed to finish a task before he could have the iPad. Many young children are familiar with Toy Story and can retell much of the story – turn off the sound and use the book for visual support during carry-over activities. More complex questions, predicting, using appropriate vocabulary for sequencing, and so much more can be observed while talking about this story. 
Millie Was Here, Book 1: Meet Millie by Megapops LLC
There are many opportunities for predicting and teaching inferences in this short, interactive book about the adorable Millie.
I Like Books by GrasshopperApps.com
Talk about the beautiful photographs and ask questions, teach vocabulary, increase MLU, use for carry-over, or to introduce a topic or theme. Every book can be customized; add your own voice, your own photos and even your own story line!
All are not free – some of the current free books are as follows:
I Like Reading
2nd Grade Reading – I Like Horses
3rd Grade Reading – I like Grandma
Kindergarten Reading – I like Grandpa
I Like Animals
Make this book part of your “end of the school year” lessons.
This book reminds children how to be safe near the water. Teach vocabulary, practice negation and demonstrate appropriate verb tense.
By Callaway Digital Arts Inc.
This wonderful book by David Kirk has a lot of unique vocabulary. Use this book to identify rhyming words, make predictions, and to practice answering more complex wh-questions. Watch as an animated story or read as a book. Follow-up includes matching, painting, and puzzle activities.
Learning A-Z, from Language Technologies, Inc., currently has 17 free titles. These are not fancy books with a lot of animations, but these leveled readers do contain definitions of key words and the simple language makes these ideal tools for language lessons.
Three Little Pigs: The Wolf’s Story
Discovering Dinosaurs
Bananas Sometimes
Farm Animals
The Woodsy Band Jam
Don’t forget to check the iBook Store for free books. I did not find free books under Children’s Picture Books or Early Readers, but scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Read Aloud Kids’ Books to find at least 30 free books.
More!
Auryn, Inc. is giving away a free interactive storybook app every day in March to celebrate National Reading Month! These wonderful apps are usually priced between $1.99 and $3.99.
The Turtle And the Dove: A classic story for kids about friendship by the author of Corduroy, Don Freeman will be free on March 6th – the date of this post.
And More!
These free book apps were featured in my previous posts:
TinyTap – Make your own interactive books!
Chipper’sRainy Day Adventure by Invent-A-Tale
Diana
© 2013
