On Fire for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All
Today I am thankful for Family, Friends and Fire! Of course in many areas of my life I have things to be thankful for but since this is a blog about the Kindle Fire, I will stick to the alliteration and write about the last of my thankful list, my Fire.
Since we have a few days off from school because of the Thanksgiving holiday, I am going to recommend a "just for fun" app today that is free until midnight tonight. Amazon is offering Bonzai Blast a game where you shoot and match 3 of the same colored marbles before they disappear down a tunnel and you lose the game. What a fun way to begin this short vacation with a "Zuma-like" game using a touch screen. I have not found one yet that works smoothly on my iPad and this one works great on the Fire. I love this kind of play and had 2 of my kids try it this morning and they couldn't put it down. I could mention that it is good for eye-hand coordination or that there is strategy involved when using chutes to guide marbles down winding paths or using walls to ricochet your shots and having to figure out the correct trojectory, but since this is a "just for fun" app recommendation, I won't mention these bonus features. I hope you enjoy playing this on your Fire as much as I do.

On Fire for Kids Match'em App

Over the weekend I found a great memory game for kids called Kids Match’em. This is a free Amazon App that is a classic concentration-type flip-a-card game. It has fun sound effects, two levels of difficulty and five card sets from which to choose. This game can improve visual memory and visual discrimination in kids. When played with a partner and the sound is disabled, players can describe each card flipped and how another card is either the same or different, which can be a good tool for teaching and reinforcing vocabulary with young children (3-6). When older kids (7-9) play with a partner they can try and use as many descriptive words as possible to tell about the card that is flipped. Whether playing the game for a specific purpose or just for fun, kids will love this matching game.

On Fire for Free Apps

Since most of my experience in the past year has been with an iPad, I have been scouring the Amazon app store for interesting apps. Of course my main goal is finding age appropriate education apps for elementary kids, but I can't resist the Free Amazon app of the day. Sometimes it is for kids and other times it is a utility I can use. No matter the offering, I can't resist going to the App Store each morning to see what I might get for free. Not unlike other shopping trips I take, I do usually stay on the site to check out the paid apps at the same time which is probably the reason for the free app offerings in the first place. Check it out if you have not already done so.

On Fire for Picture Books

Did you know when reading many picture books on the Kindle Fire, if the words appear too small,  you can double tap the words and they will pop-up in a larger font. When you swipe like you are turning the page, the next set of words will pop-up until you have read all text on that page. The font will continue to pop-up throughout the book unless you want to disable the larger font. To discontinue, you can double tap anywhere on any page and it will no longer pop-up. A great feature when reading with young readers as a parent can take the first pop-up and read aloud and the next pop-up can be read by the younger reader or a toddler can begin learning to track as the words pop-up as it is being read aloud.

On Fire for my new Fire

I received a Kindle Fire for my birthday on October 14th. I had to wait a full month before it arrived but it was well worth the wait.
A little background: I have owned an iPad for the past 12 months and have used it often in my library classroom. I am able to show appropriate YouTube videos to my students whenever it fits with the lesson I am doing in a particular week. It is outstanding to be able to show author interviews and short how-to videos that extend my lessons and teaching. I love my iPad but wanted to explore other options as well. I was very excited when given the Kindle Fire in October and am learning all the ins and outs of this new device. On Fire will be a blog to note things I have learned or am learning about the Kindle Fire.
I so appreciate all the blogs I have read about the iPad and have learned many tips and tricks as well as solid new ideas in using that device. Thus my desire in this blog is to do the same for others as I learn and share tips and tricks about the Kindle Fire.