I went through the 10 minute process of bundling up my two-year old this morning to go play in the snow only, of course, to have him want to come back in after 5 minutes. Who is the only two-year old who DOES NOT like snow? Quick answer: MINE! So after this fiasco, I decided he decided to try to play with my iPad.
Here are the lessons I learned. He is a happy tapper. (Apparently, not waiting for a page to load is instilled in us from birth.) You cannot teach a two-year that the best way to win at Angry Birds is by shooting the birds forward and NOT backward, but he was determined. Finally, no matter what age, people like to draw and play with photos. So today you will get some of the best photo apps that I can find, because that is all the little fellow would let me play with today. I have downloaded the free versions, because most of the good ones I have found have been free at one time and probably will be again. There are also paid versions of some of these as well which can open more features.
Kids are creative. Put simple tools in their hand and they can create. Sometimes you may be surprised what you get with just simple instructions as create something. All of these apps are just that, for creativity.
Photo Layer by Gabriel Dana ($4.99)
This is a really easy app to use and has a lot of features. It also goes on sale often. When I downloaded it to my iPad, it was free for a short time so if you watch for it you can get it a little lower. I am keeping an eye out to add it to the iPads at school. This app allows you to fix photos by adjusting brightness, contrast, crop, straighten and even has a one tap auto enhance. But the best part are all the extras you get with this app. There are tons of effects, stickers, you can even make your own memes. I would love to figure out a way to work making memes into a Language Arts class. (Hint! Hint! Wink! Wink!)
Adobe Photoshop Express (Free)
This is a simple photo editor. Simple and easy to use. The only draw back to the free version is that there is a limited selection of effects. There are a great deal of borders, but if you want more than a few effects you will need to pay.
Photo Shake ($1.99)
This is a collage maker that I downloaded on a day that it was free. Essentially you pick the photos you want added to the collage and then you shake the iPad until they are in a configuration that you like. Once finished you can add frames, text, different photo effects. The pictures then can be save to the camera roll or emailed.
Fotolr HD (Free)
This is the lite version, but it is not lite at all. There was very little that Chunk and I were not allowed to do. We even gave Lindy, our dog, a makeover. See:
Lindy before: 
Lindy After: 
As you can see I was grasping at straws today, but wouldn’t this be a great way to teach the students how to write descriptive pieces. How could you not want to describe THAT?! This app gives you a ton of options and choices. You can edit, crop, and dress up photos and the only items I can find that are left out of the free version are under the portrait choices of the app. Those are minimal compared to the other items you get. Although there could be more choices in male wigs, this was the app we played with the most today, because we could do so much with it.
I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day and that it was way more productive than mine! If you know of any more photo apps available, let me know!!!!
Grec's Tech 