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Dream Learners Kids Stories
About Dream Learners Kids Stories
Ease into bedtime with the educational and fun stories contained within this app. Linking together various strands of their learning, this app will help children to make connections and reinforce their understanding.
Dream Learners Kids Stories Review
This free to download app comes with an included story and the potential to download further ones as in-app purchases. The initial content is substantial with a full story and its associated sections of explanations and discussion prompts. A quick introduction from the television personality and child development expert, Dr Robert Winston, both explains the app's purpose and how to use it.
The quality of the two stories currently available suggests that parents and children will be keen to expand their collection. Stylistically very attractive as a whole, the stories’ participants are full of character with clear and varied spoken words.
The writing behind the characters is also carefully crafted. A story is woven that deftly threads through different aspects of knowledge in a way that never feels forced or at a tangent from the main narrative.
The tales take a broad approach to learning that works really well at pulling together different areas of knowledge. The practicalities of classroom learning and the curriculum mean that children often learn each subject in a highly focussed and discrete way. This is often responsible for children using their knowledge in compartmentalised ways too, and failing to see the interconnectivity and broader picture.
The app designers specifically refer to the stories being used by parents with their children at bedtime and breakfast time. The app is quite usable by children alone but it would be a pity for parents to not support it by joining in with their child. This way, parents can expand on any points of interest or confusion as they go. A section of the app, the Huddle Hub, is specifically created to prompt parents and their children to talk about what they have learned. Another section reinforces keyword knowledge alongside a gently pulsating night-light for a few last moments of learning before sleep.
Despite its wide spread of coverage, the app makes it easy for teachers to see just what each story addresses. Taking the free Raptastic story as an example, children are exposed to different aspects of literacy, history, geography, music and P.E. as they see and hear the characters of the story talk. A clear overview of the subjects is shown as an array of buttons. Clicking one of these brings up each specific aspect of the curriculum that is met by the story.
Used as a whole class story projected to a class display, the stories could form a useful summing up activity at the end of the week or a prompt for children to think about how their other learning links together. The in-app purchase model isn’t ideal for schools so it would be great if the developers made a bulk purchase version also available.
The app seems too eager after the first play through to gain feedback from parents and children. They are both presented with questions that clearly have no purpose other than providing data for the developers. At this point, it is hard to say whether this will happen only once, with the free content, in which case it seems a fair deal, or with every story, which would feel intrusive.
No criticism can be made of the app that warrants not obtaining it and enjoying its included contents. There is every chance that parents and teachers will like what they see and take up the offer of more content for it.
App Details
Teacher Ratings
Devices
Price
Category
Topics
Skills
Creative Development
Emotional Development
Academic Relevance
Safeguarding
In-App Purchases - Yes
In-App Advertising - No
Publisher
Published Date - 06/02/2016
Download Dream Learners Kids Stories
You can download Dream Learners Kids Stories on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.
Screenshots for Dream Learners Kids Stories
Description
An amazing learning experience for children and parents to enjoy together.
Dream Leaners animated stories optimise fact and knowledge-based learning in the 90 minutes before sleep - the time the brain is most receptive to this kind of information.
For best results, try the 'bed and breakfast;' play the story once in the evening for an easier bedtime and again in the morning to reinforce the learning.
Created by teachers in association with child development expert Professor Robert Winston, Dream Learners stories bring the curriculum to life through a series of magical learning journeys.
Try the first story in the series, Raptastic, for free!
Raptastic Synopsis:
Join Twins Freddy and Bea and Doreen the Dormouse as Quercus takes them on a learning journey to explore the history of rap. Who were the storytelling Griots of West Africa? How is rap linked to slavery and why is bullying never cool?
Raptasic covers the following areas of learning:
English – poetry, rhythm and rhyme
Music – music from other cultures, following a rhythm and clapping out a beat
Social & Emotional - anti-bullying
PE - dance form other cultures
History - slavery, history and abolition
Geography – developing knowledge of the world
The Dream Learners framework for learning is highly effective:
Bedtime is Best: Learning before a sleep pattern has a beneficial effect on long-term memory consolidation and the brain’s ability to recall factual information. We provide tailored learning content in the critical 90 minutes before bedtime.
Connected curriculum: Cross-curricular teaching is the most effective way to disseminate curricular learning. Childhood educators and researchers know that young children see the world as a connected whole rather than in isolated segments and that learning should reflect this. By connecting learning from disparate subject areas within our stories, children’s learning is both faster and more meaningful.
Home at the heart of learning: Creating a ‘climate of curiosity’ and love for learning in the home has been found to be the most significant determinant of children’s future performance. Learning that parent and child can experience together has the most impact on a child’s future academic success.
Features:
Huddle Hub: extend the learning experience through questions and simple activities that facilitate a dialogue between parent and child.
GloZone: Relaxing nightlight with vocabulary definitions and gentle assessment to help reinforce the learning and music to help transition children to sleep.
Amazing learning videos: best-in-class creative, animation and voice actors for a quality entertainment experience.
Reviews:
“I loved watching my 6 year old daughter's face light up whist watching Dream Learners. She laughed, looked fully engaged and it held her attention throughout. I was also very impressed how it taught an important subject in such an age appropriate way. I felt like we were both learning together. This is something I would definitely sign up for and recommend to all my friends with children.”
“A very creative and fun video. Learning should always be this fun!!”
“It's hard to hold my daughters attention, she was playing on the iPad and I put the story on my phone, she handed me the iPad and took my phone off me. I used this story as leverage to get her in and out the bath in a timely fashion a process that has never been accomplished before!”
"Impressed with the display. Great theme choice. I like that in one episode you manage to cover different subjects: bullying, tunes, rhythm, story of rap ... And all in a fun Way.”
“Raptastic is toptastic!”
“Learning that your kids will want to do!”
By combining scientific and educational research, a cross-curricular approach and specific story writing techniques, Dream Learners provide an immersive learning experience, which will radically change learning outcomes.
We make learning a dream!
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