FarFaria...Check it Out...Win It!

Back to School time....  So many ideas, giveaways, excitement and sales are floating around.  The positive energy is contagious and I LOVE it!

My job is a little different because I co-teach with four other first grade teachers.  I have been getting together with them to brainstorm, plan, create, and then brainstorm some more.  Each year brings about something new and we have the opportunity to try things out, see if it works....a HUGE perk about our job!

One idea that I had this year: A Breakfast Club.

I have breakfast duty each morning.  My face is the first one they see when they walk into the building :)  I would like to start a little club that reads books or listens to books on our iPads (because I am trying to incorporate these more too!)  I have found some different apps and websites that I would like to use with these students.  One of them is FarFaria.

The app works on iPads, iPhones, and Android Devices.  You can read 1 free story a day or you can pay a monthly membership fee to have access to over 750 books.  That is a TON of books!!  I was super interested in trying this out, so FarFaria was nice enough to let me try it out this summer AND  I can offer one FREE membership to a reader (more about that in a minute)!!

I have a four and five year old at home.  They were the perfect subjects. We tried out all the different components of the app.  Then I tried it out on my two year old nephew.  Same results.  Easy to use....they LOVED it!

I wanted to share with you what I found.  There are four sections: Home, Explore, My Favorites, and Parents.  When you click on "Explore" this FarFaria world comes up.  The child can pick what subject matter they are interested in: animals, classics, fairy tales, etc.

Once they choose a land, it looks like this:

The child hits enter and a whole array of books comes up:

The child can scroll through the books.  The levels are in the bottom right hand corner of the book.  But I had no idea what the numbers meant.  So I searched through the "parent" section and found this:

Once a book is picked there are three options: Auto play, Read to Me, or Read to Self.  My girls love to listen to books; therefore, they always seem to choose "auto play."  But the words are highlighted as the story is read.  That makes me one happy mom and teacher!
Here is a quick video of a story being read aloud and a second video of Ruby trying out the "read to self" option.

Once a story is completed, the child can have their picture taken with the story!  I really like this feature because it celebrates the reader.  I imagine having these pictures hanging somewhere to show off my Breakfast Club and all their great reading.  Here is Ruby:

Overall I really like that this app is simple, but has a lot to offer.  There are so many stories and 5 more are added each week.  The kids can enjoy reading or being read to.  I am really looking forward to trying it out with my students.  I think they are going to respond really well to it.

I would love to give away a 3 month membership to one of our Curious followers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget that you still have 4 more days to enter to win an iPad mini!!  This would go great with the FarFaria app!