A while back, we discovered Marbotic's early education tools and were immediately impressed by their elements of interactivity and tactile learning. It’s safe to say we were also impressed by the people behind its design and who continue to run such an impactful company. Essentially, the premise of Marbotic is providing preschool teachers with a technology tool that engages students, allows for physical interaction, introduces letters and numbers, and helps build their foundational tech skills. You can probably see why we’re such big fans.
Now, we’re going to dive a bit deeper into what makes Marbotic a great early learning tool, focusing specifically on the different apps that enable experiential learning. We believe that every teacher—regardless of grade level—should be a digital teacher, which aligns perfectly with the opportunities Marbotic creates. Aside from the obvious educational benefits for students, Marbotic also provides educators with various materials that beautifully build bridges between physical and digital learning. Perhaps most appealing to instructors, Marbotic provides a highly comprehensive and incredibly thorough Teacher’s Guide that’s available totally for free on their website.
As you’ll find when exploring the Teacher’s Guide, Marbotic and its six engaging apps help children build a number of skills earlier than they traditionally would and do so in a more enjoyable way. Marbotic has broken these skills down into math skills and literacy skills. In terms of math skills, some of the things children can develop with Marbotic include fine motor skills, counting, enumeration, addition, subtraction, and double facts recognition among various others. As for literacy skills, some of the key things they can learn include identifying upper- and lower-case letters, phonics, syllables, word building, nouns, alphabetical order, and vocabulary!
The apps themselves each focus on helping kids develop certain skills through various fun-filled games and challenges. They follow a progressive approach, which we are big fans of, and start with the most basic exposure to letters and numbers. The first app we recommend is the 10 Fingers app, which simply teaches kids how to count to 10. From there, the Up to 100 app (as you may have guessed), helps kids discover counting in tens and with various units. Then there’s the More or Less app, which, more or less, helps them start learning about the basic concepts of addition and subtraction. Each of these three apps is designed for use with the Smart Numbers Kit.
With three additional apps, the Smart Letters Kit is a great option, too. The Monstromachine helps kids learn all about the sounds and shapes of each letter in the alphabet. Meanwhile, Vocabubble provides kids with fun games designed to allow them to discover words in the world as they go. Finally, BLA (also known as Bla Bla Box) makes use of an intriguing concept in combining letters together for kids to form syllables and words. Then it spells them and reads them out!
Each of these six apps is available on the Apple app store and makes downloading classroom activities a breeze. Whether you choose the Smart Numbers, Smart Letters, or the Marbotic Bundle, which includes both, Marbotic is compatible with many iOS devices. They include the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad 2017, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini (versions 1-4), iPad Pro 9.7, and iPad Pro 12.9. With a tool so simple and affordable, there’s no reason not to expose young students to a more fun way of learning phonics and simple math skills!
To grab a Marbotic kit for your classroom or home, visit the Eduporium store! Keep an eye out next Wednesday as well as we introduce a bit of a shake-up to the Eduporium Experiment. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more, like us on Facebook, and check out our store!