AR FlashCards- Animal Alphabet

Victoria Sheppard

Introduction to the tool:

AR Flashcards uses augmented reality to bring learning to life. It is a fun and educational app that can be downloaded on an iPad pro or iPhone to bring flashcards that have letters with a corresponding animal to life on the device's screen. It is used to help kids identify and learns a variety of animals and letters by sounding out the letter and animal name whenever the screen is tapped upon.

Step-By-Step Guide:

  1. Go onto the Apple App Store on your iPhone or iPad Pro device and type in the name "AR Flashcards Animal Alphabet" into the search engine. Once you press search, the app should pop on on your screen; the logo is of a monkey outside holding three cards in his hand.
  2. Download the app onto your smart device. You may have to use a card or your custom fingerprint to do so, but do not worry; the app is completely free.
  3. Once the app is downloaded on your device, click on the icon for the app on your smart screen. It should say "Alphabet" underneath an image of a monkey holding some flashcards in his hand.
  4. A message will appear that says "'Alphabet Would Like to Access the Camera. Camera access required for target detection and tracking." Allow this application to use the camera by pressing the "OK" button.
  5. The main screen will appear; it will have different titles on the screen that include "Get Started," "Tips," and two "Gallery" labels at the bottom of the screen. In order to get started, you must press the "Gallery" icon on the bottom left of the screen; the logo will be of a monkey holding flashcards in his hands.
  6. Once pressed, the first letter of the alphabet will pop up. It is the letter "A" with alligator spikes on it. Print this card out on your local printer. Slide your finger to left and the next letter will appear. It is a "B" with a beaver tail on it. Print this card out. Keep going until you have printed out all of the letters going from A-Z.
  7. After that is done, click on the button at the bottom right of the screen that says "Back." This will bring you back to the home screen.
  8. At the top of the page, there is a "Get Started" button. Click on this. There will be a "Loading" screen on for a couple of seconds and then you will see the image that your back camera can see.
  9. Place an alphabet card in front of you and hold your smart device up to where the card is seen in the camera. This should bring whichever card you picked to life. For example, if it is the "A" card with the alligator spikes, a 3D alligator will appear on your screen. You can rotate the card in front of you to see all angles of the animal on the screen
  10. If you want to hear the letter and the animals name, simply tap on the screen while the animal is still in 3D form. The smart device will say the letter followed by the animal that is given on the screen.
  11. A picture of the virtual animal on top of the card can be taken by pressing the camera icon at the top left of the screen. This will automatically save to the device's camera roll.
  12. You can put multiple cards in front of the screen at once if you would like to see what some animals would look like grouped together.
  13. After you are done looking at your virtual reality cards, click the logo at the top left on the left of the camera icon that says "Back." This will bring you back to the home screen once again.
  14. To exit out of the app, press the home button on your smart device.

Some Videos:

IMG_5619.mov

Screencast:

How to access the website and print out the cards for your app!!!


May 10, 2018 4:39 PM.webm

Benefits:

This tool is beneficial to the classroom for multiple reasons:

    • fun educational resource that allows to children to easily learn
    • allows children to recognize alphabet letters and their corresponding sound
    • can let children learn different animals and how to say their names
    • allows children and parents to become more use to new technology

*if other apps from this creator are downloaded by the user, children have the ability to learn different shapes, colors, science, and history cards and information from the app.

Additional Information:

There is more than just the "alphabet" version of AR Flashcards. This creative app also has versions that include dinosaur, space, addition, shapes and colors, and history flashcards for kids. In order to find these apps on your smart device, being an iPhone or iPad Pro, go to the type in the search engine the same thing that you did to find AR Flashcards Alphabet Animals. Click on the app, and then the founder of the app; this is found under the app's name and is called "Peak Reality, LLC."A list of these additional cards and their corresponding apps can be found here. Some cost money, but others allow you to try them for free, like AR Flashcards Space Lite.

If you did not know, the dinosaur cards comes along with the alphabet animals app. The flashcards for this is located on bottom right of the homepage of the initial app. Print out the cards and voila.

Classroom Activities:

Language and Literacy Development for 3 year olds( 36-48 months)

1. With prompting and support, demonstrate an understanding that letters are combined to make words. (3.3)

For this objective, students can go over the letters using a smart device that is monitored by the teacher. They will be able to go over the letters and the teacher can put some letters together to make basic words for the children. For instance, the teacher can put the letters "C," "A," and "T" together to make and show the word "cat" to the children. The teacher can make the students say each individual letter and then say the whole word, that way they will know that those letters make that word.

2. Name at least 10 of the 52 upper- and lower-case letters of the alphabet (any combination of upper- and lower-case letters). (3.4)

With this objective, students can be put into groups of about 3-4. A card with a letter will be placed in front of the smart device for kids to name. If they can name the letter, then the next person will be called on to answer. If they have trouble identifying the letter, then they can press the screen and have the letter read aloud to them by the app on the smart device.