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NatureNotes: Big Five Edition
App Walk-Through | Credits & Acknowledgements | Contact | Privacy
IMAGINE YOU ARE AN EXPLORER ON SAFARI IN AFRICA.
A lion roars nearby!
Here in your tent, you've set up a nature table with everything you need for your adventure.
You have a field guide bursting with information about the wild animals you're here to study,
binoculars, a pocket-watch, a compass and more.
This is YOUR adventure. Be curious. You set the rules and the pace.
Learn about the animals by looking through the field guide,
scout the area on game drives and hot air balloon rides,
draw pictures of the animals in their natural environment.
Along the way, you can catalog your observations and discoveries and earn rewards for the activities you try.
Now you aren't just a little adventurer, you're a field scientist using the scientific method!
NatureNotes: Big Five is intended for curious pre-K children, but it is also for educators and parents who want wholesome applications for young children that they can feel good-or at least less guilty-about letting them play.
PRE-READER FRIENDLY
NatureNotes is designed to be PRE-READER friendly, such that you can hand it to any age child and they'd have something fun to do. Words can be tapped to hear them aloud. Navigation is child-friendly. Kids use apps differently and are less inclined to need menus of options, or the ability to save their work, and more interested in immediate gratification and responsiveness. The NatureNotes app is designed to address these desires.
TOUCH & TAP
A baby might just play with the interactive gadgets on the nature table top: open and close the ticking pocket watch, jingle the coins or page through the interactive pages about the animals with a parent's help.
SWIPE & STAMP
A two-year-old might swipe to turn pages themselves, look at the pictures of animals, listen to their sounds, and fill art pages with colorful stamps of animal footprints.
LOOK & LISTEN
A three-year-old might play I-Spy by finding the wild animals in real photographs or take game drives to see the short videos of the animals living in the wild.
OBSERVE, COLLECT & CREATE
A pre-schooler or young school-age child might mark the sightings of the animals to receive stamps for their collection and explore some of the more game-ified parts of the application or color in the coloring pages for each animal to begin to contribute to the notebook with their own work.
FOR PARENTS' PEACE OF MIND
The app is also designed to address some safety, security and privacy concerns of parents who want to limit their children's screen time and give them higher quality options when they do allow it.
App Walk-Through
Check out these screenshots and short YouTube videos to learn more about the NatureNotes: Big Five app experience.
Below is a YouTube playlist of the video walk-throughs, or learn more about the app features below.
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Explore The Nature Table
I-Spy Binoculars Watch the Video: |
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Page Through the Field Guide
Swipeable Field Guide Pages Watch the Videos: |
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Explore Nature Table Activities
Tap Pile to Swipe through Flashcards Watch the Video: |
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Explore Observation Labs
I-Spy Binoculars Watch the Videos: |
 
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Explore Creative Labs
Stamping Lab Watch the Videos: |
Rewards and Animal Sightings
Our Mission
Apps for young children that parents can feel good-or at least less guilty-about letting them play.
I'm an app developer and mom. While raising my daughter, I have become passionate about early childhood STEM opportunities and frustrated with the "distraction" apps frequently offered to young children. I paid close attention to the activities my child found engrossing, like touch-and-listen books, drawing, earning stickers, touching reactive items and also to what caused her frustration as a pre-reader. While every parenting style is different, I've come to believe that there's a real market for wholesome, thoughtful applications that provide fun, safe, guided experiences for young children that parents can feel GOOD about, or at least- LESS GUILTY about.