Appy-Picking Month: Toca Train

I have always been a huge fan of Toca Boca apps.  I think they are play (and world) schema realized through interactive, beautiful, engaging apps. Toca Train ($1.99) is one of the more recent releases and doesn't disappoint in its overall experience and language-enhancing potential. Toca Train offers our often vehicle (and choo-coo) loving students the opportunity to run their own train, controlling speed, point of view, and passenger and cargo onloading and offloading:

Language Lens:
-Toca Train provides the opportunity to build concepts and prepositions (in/out, up/down, on/off, front/back) through view changes and actions, WH-questions regarding who is on the train, where you are going next, and why specific cargoes would be useful, as well as descriptive language.
-Toca Train could also be used for social-pragmatic and play-skill-building purposes in conjunction with a simple train set such as those available at IKEA.
-Consider pairing Toca Train with a narrative or expository picture book about trains such as Night Train, a great 5 Senses Book.

Common Core Connection:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.