Rounds: Franklin Frog is a great interactive nonfiction app for toddlers and preschoolers. It explores the life cycle of a frog — including feeding, hibernation, mating, birth, growing from tadpoles, and maturation — in a way that young children can understand and are intrigued to explore more.
When kids start the app, they will see the frog Franklin sitting on a lily pad greeting them.
On each page of the app, there are some interactive elements waiting for the kids to explore. For example, on the page talking about how frogs move on land, kids will see Franklin jump by swiping a finger on the cute little frog. On the page about how frogs move in water, kids can tap on the frog and lead the frog swimming back and forth to avoid Herons. Each time the kids tap on the frog, the little frog will offer a fun fact related to that page’s content, like “my eyes are on my top, so I can see even when I am swimming”.
The app covers the whole life cycle of the frog, starting from places they live, food they eat, ways to catch food, to hibernating, mating and laying eggs, to changing from tadpoles to frogs, … and then a new cycle begins with a new frog named Fraser…
The design of the app is excellent. All the narration is in children’s voice. The voice is cute yet very clear. The background music fits the theme very well. The pictures are bold and simple. The interaction is plenty but not overwhelming. The overall flow of the app is smooth and at the right pace for a preschool child.
Here is a short video to give you a feel of the app. It is not the same app, but it is an app in the same series from the same developer.
