App review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated September 2014
Kalley's Machine Plus Cats
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Kalley's Machine Plus Cats

Story inspired by kid's drawing features interactive machine, and cats

Get it now
  • Download on Google Play
  • Download from App Store
Learning rating
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Grades
Pre-K–1
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts, Science
Price:  $2.99
Platforms:  Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
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Take a look inside

5 images
A 4-year-old's drawing inspired the app.
Kids turn cranks and operate machines.
Color mixer lets kids combine primary colors.
Kids control the heat in the oven.
The machine was designed to make food so Kalley's dad wouldn't have to go to work.

Pros: STEM concepts are integrated into fun story for hands-on exploration.

Cons: Although the machine's controls are adorably integrated into the theme, their purposes aren't obvious.

Bottom Line: Kids will love the story and enjoy exploring the interactive features over and over.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Kalley's Machine Plus Cats is an engaging and informative read-aloud for a kindergarten or first-grade class, but it can become much more. Teachers could use it to kick off a project-based learning unit in which kids use their own drawings to create a picture book (or interactive book app). Students could read the background on the developer's website to see where the idea came from and use that inspiration to brainstorm their own ideas for writing about how they'd solve a problem or make life better in their own homes. Teachers could integrate science after reading the story by mixing colors or building Rube Goldberg machines.

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Standards:

Kalley's Machine Plus Cats is an interactive book inspired by a 4-year-old's drawing. The real Kalley drew a picture of a machine that would make food so her dad didn't have to leave home to commute to a new job. Rather than make the machine, her dad helped her turn it into a story and app with impressive interactive features demonstrating several science concepts.

The storybook app invites kids to tap, explore, and discover as the story is narrated by Kalley and her father, with Kalley explaining a different part of her machine on each page. A crank makes it go, and levers and dials control it. A boiler controls the pressure, and bashers and pokers smash and poke objects that look a lot like marshmallows as they go down an assembly line. A shrinker shrinks them, and an oven cooks (and sometimes burns) them. Then they're painted, with kids mixing the colors using combinations of red, yellow, and blue; shaped; picked; and finally presented as food. 

Kalley's excitement about her cool machine is contagious, and her spirit, even at the end of the book when her dad explains that he works for more things than food, is undeterred as she exclaims "That's OK. I'll make machines for those too!" The machine is really cool -- with interactions that are fun and educational. Kids adjust dials, flip switches, turn cranks and more to control the machine. The cat is there, too, doing what cats do -- watching and interacting as well. The options are controlled by levers and switches, too, letting kids choose text highlighting or not, read-aloud or not, sound effects on or off, music on or off, and the cat on or off. Kalley's Machine Plus Cats is a delightful interactive book that kids will want to read, or at least explore, over and over.

Overall Rating
Engagement

Every page features new interactions that control the machine and influence the cat's funny responses to what's going on around it. 

Pedagogy

Kalley's artistic and engineering-oriented thinking is inspiring for boys and girls. Kids are empowered to explore the machine on every page, seeing the effects of each interaction.

Support

The developer's website includes background on how the story was created, along with a list of concepts teachers can explore more with budding engineers.

Common Sense reviewer
Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher
See how we rate and review

Key Standards Supported

Reading Informational Text

  • RI.K.1

    With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

  • RI.K.2

    With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

  • RI.K.3

    With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

  • RI.K.4

    With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

  • RI.K.7

    With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

  • RI.K.8

    With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

  • RI.K.10

    Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

  • RI.1.1

    Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

  • RI.1.2

    Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

  • RI.1.3

    Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

  • RI.1.4

    Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.

  • RI.1.7

    Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

  • RI.1.8

    Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

  • RI.1.9

    Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

  • RI.1.10

    With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1.

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Key Standards Supported

Engineering Design

  • 3-5-ETS1-1

    Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

  • K-2-ETS1-1

    Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

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