Community reviews for USA for Kids - games for discovering America and the US states and their capitals

I think that the USA for Kids app is a good starter for elementary students to dive into the basics of our presidents, flags, symbols, and geography. The animals portion of the app is probably the most educational for students to learn about animals native to the United States. However, this app is very surface level as students are not asked to critically engage in the material. Additionally, they received very little feedback on the activities where they were manipulating the information (for example, a red X when something is wrong, but no feedback on why it was incorrect). Overall, while I would use this as a basic introduction in the future, I think there are more engaging and in-depth, stimulating apps that teach students about American symbols, presidents and places that I would turn to for anything beyond surface level learning.

If you are going to use USA for Kids, the paid version is a must as the free version only allows students access to flags and presidents. It is a great tool for reinforcing students learning of basic content but it does not go into enough depth in many of the areas. I liked the section on states and liked that there were two level of challenges for students. For the easy challenge the states had names on them and then the students were challenged in the harder section with no labels on the states and they had to apply previously learned content and step up to a new test. Students are able to work independently and do not need require any teacher support for any of the sections. I would how students were given feedback if their answers were correct and extra time if they needed to correct their responses. All in all students enjoyed this app and their were enough parts and challenges that they would want to play the app again.

I love this app! It has a number of games focusing on the 50 states, presidents, and other US culture. All games have audio which is must if you have any student who struggles reading or an ELL student. Portions of this app are free but for a small price you can gain access to all games. I would pay for this app for sure. I really enjoyed playing with this app and learned a number of facts that I didn’t know about the United States. This app is a must!!!