Pines to Vines – The Forest Biome

***** 2014 Kapi Award – Honorable Mention
***** Flawlessly Designed – Children’s Book Review
***** Editors Choice Award – Children’s Technology Review
***** A Masterpiece – Teachers with Apps
***** Near Perfection – Mobile iEducator
***** Phenomenal – Technology in Education

Pines to Vines is a state of the art, elementary science book based on the forest biome. Developed in collaboration with Oregon State University’s Department of Forestry and a team of educators, this standards based, core curriculum aligned digital book includes both interactive enhancements and universal design accessibility features.

Pines to Vines is part of our Crack the Books series of interactive non-fiction books. Crack the Books are the first digital books that can be ADJUSTED FOR READING LEVEL without sacrificing curriculum content. Targeting 3rd to 5th grade science and social studies core curriculum concepts, our digital books allow for reading level adjustment from 1st grade to 8th grade, making it possible for all students in a classroom to access the same curriculum content regardless of their reading ability.

Designed with the goal of improving reading comprehension, fostering a love of learning, and building reading confidence, Pines to Vines gives educators a powerful new teaching tool to help all students, from children with special needs to those who are academically gifted.

Pines to Vines covers a variety of topics, including forest layers, range and climate of forest biomes, plant and animal wildlife, adaptations, benefits of forests, and forest threats. Students will learn about all major forest types including tropical moist forests, tropical/subtropical dry forests, tropical/subtropical coniferous forests, temperate coniferous forests, temperate broadleaf forests, Mediterranean forests, riverine forests, mangroves and boreal forests.

Crack the Books features hundreds of supportive audio and visual elements including beautiful high definition photographs, integrated video footage, fun facts, custom animations, custom images, and interactive charts, tables and globes. There are comprehension supports built into the text, with pop up definitions for associated new vocabulary. Students may further interact with the content by creating bookmarks, highlights and study notes.

Crack The Books helps teachers manage their classrooms by including interactive tests and glossaries for each chapter and each reading level. Students will answer questions in a variety of formats including Drag and Drop, True/False, Multiple Choice, Vocabulary Matching, and Essay. All non-essay test questions are automatically graded, allowing educators to efficiently monitor students’ mastery of concepts and reading comprehension skills.

Teachers can further manage multiple iPads by assigning personal Dropbox folders to store student bookmarks, highlights, study notes and test results. Teachers may also create custom tests and integrate them seamlessly with their classroom iPads.

For students with special needs, there are additional settings for common classroom and assessment accommodations including text to speech, answer dictation, image reinforcement and text zooming.

The combination of multiple reading levels and multiple testing levels gives teachers and schools unprecedented flexibility to use a single book across multiple grades as well as in classrooms with a broad spectrum of readers.

Features:
Lexile certified reading levels from 1st to 8th grade
Core curriculum aligned content
Visual supports for comprehension
Over 100 high-resolution images
Videos and custom animations
Interactive globes and maps
Built in vocabulary definitions
Interactive glossary with record feature
30 individual chapter quizzes, 6 final tests
Custom tests
Built in test grading
Text to speech
Integrated voice over features
Text zoom
Bookmarks for multiple students
Dropbox integration

Requires iPad2 and above.