I am so excited to review the Crayola Create and Play app today. Before I start I wanted to let you know Crayola gave me an iTunes gift card to review this app. And they are so nice they are giving one of you the chance to win a gift card to play this app too. Look out on my facebook, Instagram and Twitter December 10 to find out how to enter.
Crayola has had many apps over the years. Currently they have; Crayola My Virtual Fashion Show, Crayola Easy Animator, Crayola Design & Drive, Color Alive 2.0, Crayola Virtual Design Pro, Crayola Fashion Superstar, Crayola Photo Strings, Crayola DigiTools Effects, Crayola Digi Tools 3-D, Crayola DigiTools Airbrush, Crayola DigiTools Paint and Crayola Funny Faces. Even before there were apps Crayola's website was chalked full of activities, paid and non paid. The newest app from Crayola is just as good as the rest and functions better in my opinion.
What is the Crayola Create and Play app?
The Crayola Create and Play app is designed for 3 to 5 year olds. The app is very intuitive. It uses common symbols enclosed in a white square, such as; play buttons, maps, abc's game controllers, and paint buckets to enter different areas of the app. The colors in the app are vibrant and life like. The graphics are full of Crayola's signature style with crayon boxes, characters and lots of colors. The app opens to an animated scrolling menu where blue, red, yellow, green, pink, and green Crayola Tip characters are standing by an activity center.
The app is subscription based 3.99 per month before December 15 or 5.99 after or 39.99 yearly (which is a discount). New content will be added monthly. This app is available on Apple App Store and Google Play. Subscription services have been on the rise with apps and I am not surprised. Back in the day companies could charge a lot for programs. With the advent of the iPhone, apps were free or really cheap. I find that good quality apps usually cost money even a subscription, unfortunately.
Here is what is currently behind each crayon.
Blue-Art Station
This station includes, coloring pages, free draw, and a gallery.
Gallery: Parents can see what children have done in the app at a quick glance. There is a picture of each activity with the date.
Blank and Coloring Pages: There are lots of different art mediums to choose from when coloring; crayon, marker, colored pencil, shapes, roller, special effects, stamper, and paint brush. They are accurately represented on the page. There are many coloring pages to choose from. It has come a long way since MS Paint.
Red-Pet Park
Pet Zone has 3 islands where children can play, dress and care for their Crayola pets.
Yellow-Color Lab
The activity stations include; melt and mold (pictured below), gallery station of melt and mold, popping wax and making crayons, putting crayons in the crayon pack, making crayons, and video of how crayons are made.
This is the melt and mold station. Kids choose a color and medium. Then they can make a shape out of what they have chosen. The bottom right corner shows what we have made so far.
This is where kids can pop the balls and make a crayon. I do not know why this one is not in the games section, but my kids like it. I guess it goes in this section because they are making a crayon?
Pink-Colorful Classroom
The activity center includes; ABC Zone, Color and shape matching, rudimentary programming, and spray letters.
Here are all the activity centers.
Green-Arcade
The games include: Color Critters, Pet Dash, Puzzle Painter, and Scoop Stack.
Here are all the games.
Throughout the app children earn points for doing activities. They get to open this chest when they earn enough power. It includes play items for their pet.
What did we think of this app?
Both of my kids, age 5 and 8 loved this app. Even though the app is only designed for 3 to 5 year olds my 8 year old girl probably enjoyed it more than the 5 year old. My daughter even woke me up at 6 am one day wanting to play. I told her no, and let her play it after lunch. No need encouraging her to be in the habit to wake up super early for electronics. This portion of the app would be a hit with the 5-11 age range.
We liked this app because there was so many different areas to explore. It was definitely worth the subscription cost. There were no ads during play or activities my kids could not do. That is the worst when they are playing an app and all of the sudden they click on something that needs money or on an ad. I end up explaining no, we can not have that over and over. That was not a worry with the Crayola app. I would definitely do the yearly plan because it saves money over time.
What would we change?
If I were Crayola I would market this app to a larger age range. My daughter loved the Pet Zone the most. She would play it every day if I let her. I think the Pet Zone has the potential to become the next Tamagotchi. I would also add child profiles so each child could have their own unique app experience. Other than that it is great and I would definitely recommend it.
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