This afternoon, for the first time ever, I let my toddler use my iPad. I hadn’t planned on letting her play with it, but I had it open to play music and she grabbed it while I was changing her sister’s diaper. She enjoyed pushing the button and seeing things change when she tapped the screen. Before I put the iPad away, I showed her and let her play with the Draw and Tell app.

Draw and Tell is a free iPad app that kids can use to create simple animated stories. At its most basic level Draw and Tell provides a blank canvas on which students can draw pictures and or write notes. The app provides a variety of canvas options including a blank screen, lined screens, graph paper, and colorful background borders. Kids can draw on the canvas by using virtual pencils, pens, crayons, and paints. There are also options to apply digital stickers and stencils to creations in Draw and Tell.

Draw and Tell is more than just a drawing tool. The app includes options for kids to record themselves talking about the things they are drawing. Those recordings are saved with their drawings as simple video files. All of the files are saved in the app. Students can combine their video files to make longer animations.