Epic!

Epic! is an online database of thousands of books and videos geared for kids in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. Teachers and Librarians can sign up for a free account and upload class rosters. Students can sign in with a classroom code and get a personalized account where it tracks the books they read. Teachers can make collections of books for their class and monitor their progress, and also make quizzes the kids will be prompted to take after finishing a book. Epic! is available either in website version or through the app, which is available on IOS and Android devices.

I signed up for a free educator account and was pleasantly surprised at the number of resources available. They have both well known books like Fancy Nancy and Thomas the Train as well as Epic original resources. I really liked that in the books that are read to you, the words are magnified while they are being said aloud,which helps students track while they are being read to. I also noted that the app lets you browse by reading level, grade, or type of resource.

I can see this being a useful app for both teachers and librarians. If the students have access to iPads, reading on Epic (or having a book read to them) would be a great way to introduce a topic they will continue to explore other ways in the classroom. Even young students can navigate the app easily to find what they want to read, listen to, or watch. It's a great way to introduce the basics of research to young students. I also like that Epic has many books that are read to you. This helps young students and struggling readers to still be able to use the same app and complete the same assignments as others.

Students can also sign up for a home account of Epic, which would allow them to continue to have access in the summer. The first month is free, and it is $7.99 per month after that. Families can have up to 4 reader profiles on their account so multiple kids can read through the same account. Kids can access their school account through their personal home account when the teacher or librarian.

This is an application I allowed my four year old daughter to explore. I felt comfortable allowing her to read books on her own after showing her how to use the app. She really liked the read to me books as she is a beginning reader and this made her feel like she was reading along with the voice. She asked me to look up videos on different subjects after reading books about it, and I thought that would also be a wonderful way to utilize this app in the classroom.