4.4
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Foldify Zoo – Create, Print and Fold Paper Animals! App Review

App Info

Price: $3.99

Overview

Foldify Zoo – Create, Print and Fold Paper Animals! allows users to choose animals, decorate and add details to the patterns, then print, cut and fold them into real three-dimensional models that they can use for toys, decorations and more. Save the animals into your own personal zoo or upload them to the online zoo for everyone to enjoy.

Features include:

  • 3D preview of all projects
  • Robust tools for decoration, including paint, eye dropper, and printed features
  • Share creations digitally or on the Foldify website
  • Compatible with AirPrint or create PDF file
  • Includes 10 animals

Quality

Foldify Zoo is a quality app that will help your kids connect digital fun to the real world.  The animal patterns include all of the cut-and-fold lines needed to make them “work,” and the system for adding details and color even allows artists to preview their creations on the three-D model.  Each animal includes an informative paragraph and a world map showing range.  However, the text included is at a very high reading level, using words like “herbivorous” and “crocodilian,” which may not be familiar vocabulary for younger children, and more troubling, the grammar of the text sections includes a lot of poorly-constructed sentences or sentences with missing punctuation.  Some proofreading is definitely in order.

Education

This app will really get the creative juices flowing for most children (of nearly any age). Many will find the interface fascinating-when adding colors, designs and features to the cut-out animal patterns, the app immediately puts them onto the 3-D model showing to the side of the pattern section.  Kids can swipe to rotate and see the creature from all angles.  They’ll be able to tell exactly how their artwork will look on the finished piece.

Once the creature is completed, the app can use AirPrint or print to PDF to get the pattern out into the real world and onto paper, where it can be cut out, folded and glued into a replica.  This aspect is great for developing fine-motor skills and for improving the ability to follow directions.

It’s a nice touch to include the paragraph of information about each animal, and the text includes many interesting facts.  Some children may need a bit of help translating the material into more accessible language, however, and it is a concern that the grammar leaves something to be desired.  Extend the learning by looking at the range map on the device’s screen, then finding the same regions on a globe.

Entertainment

Foldify Zoo will be fascinating to any child that loves animals or that enjoys arts and crafts.  With the models given and the examples from the online zoo, kids will get a plentitude of ideas to try, and may even want to start an entire collection of creatures to decorate their bedroom shelves.  The little paper animals may turn into toys or even gifts for loved ones.

Value

Foldify Zoo is $3.99 in the App Store, which isn’t too much if you’re fairly certain your child will enjoy it.  It would be nice if the developers provided a free sample to allow parents and teachers to try out one of the projects and see what they and their children thought about it from start to finish.

Child Friendliness

Foldify Zoo is child friendly.  The parent gate that protects links to the App Store and similar content should be strengthened, however.  It requires users to swipe two fingers in the stated direction, and some of the children using the app may well be able to read well enough to bypass this protection.  Also, the app does connect to an on-line zoo where everyone can upload their creations, and does contain a link to “flag” inappropriate artwork.

  • NO social media
  • NO in-app purchase
  • NO 3rd party ads
  • YES “more apps” (protected, but visible via pop-up)
Foldify Zoo – Create, Print and Fold Paper Animals!
Foldify Zoo
Foldify Zoo - Create, Print and Fold Paper Animals! is one of those rare apps that reaches out into the real world and gets kids interacting beyond the screen of their devices. Let them enjoy creating animal figures in the digital world and with real paper and scissors.
Quality
Education
Entertainment
Value
Child Friendly
4.4
Where to Buy