This depends on your students’ needs and your access to iPads.  That said, many teachers use Monster during small-group instruction, independent learning, and centers. Monster en Español is ideal for these and similar times.

We created Monster en Español because ongoing research strongly suggests that learning a second language at a young age positively impacts creativity and critical thinking. The reason we started with Spanish is because nearly 20 million children in the U.S. are Spanish speakers.

Yes! If you are familiar with Monster, you will understand the premise of Monster en Español. When creating this learning tool, the Osmo team took into account that many teachers who support Spanish speakers have limited knowledge of Spanish. For that reason, the product has instructions in English and the onboarding is designed to be intuitive.  

Just like Monster, Monster en Español is a learning tool that is designed to foster creativity while growing vocabularies and advancing listening skills. The primary difference, however, is that Monster en Español is in Spanish. We anticipate teachers using Monster en Español in two ways:

1. To support native Spanish speakers. Whether you are teaching Spanish speakers in a bilingual setting, providing extra help as an ELL instructor, or looking for a new center designed for Spanish speakers, we believe Monster en Español is a valuable tool for teachers serving students whose native language is Spanish.

2. To introduce the foundations of Spanish to students who are learning the language. Just as Monster is being used by teachers who teach English language learners, Monster en Español is perfect for teachers who are teaching their students Spanish. Monster en Español can be used with students with an elementary knowledge of Spanish.

As a small start-up company, we do not currently have the resources to adapt Osmo for the needs of specific special needs populations, however, we hope to be able to do so in the future. If you have suggestions you'd like to share with our game development team, please use our feedback form to do so.

Many customers with special needs children at home or in the classroom report a great deal of success and enjoyment using Osmo. That said, this information is purely anecdotal, and may not be representative of the experience your child or grandchild will have. We suggest purchasing the Osmo Genius Kit from Amazon or on our website to give it a try, and, if it's not a great fit, return it for a full or partial refund. (Please review the returns policy before making your purchase).

In the meantime, we also recommend that you check out our forums for special needs curriculum ideas:
https://my.playosmo.com/forums

More help on our apps is available here:
https://my.playosmo.com/en/help

Please note that you can extend the Words game by creating custom albums (that may include any visual content that you think is appropriate). Please use these links to see what other people have created and create new content:

https://my.playosmo.com/words
https://my.playosmo.com/words/help

You can also extend the Numbers game by using Houghton Mifflin Harcourt lesson plans and manipulatives:
http://www.hmhco.com/osmo

Here is a short summary of several of our games that can be enjoyed by high school students.

Masterpiece:

Masterpiece is truly an all-ages game. Toddlers to adults love it, whether it's drawing cartoon characters or intricate architecture. A popular hit has been self-portraits. Some additional uses are tracing Chinese characters, cursive letters, and sketching with watercolor painting.

Newton:

The first third of Newton will be fairly straightforward and easy. But the rest of its levels are very challenging and fun. Newton also helps build logic and problem-solving skills, as well as some engineering creativity! We've had older test users come up with very interesting ways to beat Newton.

Tangram:

Tangram has a Hard and Harder levels that are great for high schoolers (and even college students!). There are 600 puzzles for students to solve with either very few hints or no hints at all. Because these are puzzles, they help build logic and problem-solving skills for students.

Words:

The 'Hard' and 'Impossible' levels in Words are really challenging for ages 12+. We've had many high school and college students get very active and competitive! Think of Words as a combination of iSpy and Hangman. Students use critical thinking to guess the word and also have to race each other to spell it. Additionally, there is a web tool where teachers can create customized Words games using their own photos and word choices:

https://my.playosmo.com/words/help

Teachers have found this feature extremely helpful for vocabulary review and spelling games. Plus, of course, Words is great for learning foreign languages.

You can view your students' progress and other profile information at your myOsmo page:

https://my.playosmo.com

To check any of the profiles on your account, select 'Profiles' from the dropdown menu under your username, then click any profile icon to go that profile page.

If you have a large number of student profiles that need to be transferred between accounts, please send the information to us at support@playosmo.com, and we'll help transfer the profiles.

To prevent security issues, you must use the activation code to connect the iPads.

To connect an iPad to your myOsmo account using your activation code, please open any Osmo app and tap the myOsmo button (or a profile avatar button) in the top right corner of the home screen. Then tap 'Log-in', and tap 'School Login' in the pop-up window to connect with your activation code.

The school login doesn't log into the browser, so the students can't access the teacher's account.

If a teacher uses the email login to connect the iPads, then yes, her students can access the account and delete it. But she can also sign out from the browser to prevent that (and that won't log out the Osmo apps).

Please also see our PDF guide to myOsmo here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithmyOsmoAccountsProfiles.pdf

To add student profiles, please log into your myOsmo account at my.playosmo.com and click on 'myProfiles' on top of the page. You will be able to easily add multiple profiles and even upload a spreadsheet.

To upload a spreadsheet, first export it in CSV format. Here are the instructions for Microsoft Excel (other spreadsheet programs have similar options):

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba

Or simply create a text file with student names and grade levels that looks, e.g., like this:

JohnSmith,PreK
MarySmith,1st grade
......

(PLEASE NOTE: profile names can only contain English alphabet letters and numbers; no spaces or special characters are allowed.)

You can also create profiles inside Osmo apps. To add player profiles inside an Osmo app, open any Osmo app on your iPad and tap on the myOsmo icon in the top right hand corner of the home screen. Then tap 'Create New' and choose an avatar for your new profile.

Once you have created one profile, you can tap on that profile's icon in the top right corner to get back to the profile creation screen and add more profiles.

Once you create the profiles on one iPad, they will show up on any other iPads you may be using with Osmo. If they don't, please restart the Osmo apps, and the profiles should show up.

Please also see our PDF guide to myOsmo here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithmyOsmoAccountsProfiles.pdf

You can delete student profiles at your myOsmo page (https://my.playosmo.com).

After you log in, click 'myProfiles' on top of the page, then select the profiles you wish to delete (or click 'Select all' to select all of them) and click 'Delete'.

Please also see our PDF guide to myOsmo here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithmyOsmoAccountsProfiles.pdf

To set up a new Osmo, every teacher needs go to this URL (which is printed on the inside of every Osmo product box):

https://my.playosmo.com/start

From there they'll receive a one-time activation code, which is only needed the very first time an iOS device is connected.

We have a video with Osmo setup instructions here:

https://youtu.be/vVK8R9N-Dh4

Each teacher can then create student profiles under his or her myOsmo account if they need to save their students' game progress. In some cases, we've seen teachers create a single profile for an entire class (if saving individual game progress is not important).

To add student profiles, please log into your myOsmo account at [my.playosmo.com](my.playosmo.com) and click on 'myProfiles' on top of the page. You will be able to easily add multiple profiles and even upload a spreadsheet.

To upload a spreadsheet, first export it in CSV format. Here are the instructions for Microsoft Excel (other spreadsheet programs have similar options):

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba

Or simply create a text file with student names and grade levels that looks, e.g., like this:

JohnSmith,PreK
MarySmith,1st grade
......

(PLEASE NOTE: profile names can only contain English alphabet letters and numbers; no spaces or special characters are allowed.)

You can also create profiles inside Osmo apps. To add player profiles inside an Osmo app, open any Osmo app on your iPad and tap on the myOsmo icon in the top right hand corner.

Once you have created one profile, you can tap on that profile's icon in the top right corner to get back to the profile creation screen and add more profiles.

After you create the profiles on one iPad, they will show up on any other iPads you may be using with Osmo. If they don't, please restart the Osmo apps, and the profiles should show up.

Also, please see our instructions for myOsmo account creation and management here:

https://www.playosmo.com/static/downloads/GettingStartedWithmyOsmoAccountsProfiles.pdf

Osmo Ambassadors make up the part of our Osmo Community that is truly passionate about the uses and benefits that Osmo brings to schools. As a result of this passion, this network of educators goes over and beyond to share about Osmo at conferences across the nation, staff trainings, district-level meetings, and social media. These educators understand the impact Osmo can have on student engagement and classroom curriculum, so they understand that if more classrooms have Osmo, then more students will be engaged. In exchange for this representation, we provide our ambassadors with support, experiences, and rewards that take their Osmo engagement to the next level. Our ambassador program is limited to those that reside within the U.S. at this time. We plan to make this program worldwide in the future! Click here to learn more.

You can get started by logging in to myOsmo and visiting Osmo Curriculums. From there you can download the Teacher’s Guide and choose from over 60 lesson plans, hand-crafted for Osmo by teachers like you. Collaborate with other teachers and share ideas!

We recommend that each teacher create his/her own myOsmo account and then create a profile for each student. There is no limit to the number of accounts that can be used on the same Osmo.

You bet! After setting up your my.playosmo.com account and connecting a device, you can create as many profiles as needed for use with the kids in your classroom. It's a great way to keep track of individual progress.

Amazing! Join the Osmo Ambassador program to connect with other Osmo educators, contribute to Osmo curriculums, and earn rewards for spreading the word about Osmo.

Please note our ambassador program is limited to those that reside within the U.S. at this time. We plan to make this program worldwide in the future! Click here to learn more.

Osmo Curriculums is a hub of lesson plans from the Osmo educator community. Choose from over 60 available lessons and discuss them with other teachers.

Have something to contribute? Great! The more, the better.

Once you’ve submitted your lesson plan (by following these steps), simply announce it in the forums. Someone from Osmo will review it shortly!

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. STEAM includes Art.

Osmo fosters learning in key areas such as: creative problem solving, art, ‌STEAM‌ (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) and common core.

• Coding Awbie teaches logic and problem solving skills.
• Tangram fosters spatial relational skills.
• Words teaches spelling and critical thinking skills.
• Newton fosters creative problem solving skills.
• Masterpiece teaches drawing and creative confidence.
• Numbers teaches counting, addition and multiplication.
• Pizza Co. teaches math, money, fractions and nonverbal communication.
• Coding Jam helps kids get to know coding’s creative side while developing an ear for rhythm, melody and harmony.