🇹🇷 Türkçe · 🇬🇧 English

Aktapokus Kids English: User Guide

For: Teachers, parents and children (together with a parent)
Version: 5 October 2026
App: https://aktapokus.github.io/kids-english/
Teacher panel: https://aktapokus.github.io/kids-english/teacher.html

Independence note: Aktapokus Kids English is an independent volunteer project. It is not official material of the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MEB) and has not been approved by it; the national English curriculum is used as a source for content and sequence.

Language note: The app itself can be switched between Turkish and English (tap Aktapokus > language). Button names below are the ones shown in the app's English mode. The teacher panel is currently in Turkish only, so its buttons are given in Turkish with the English meaning in brackets.

Contents

1. What is the app?
2. Quick start
3. What does the child do in the app?
4. Parent guide: what can I follow, and where?
5. Teacher guide: what can I do, and how?
6. Suggested routines
7. Data and privacy
8. FAQ and troubleshooting
9. Known limits and what is coming

1. What is the app?

Aktapokus Kids English is an English vocabulary, listening and speaking app for primary school and the first years of secondary school (grades 2–6, plus a B1 start for grade 7 and above).

• Content basis: The Turkish Ministry of Education (MEB) English curriculum (Maarif Model, grades 2–6) and the Cambridge YLE word lists. The app uses British English: colour, autumn, rubbish.
• Method: Every word is taught with a picture, audio and an example sentence. Words come back again and again in different but similar sentences. At primary level, grammar rules and terms are not memorised; structures are learned from examples, in context (the Maarif approach).
• No account needed. No ads, no trackers. Progress is stored on the child's own device.
• Who makes it? Not a company: I am developing the app on my own, as a volunteer. It is free and nothing is sold. My aim is equal opportunity: access to a good learning tool should not depend on a family's budget. English is the first step; in the same spirit, I would like to build free tools for primary science, maths and coding too, and grow them into a learning ecosystem.
• Guide character: Aktapokus, a six-armed octopus. The lens of his glasses changes colour with the situation: when he is thinking, when an answer is right, or when he is not sure.

About level labels: Labels such as "A1 · 1" or "Grade 2" are stops inside the app. They are not an official CEFR exam result or placement.

2. Quick start

For parents (5 minutes)

1. Open the app on a phone or tablet. To add it to the home screen, use "Add to Home screen" in the browser menu. After that the app also opens without internet.
2. On the "Who's playing?" screen, create a profile for your child. Siblings can use separate profiles on the same device. To remove a profile, tap the ⇄ chip on the home screen, press 🗑️ Remove a user and answer the parent question. A profile's progress lives only on that device; save a backup first with 💾 Back up first and you can restore it from the Parent Area.
3. Check the sound: tap Aktapokus, then 🔊 Sound Test. Aktapokus should say "Hello, I am Aktapokus".
4. If the teacher gave you a class code: tap Aktapokus, open 🎨 Avatar, type the code in the Class section at the bottom. The name that will be sent to the teacher is shown below it; a nickname is fine. A parent reads the data notice and ticks the consent box; only then does Join work.
5. Open the Parent Area once and look around (see Section 4).

For teachers (10 minutes)

1. Open the teacher panel, enter an email and a password and press Hesap Oluştur (Create account). Click the confirmation link in your email, then Giriş Yap (Sign in).
2. Create a class for each group, for example 3-A. The number at the start of the class name decides which grade the panel's MEB unit view opens.
3. Write the class code you get (format ABCD-1234) on the board or send it to the parents' group.
4. Students appear in the list as they join. While the app is open and online, data updates about once a minute.

Offline use and updates

After it has been opened once with internet, the app works offline. To make sure:

1. Do the first opening on a good connection and leave the app open for a few minutes. The app downloads the core files at once and the pictures and sounds in the background (about 47 MB in total). If it is closed early, the rest is completed the next time it opens online. The home screen shows "⬇️ Preparing for offline use …%"; when it says "✅ Ready to use offline", you are done.
2. Add it to the home screen ("Add to Home screen" / "Install app"). On iPhone and iPad this is very important: Safari may delete saved files and progress for sites that are not on the home screen if they are not used for a while.
3. Make sure an English voice is installed. Aktapokus speaks with the phone's own text-to-speech voice. For offline speech the phone needs an English voice pack. If the app notices one is missing, it shows the parent step by step how to install it on first launch, with a Test the voice button; you can always check with 🔊 Sound Test.
4. Don't use a private (incognito) tab. Everything is deleted when the tab closes.
5. Before clearing browser data, use Download backup in the Parent Area.

What needs internet: speech recognition in the 🎤 Speak step (without internet the child says the word and presses Next), class sync, the weekly task, and problem reports. Work done offline is not lost; it is sent when the connection returns.

Updates arrive by themselves. Just open the app while online: new content arrives straight away, new pictures download in the background, and the app refreshes itself once while on the home screen (never in the middle of a game or episode). A device that was switched off catches up the next time it opens. Only changed files are downloaded (usually a few hundred KB), not the whole app.

For schools with weak internet: Open the tablets once on the school or home Wi-Fi and leave them for a few minutes; after that they can be used offline in class.

3. What does the child do in the app?

3.1 Home screen

3.2 Adventure (the space journey)

• Each station is a grade: Moon = grade 2, Mars = grade 3, Jupiter = grade 4, Saturn = extra topics (A1+), Neptune = grade 5 (A2), Galaxy = grade 6 (A2), Nebula = B1 start.
• Each planet is a topic. When a planet's episodes are finished, the next one unlocks.
• A child who already knows a topic can move ahead with a jump test (80% correct). The grade jump test moves them to the next grade.
• Planets already passed can be replayed at any time.
• Grammar structures open by grade: past and future from grade 4 (Jupiter), comparisons from A2.

3.3 The steps of an episode

Each episode has 4–6 words. The steps come in order; the icons at the top show which step the child is on.

Steps cannot be skipped; the icons at the top only go back to a step already reached. The one exception is the Speak step when there is a sound or microphone problem.

Some topics add extra rounds between Sentence and Letters:

• Dialogues / Find the question: The child reads the answer and chooses which question word (Who, What, Where…) should be asked.
• Twins: Matching a verb with its past form (go – went).
• Fill the gap: Choosing the right word for the gap in a sentence. In the Time Machine, this round comes with a timeline.
• Remember: A short review with words from earlier episodes and stations.

In the Structures topics (verb twins, time machine, rules, "made of / born in"), the picture shows the card's sentence, not the word on its own. For example, "came" cannot be shown with a picture by itself. So the Quiz step shows and reads the sentence ("Grandma came to our house."), with the target phrase highlighted.

When an episode ends, a celebration screen appears. If a parent or teacher has chosen a session length (default: 2 episodes), this screen asks "Continue, or tomorrow?" (see 4.3).

3.4 Library (free practice)

Any topic can be opened without waiting for its turn in the Adventure.

3.5 Sing & Move

• Chants: days, numbers, the body, colours, months, seasons.
  • 🗣️ Listen & repeat: Aktapokus reads a line, then the screen says "Your turn!" and gives the child time to repeat it.
  • 🎵 All together: The lines are read without pauses.
  • The movement for each line (clap, jump, wave…) is shown with an emoji. Tapping a single line reads only that line.
• Aktapokus Says: Aktapokus's version of "Simon Says". If the command starts with "Aktapokus says…", the child does the movement and presses 🙋; if it doesn't, they stay still and press ✋. 10 rounds; no penalties, only stars. The decision is made by ear: the "says" part is not shown on screen until the child answers.
• Great for playing with the whole class on the smart board.

3.6 Stars, streaks, avatar and reward games

• ⭐ Star: Every finished episode is a star.
• 🔥 Streak: The number of days in a row the child has practised.
• Avatar: As stars and streaks grow, new colours, hats and friends unlock for the avatar.
• Reward games (the river game, the jigsaw) open with a play pass. There are two ways to earn one:
  1. Study for 15 minutes without a break, then get at least 3 right in the 5-question quiz that follows.
  2. Reach a station in the Adventure.

The game is a reward for learning; it doesn't replace learning.

4. Parent guide: what can I follow, and where?

4.1 Opening the Parent Area

Tap Aktapokus and choose 👪 Parent. A simple multiplication question appears. It is there so the child doesn't change settings by accident.

4.2 What is in the Parent Area?

4.3 "Continue, or tomorrow?"

When the chosen number of episodes is finished, the celebration screen offers two choices:

• ▶ Continue: Practice goes on; the counter resets.
• 🌙 Tomorrow: Aktapokus says goodbye and "Tell someone at home a word you learned today".

Short, frequent practice sticks better than long, rare practice. When your child says "tomorrow", celebrate it as a success.

4.4 How can I help at home?

• 10–15 minutes a day, at the same time each day if possible.
• Don't correct mistakes; say it back correctly. If the child says "I goed", just say "Oh, you went? Great!"
• Turn the 3 sentences from the weekly summary into a game during the day: at the table, on the way, before bed.
• Play Sing & Move together. You lead Aktapokus Says and the child follows, then swap roles.
• It doesn't matter if you don't speak English: the 🔊 buttons give the correct pronunciation. Listen and repeat together.
• Listen to the recordings your child makes and praise them; don't give scores.

4.5 What to avoid

• Don't let the reward game replace practice; play passes are earned by practising.
• Siblings shouldn't share a profile; each child's progress should be kept separately.
• When joining a class, a nickname can be used instead of the real name; the teacher knows who is who.

5. Teacher guide: what can I do, and how?

5.1 Account and sign-in

• Panel address: https://aktapokus.github.io/kids-english/teacher.html
• First time: enter an email and a password (at least 6 characters), press Hesap Oluştur (Create account), click the confirmation link in your email, then Giriş Yap (Sign in). The confirmation email comes from aktapokusai@gmail.com; if it does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
• If you forget your password, use "Şifremi unuttum" (Forgot password) to get a reset link.

5.2 Creating a class and adding students

1. Type the group's name in Yeni sınıf adı (New class name), for example 2-B, and press Sınıf Oluştur (Create class). Create a separate class for each group.
2. You get a class code (ABCD-1234). Write it on the board or send it to the parents' group.
3. What the student does: taps Aktapokus, opens 🎨 Avatar, types the code (including the dash) in the Class section at the bottom and presses Join. The name in their profile should be correct; that is the name shown in the panel.

5.3 The student list

Click the class name to open the list.

• Click a student's name to see how many episodes they finished in each topic and the words they found hardest. You can pick words to review from here.
• The 🗑 icon removes the student from the class. This cannot be undone.

5.4 View by MEB units

The 📚 MEB ünitelerine göre (By MEB units) section under the student list shows your class's progress with the unit names of the Maarif curriculum: School Life, Classroom Life, Personal Life, Family Life and so on.

• The grade is chosen automatically from the number at the start of the class name. The tabs at the top switch between grades 2–6.
• Under each unit you see the matching topics in the app and how many students have finished (✓) or started (▶) them.
• The match between a unit and an app topic is approximate; it is based on the closest topic.

5.5 Weekly task

1. In the 🎯 Haftanın görevi (Weekly task) section, press Görev ver (Set a task).
2. Use the grade tab to choose up to a few topics by unit. Selections on different tabs are kept.
3. Optionally add:
   • 🔁 Review the words they found hard
   • Not (Note), for example "On Friday we'll play a game with these words!"
   • Son gün (Due date)
   • Başlangıç sınıfı (Starting grade): students' Adventure starts from this grade (e.g. A2 for grade 5). Earlier stations count as "passed"; the starting grade is kept even if the task is removed.
   • Oturum uzunluğu (Session length): after how many episodes "Continue, or tomorrow?" is asked. If the parent has made their own choice, the parent's choice applies.
4. Press Kaydet (Save). The task appears as a 🎯 Weekly task card on the students' home screen. Students tap the card to go to the task.
5. Next to each task topic, the panel shows how many students have finished or started it. Use Değiştir (Edit) to change it and Kaldır (Remove) to delete it.

A task reaches the student's device within 10 minutes at the latest.

5.6 Classroom mode (smart board)

Classroom mode is opened from the teacher panel:

1. Sign in to the teacher panel.
2. In the 🧑‍🏫 Sınıf modu ve basılı materyal (Classroom mode and printables) box at the top, press ▶ Sınıf modunu aç (Open classroom mode). The app opens directly in classroom mode in a new tab.

Classroom mode only opens if the teacher panel is signed in on that device; the sign-in is checked with the server. Students cannot open it even if they know the link. On student devices that have joined a class, classroom mode and content review never appear in the Parent Area. For individual (home) use that is not linked to a class, parents can still open classroom mode from the Parent Area.

On the setup screen:

1. Choose a topic and an episode.
2. Choose an activity:
   • Words: Big picture, word and sentence. You control when to move on.
   • Questions (teams): The class plays as two teams, answering in turns. Options are chosen with the mouse, by touching the board, or with keys 1–4. A wrong option turns red and the other team can try. The right option reveals the answer; for picture questions the example sentence and its Turkish meaning are also shown and read aloud. You give points with + / − in the team boxes.
3. Press Start. Keyboard shortcuts: ← → move, space reveals, S reads aloud, Esc exits. For full screen, use the browser's full-screen button.

Ideas for use

• Warm-up: 5 minutes of the "Words" activity. A picture appears and the class says it together.
• End of a unit: a team contest with "Questions (teams)".
• Movement break: Library > Sing & Move > Aktapokus Says, the whole class standing up.

5.7 Printables

After choosing a topic and episode in classroom mode, use the 🖨️ Printables buttons. The "All episodes" option in the episode list prints all the words of the topic together.

The Print button prints only the material, not the app screen.

5.8 Content review (report a problem)

On your own device (one that has not joined a class), turn on Content review in the Parent Area. It is deliberately hidden on student devices. When you tap a card in the Discover step, a ⚑ Report a problem button appears.

• Choose the reason: picture doesn't match the word, sentence wrong or unnatural, Turkish meaning wrong, pronunciation/audio problem, not right for the level, or other. You can add a short note (e.g. "should be: …").
• Reports never include names or personal information.
• Without internet, the report waits on the device and is sent when the connection returns.

I read every report and fix it. Reports like "this picture doesn't match this word" are especially helpful.

5.9 Privacy: what do I see as a teacher?

• You only see the students in your own classes.
• The panel shows the name the student wrote in their profile and progress numbers. No email, phone number, location, photo or voice recording is collected.
• If a student presses Leave Class, their device stops sending data; the last state stays in the list.

5.10 Daily lesson plan and the smart board

Day-by-day lessons following the Maarif curriculum (a full year of 36 weeks: 72 lessons in grades 2–4, 2 a week; 108 lessons in grades 5–6, 3 a week). Pick the grade with the grade buttons on the left of the teacher screen. In the app, "Today's lesson" opens grade 2 lessons for a child at the Moon station of the Adventure and grade 3 lessons at Mars and grade 4 lessons at Jupiter and grade 5 lessons at Neptune and grade 6 lessons in the Galaxy. Designed so that a teacher who is not an English specialist can run the lesson: Aktapokus says everything in English and the teacher gets step-by-step notes in Turkish. The teacher controls the pace: Aktapokus says each card and waits; the teacher moves on with → (or the ▶▶ button on the board) when the class is ready. While waiting, ▶▶ blinks and the teacher screen says the board is waiting.

• Where to open it: in the teacher panel, 📘 Günlük ders planı → Ders planını aç, or the same card in the Parent Area on a device not linked to a class. No sign-in; works offline.
• Open the board: If the smart board is connected as a second screen, the window opens there directly; otherwise drag it onto the board. If the projector mirrors the screen, the teacher page is projected too: press ⛶ Full screen on the board, run the lesson with the board's own buttons, and print the lesson card for your notes. For two separate screens on Windows: Win + P → Extend.
• Lesson flow (about 30 minutes, plus 10 flexible): warm-up (Aktapokus Says) → sound of the day (the theme's letter and 3 picture words) → remember (previous lesson) → new words → game (changes every lesson: team quiz, What's missing?, mystery picture, listen and touch, odd one out; Aktapokus uses the theme's social language from the Maarif curriculum, like Good luck! and It's your turn!) → listen and understand (once per theme: a short story read line by line, then 3 true/false questions) → active learning (pair/group task with a timer; example dialogues for harder tasks in grades 4–6) → what have I learned? (theme-end lessons only: "I can…" sentences, thumbs up) → goodbye and homework.
• Teacher screen: Turkish notes for each step, the Turkish meaning of the word on the board (only for you), team scores and Back / Start / Pause / Next / Repeat buttons. Go here next to each step takes the board straight to that step; picking another lesson from the list switches the board too. These buttons work when the board is open on the same computer; otherwise they are greyed out.
• Board shortcuts: space = pause, → = next card (on the last card, the next step), ← = previous card, S = say it again.
• Done: press it at the end. If you are signed in to the teacher panel on the same computer, choose your class; the lesson is saved to the class and shows up first as "Today's lesson" in your students' app. Without a class, it is saved only on that computer.
• Printed lesson card: A4 with the Turkish notes, words and meanings.
• Illustrated step-by-step guide (Turkish): https://aktapokus.github.io/kids-english/rehber.html

6. Suggested routines

Weekly class cycle (40-minute lessons)

Daily routine at home (with a parent)

1. Word of the Day (1 min)
2. 1–2 episodes in the Adventure (10 min)
3. Finish with "Tomorrow", then the child tells someone at home a word they learned

7. Data and privacy

• No account needed. The profile, avatar and progress are stored only on the child's device.
• By default no personal data is sent. Data leaves the device only in these optional cases:
  1. Joining a class (with parent consent): The profile name (a nickname is fine) and progress go only to that class's teacher. Data is stored on Supabase servers in India. What is sent, how to delete it and your rights are in the data notice (linked from the Privacy page). Teachers can delete a student from their panel; deletion requests: bmenderes@gmail.com.
  2. Problem report: The word, the type of problem and the note are sent. No name or personal information.
• The microphone is optional. Speech recognition is done by the device's or browser's own speech service; on Android/Chrome this is a Google service.
• Voice recordings ("Record me" and story reading) stay only on this device, in the page's memory, and are deleted when you move on. The app never uploads recordings. If you want, you can share a story recording yourself with the phone's share menu.
• The weekly summary is made only from data on the device and is never sent anywhere.
• The public leaderboard has been switched off (2026-09-30).
• For details, see the Privacy page in the app: Aktapokus > bottom of the menu.

8. FAQ and troubleshooting

There is no sound.
Tap Aktapokus and run 🔊 Sound Test. Check the phone's silent mode and media volume. On Android, an English voice must be installed under Settings > Text-to-speech (TTS). The test screen tells you where the problem is.

The microphone doesn't work / it says "I couldn't hear you".
Allow the microphone from the 🔒 icon in the browser's address bar. Speak clearly, close to the phone, in a quiet place. If the microphone can't be used, it is enough to say the word out loud and press Next; the Speak step never lowers the score.

My student doesn't appear in the panel.
Make sure the code was typed correctly, including the dash, and that the device is online. After joining, the class name appears in the app.

The numbers in the panel don't update.
The student should open the app while online, or press 🔄 Sync Now in the Class section of the Avatar screen. Work done offline is not lost; it is sent when the connection returns.

The same student appears twice.
The student may have joined again from another device, or after deleting and reinstalling the app; each device counts separately. You can delete the old row with 🗑.

The student's name is wrong.
The name is the profile name at the time of joining. If the student corrects their name in the profile, leaves the class and joins again with the same code, the name is updated.

The new version hasn't arrived; I see the old screen.
The update downloads in the background; the app refreshes itself when it returns to the home screen or the map (never in the middle of a game or episode). If not, close the app completely and open it again.

I'm changing phones. Will the progress be lost?
First get the file with Parent Area > Download backup. On the new device, restore it with Restore backup.

A picture or sentence is wrong.
Turn on Content review in the Parent Area and use ⚑ Report a problem (see 5.8).

I want to report a bug or make a suggestion.
See 8.1.

8.1 Reporting a bug or making a suggestion

Every message is read. There are two ways:

1. From inside the app: tap the Aktapokus mascot on the screen. At the bottom of the menu there is a 💬 Report a bug / Suggest link. It opens your email app with a ready subject and questions. For a bug, write where you were (topic, episode or lesson) and what happened; for a suggestion, what should change and how. Device information is added automatically; no name or other personal data.
2. Email directly: bmenderes@gmail.com

For a wrong picture, sentence or meaning on a word card, Content review is fastest (see 5.8): the card itself is attached to the report.

9. Known limits and what is coming

• Aktapokus's voice comes from the device's own text-to-speech engine, so it can sound different from device to device. The app prefers a British English voice. I am considering a recorded, fixed voice option.
• Songs are read as chants, without a melody; text-to-speech engines cannot sing.
• The weekly task and problem reports need a one-time setup on the server. Until it is done, the panel shows a "database update needed" warning, and problem reports wait on the device.
• A daily reminder notification will come with the phone app (APK) version. Parents will be able to choose the time in the Parent Area.
• Level labels are stops inside the app, not an official placement.
• The app is almost ready for release and everyday use. I have checked the content against the source lists, but I don't want to spread it widely before an independent teacher or subject expert has looked at it. I will fix every mistake you spot.

Aktapokus Kids English: learning happens through repetition, and play makes repetition easy.