Parents' Guide to

Tiny Trees

By Debbie Gorrell, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 3+

Plant process heavy on whimsy, light on learning.

App iPad Paid Education
Tiny Trees Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Tiny Trees App: Screenshot #1
  • Tiny Trees App: Screenshot #2
  • Tiny Trees App: Screenshot #3
  • Tiny Trees App: Screenshot #4
  • Tiny Trees App: Screenshot #5

Community Reviews

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age 5+

Based on 1 parent review

Gamer4056
Gamer4056 Adult
June 7, 2018
age 5+

Tiny Trees Parent Guide

This game is awesome. It is about TREES! I love trees! This game is fun. It is easy to play and use. There are in-app digital purchases available. Thanks for reading the 6 first sentences before this one in this review. Gift: Fun fact: Did you know that plants regenerate their limbs like starfish, some crabs, squids and octopi? When a star fish's arm or leg falls off, it regenerates a new one and the leg or arm forms a new body just like trees. Even though some people might count it as asexual reproduction, it really doesn't count because it didn't happen by birth. That is is called "body restoration" or "body renewal" because it grew a new body to replace the old one that came off. So, that means that plants, humans and other animals don't reproduce asexually. Only cells do. Cells are living organisms or micro organisms that are not counted as animals or plants and reproduce asexually like amoebas and bacteria and etc. A plant is born when it hatches from its seed or spore. I did not give much details about this "Fun fact" because I wanted to explain it appropriately.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
Too much consumerism
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

In TINY TREES kids start on a spaceship, where they'll find two characters sitting in chairs, as well as a tiny seed in the center of the screen. By tapping, dragging, and exploring the graphics, kids can interact with the characters and other graphics on the screen. They can water the seed, give it sunlight, play music for it, and give it nutrients in the form of a rainbow-colored blob. The seed slowly grows into a seedling and then a midsized plant. It eventually grows into a tree, and the spaceship lands on a whimsical planet. Kids can continue to interact with the graphics, all while a moon plays a song as a campfire burns. At the end of the activity, kids drag pictures of their adventure into a photo album.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1):
Kids say: Not yet rated

With its colorful, interactive graphics, this exploration app has a lot of initial appeal but fails to deliver rich content and replay value. Although kids learn some basics about plant growth, they'll likely have a hard time making sense of the oddly placed and irrelevant animations. A more realistic setting and some audio instructions and information could help make a better connection to science. For the price point, there could be additional activities or at least options to do more with the plant. It's definitely beautiful, and, with some adjustments, it could be a nice combination of science and art. 

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the importance of growing and taking care of plants. How is the process of growing a plant in real life the same as and different from the process in Tiny Trees?

  • Make sure kids know that in real life, scientists have not discovered any plants that grow on other planets. As far as we know, Earth is the only place they grow.

  • Have kids make a flip-book showing a tree growing from a seed to an adult. Each page of the book should be a drawing of a stage of plant growth, starting with a seed and ending with an adult tree. When the pages of the book are "flipped," it creates an animation of the plant growth.

App Details

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