Find 10 free kindergarten ipad apps for reading and math. This list includes apps that can be great independent practice or for centers.
Do you remember using dot paper as a kid? It was always one of my favorite things! My grandmother used to carefully draw the dots by h...
Check out the 10 best apps for preschoolers for iphone or ipad. Educational apps with learning games for 3 and 4 year olds.
After posting our list of Math Websites and Apps for Kids, many of you reached out and asked for educational apps for kids that do not require Wi-Fi, Internet or a huge data plan for your phone or tablet. We will not let a lack of Internet access or a limited data plan stand in […]
Bring Images to Life with the free Animate Anything iPad app. Great alternative to Chatterkid and YakIt. Students will love using this app for a variety of technology projects!
Apps are great for quick, on-the-fly therapy activities and save time and money on printing - but free speech therapy apps are even better!
Best apps for students' iPad - great for note-taking, productivity, organization, and lifestyle. Helpful for graduate and college students.
My Favorite Creation Apps for the Elementary Classroom
I first heard about the Osmo many years back. It’s an extension for the ipad (and now Kindle and iphone as well!) that includes interactive apps and games. It seemed like a cool concept, but I wasn’t sure how it would hold up practically. Was it actually a tool that encourages learning and logical thinking,...Read More »
If you’ve been around The Stay-at-Home Teacher for very long, you know we love all sorts of hands-on activities. We LOVE sensory bins, PlayDoh, hands-on Math and Literacy centers – you name it! But can I be honest with y’all? We also love some iPad apps and see value in using them during our school …
Integrating technology with back to school iPad activities & apps If you are like me, you like to spend time building your classroom community. Now that we have a class set of iPads to use, I have turned to technology for many icebreaker back to school Ipad activities that I used to do on pen and paper. One reason is that it is fun and something a little different for my 3rd graders. Also it sets the tone of collaboration that will be a huge component of our classroom. Another bonus reason to use iPads the first week of school
Looking for some educational apps for toddlers? These toddler apps are teacher recommended and are great for both ipad and android devices.
Playing the best educational apps for kids will engage your kid’s brain, instead of turning it to mush. Plus, your kid will have fun while they're learning.
Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas Fourteen Fabulously Free Math Apps With An iPad Giveaway!
At one point in time for a number of years we had a computer lab where students were taken once a week to do various tasks on desktop computers-weekly assessments, research, and publishing of written pieces. Students were excited to have this opportunity, classroom teachers might have been just as enthusiastic or maybe a little flustered to add one task to their already "crammed to the limits" weekly schedule. While many schools may still have these "labs," many schools have done away with this idea due to the need for classroom space or because due to budget cuts, no one is able to manage the computer lab. In my building it was a space issue. We needed the lab to be turned into a classroom because our student population had grown. Those of us "techy" teachers panicked a bit thinking of how we would possibly teach the technology standards to our students when we only had two classroom computers...Enter laptop carts and iPads... Technology use in the classroom setting is more important than ever for our students. With standardized testing taking place on computers and the many different classroom tasks shifting gears with our students needing to be able to navigate text on a screen versus paper, it is essential that we as educators are providing these essential opportunities for our students. So, how do you get and keep your students connected? In my building we had laptop carts. Each cart contained about 30-mostly-working laptops that we utilized for weekly assessments, research, and publishing our writing. And over the last few years, iPads have been introduced. Because I have school-aged children that are utilizing these essential tools on a daily basis at their school, I wanted to find some different apps that I could use with my own kiddos as well as find classroom apps that would meet the needs of my students. A FREE app that I LOVE... As a language arts teacher who teaches spelling AND a mom that reviews spelling words with a third grader nightly, Vocabulary Spelling City is an AWESOME app to have! Here is how I utilize this app and how you can prepare to utilize this AMAZING app... Register at www.spellingcity.com Only register for the FREE version, if you want to update later you can, but the FREE version is perfect for spelling and vocabulary work with students. Go to List Management and type in your spelling list for the week-if you utilize Reading Street, Journeys, or Wonders, you can import your list directly from the Publisher Lists. If you are utilizing this as a parent, you can do the same or for extra practice, students can type in their lists on the site (great extra practice) Students can then click on the Unit to take a test where they are given the word and they type in the correct spelling. Not only does this give them practice listening for the word, but it also gives them practice typing, which I find all my students need practice with. Once you have created or imported your list on spellingcity.com-you are ready to utilize the app. Students will utilize the URL to find all of the lists created by you as their teacher Download the app to iPad. Login to the app. Pull up the list you created using the URL. Begin your fun review. Once you have completed the above steps on the website-your students can use the link to connect to play the games below. Missing Letter is a fun game for kids of all ages. Even the youngest learners can practice letter recognition by trying to find the missing letter that completes each spelling or vocabulary word. Alphabetize is an activity that can be used to practice putting words in alphabetical order, a vital early literacy skill. Students love to play ABC order activities and games. Spelling TeachMe is a great activity to introduce a new word list to students. Each word is read aloud, spelled letter-by-letter and used in a context-rich sentence. Sentence Unscramble helps students practice sentence structure as well as using words in context by unscrambling words to form a complete sentence. Word Unscramble is a popular word game that is a variation on other word games such as text twists, jumbles and anagrams. Read-A-Word is an activity that gives students practice recognizing new words. Can you find the words that you hear? Try Read-A-Word and find out! Test-N-Teach gives students the opportunity to learn as they practice. Students do their best to build a monument to good spelling. The better they spell, the better their monument! Custom word lists may be entered by registered members (registration to save lists is free!) on www.spellingcity.com for use in the games and activities on VocabularySpellingCity’s app. If you are looking to simplify spelling review time, REGISTER NOW! You will LOVE this app as well! No longer will you be draining yourself trying to come up with cool spelling game ideas for your classroom or review ideas for your own children because the fun is right here! Now that you have an app idea that you need to grab, be sure to enter this giveaway to win your very own iPad mini. You can use it in your classroom or keep it all to yourself, but be sure to download this app to check out with our students! Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway An InLinkz Link-up "This giveaway is only open to teachers (classroom and homeschool) who are living in the contiguous United States. The winning entry will be verified and proof of eligibility may be required. Please see the complete terms and conditions at the bottom of the giveaway for more information."
If you have an iPad you know that it can be extremely distracting with all the games, Pinterest, and Facebook? Who knew, but you coul...
The pre-kindergarten environment encourages learning and getting along with others. Young children are typically quick learners.
In this post, I'm sharing 7 iPad apps that I use everyday and find really useful in the clinical setting. Check it out, please!
Kindergarten iPad Apps that will keep students engaged and learning. Reinforce various skills with these fun apps that will make your teaching life easier.
It is great to create quizzes and tests for your class, but why not flip this? Ask your students to make one themselves. Recently my class used the brilliant website Kahoot! (click here for my tu…
Hey, Friends! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some {tech tips}! I have been super busy doing the whole ‘netflix and chill’ thing 😉 Why lie? I’ve been relaxing in my pajamas for too long! Sometimes we need to just sit and rejuvenate. But I’m back at it so let’s get started! Have you ever played the Ellen D iPhone app, “charades?”. If you haven’t go download it now! It’s such a fun way to pass time with friends The image on the left is the adult version, the image on the right is for kids. The game works just like Heads Up works. Kids are given a custom deck and player 1 places it on their forehead. Player two gives clues to help player 1 guess the word. If player 1 guesses correctly they tilt their head down for a point. They can pass by tilting their head up. How can can you use this in your classroom? Here are some examples: Here is how to create your own: Press quick play Then press, “Create your own Deck”. You will input all the words that you want your kids to guess that pertain to that topic. When you have […]
You can use ipads and comics to encourage your reluctant young writers to express themselves. Here's a list of useful and engaging ipad apps for writing.
Apps are great for quick, on-the-fly therapy activities and save time and money on printing - but free speech therapy apps are even better!
Roll and Fill the Fractions in this colorful, fun, springtime math game for kids.
Creating poetry on the iPad is the perfect way to celebrate National Poetry Month and there are many engaging and useful apps for creating poetry available! Slip some technology integration into your poetry activities this month with these 10 iPad apps for creating and sharing poems. I've rounded up mostly free iPad apps to help with writing various types of poems as well as creating stand-out digital poetry images to print or share via QR codes. Scroll all the way to the bottom for a free download that will help students display their poems too! 1. Use Poetreat to write haiku
There are many wonderful (and some not so wonder) drawing/painting apps available for the iPad. Some are easy to use while others are more complicated. Knowing which to painting app may be right for you can take some research. Below is a look at my top three painting apps for the iPad. Two of these I currently teach to my students at Apex High School. I'm listing these in order from simplest to use to most complex. #3. Art Set I love this silly little app! It's like opening the draw at home where you keep all the art supplies and finding to your surprise that someone has actually organized it. On the complexity scale it is relatively easy while still having some really great features. You start out by choosing a type of paper. These come in several different textures. You can also easily change the color. The default is white but here I have changed it to bue. Speaking of color, that's the next thing you do. Click the little palette icon on the bottom left hand corner and select from a wide range of colors. Lastly, choose your medium.. crayon, marker, pen, paint, colored pencil. They all respond similarly to what you would expect. Art Set is about as simple as that. However, I think that the simplicity is what gives Art Set its charm. Most anyone from small children to adults will be able to instantly create art. For the low, low price of 99 cents, it's worth the download. #2. Layers: If you're looking for something a little more advanced, but still easy to us, try Layers. What I like about layers is how simple it is. It has a brush, an eraser and a smudgy finger. That and of course, layers. The version I'm using only allows for four layers but that is a good number when you are just starting out. Layers has a better set of brush styles than Art Set but not so many that you can't decide what to use. The brushes are adjustable, again just enough to get started without complicating life. The best feature by far is Layers smudge tool. It just seems to work better than smudge tools on other apps. You can adjust the brush size and pressure as well. #1. Sketchbook Pro Sketchbook Pro is one of two apps I've already purchased for my art classes at Apex High School. One of the nice features that many drawing apps come with is layers (layers as a tool not to be confused with Layers the App). Layers, which are transparent, allow the artists to draw or paint on top of of drawings. For example, you can put a line sketch on a bottom layer and then paint in color on a top layer. The beauty of layers is, they can be turned on or off while the artist is working. Layers can also moved above or below a layer. Sketchbook Pro also also four different layer modes including multiply, add and screen. you can even adjust the opacity of the layers. you can see how much more rich and complex this app is already. Another really nice feature of Sketchbook Pro is all the different brushes it comes with. In the image above you can see the 8 little grey icons. These represent some of the different brushes available. I can swipe that menu and reveal more brushes. Plus I'm pretty sure I can add more brushes (though I haven't tried that yet). Sketchbook Pro also allows me to adjust the opacity of the tool I'm using. This way I can spray colors on top of colors. Sketchbook Pro even comes with a bunch of goofy stamps... clouds, little people, bugs and butterflies.. a little corny and canned but they are fun to play with. Plus, I'm pretty sure, like custom brushes, that I can create my own stamps. There are a lot of other exciting options that I haven't mentioned.. like the transform tool that lets you rotate and resize your image. Or the symmetry tool that mirrors on the right everything you draw on the left. Want to draw a butterfly with perfectly symmetrical wings? This tool is the trick. Sketchbook pro also provides a full range of image sending options... email it, post to Twitter or Facebook, etc... If your just looking for something fun and easy to use, I'd recommend you Art Set. If you are looking for something a little more grown up but still easy to use, give Layers a whirl. If you're looking for a big-boy (or girl) drawing app, Sketchbook Pro is complex enough to do some serious damage.
Using the free web tool, Incredibox, in the classroom for technology projects. Great way to incorporate music into your curriculum! Will work on Chromebooks, laptops and computers. There is also an iPad app available for $3.99
Find 10 free kindergarten ipad apps for reading and math. This list includes apps that can be great independent practice or for centers.
TRUTH is I really have been waiting for the day that the Rock is interested in the iPad, why? you ask... because there are so many learning apps that I hope will help him talk. Yep! That's right talk. We are all pleased with the progress the Rock is making, however he needs to be able to do more. We need all kinds of different ways to motivate him and I hope and pray the iPad will do just that. It all started with him watching his big bro work the iPad magic. Now the Rock brings it to me to turn it on. I make him ask me to use it. (make him by signing the words "I" "want""iPad""please", when I sign these words he says them out loud) This process is fascinating to me. Why does he HAVE to mimick (by signs or voice) someone else in order to get the words out. I may never know that answer but I sure would love to. Technology is incredible and I hope that it can be a help the Rock break threw barriers. Do you have apps you love that you think we need, please please share! Here is what one of our wonderful Speech Therapists gave to us........ Free Picture Communication Apps iComm-take pics with your ipad and put them in 8 categories with yes no choice to confirm the one the child has picked Tap to Talk-free basic starter for Ipad; includes some preprogrammed messages pic a word-12 choice photo board preprogrammed with messages adapts to 4 x 3, 3x3, 3x2, and 3x1 board Picture board- 20 categories of photos with specific choices under each category (food, clothes, plants, home) and other categories under these (fruits, bathroom, kitchen, etc.) Free Picture Communication Apps Picture Card Maker-FREE; Incorporate photos from your Camera Roll on the iPad 2 and make them into Picture cards; label them and record the message then organize them into an album. You can create picture schedule this way or use them just for flash cards; you can also print them out. TapToTalk for iPad: FREE; get starter album for free and go to http://taptotalk.com/free for more free albums Visual Working For-FREE; allows you put photos from iPad into a schedule form to show what you are working for Free Memory Match Apps Farm Flips-12 location memory matching game with farm animals that make the sound when you find the match Vocab PCS-Mayer Johnson pic syms in a memory game; farm match is free; 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20 location boards Guess’em-FREE; Similar to Guess Who; ask questions to guess who your partner is thinking about. FUN LEARNING GAMES Monkey Preschool Lunchbox-has matching, colors, counting (1:1 correspondence), shapes, puzzles, size concepts, letter recognition and more…99 cents Photo Concepts- left/ right, above/ below, near/ far; same/different, big/small, not, middle, short/tall, top/bottom touch photos as directed; 99 cents Preschool Touch-FREE touch farm animals as directed; great for one step directions and vocabulary Peekaboo! Lite- FREE Listen to the farm animal and match the sound to the picture MORE LEARNING GAMES Clean Up-FREE-Helps with categorization; drag photo items to the correct location (closet, basket (fruits), or toy box). Together-FREE-touch the item that goes together best with the photo on top ABA Belong-FREE; follow the verbal direction to touch the one that does not belong Build it up-FREE-sequencing game that helps children learn how to organize or sequence objects (snowman, blocks, etc.) MORE LEARNING GAMES Wheels On The Bus-99 cents; sings the wheels on the bus song and allows child to interact, open and shut door, spin wheels, etc. Animal Book-Free: line drawing that links to photos of real animals and says the name of the animal and makes the sound Opposites-FREE; touch a picture and pick it’s opposite Match it up 3-Free: pick items that go together best MORE LEARNING GAMES Families-MyFristApp.com; Free- helps children choose what other item goes in a pictured category PlayHomeLite-Free; Go to the living room and kitchen and turn on the lights, the oven, the stove, put plates on the table etc.; good for vocabulary, following directions, etc. Gingerbread Fun-FREE- Take part in making a gingerbread man or other cookies from the rolling to the cooking to the eating. MORE LEARNING GAMES What is it? FREE; basic photo i.d. task asks the question, touch the pic and it names the item Animals 4 Kids Lite-FREE; different pics of animals with the name (5 languages supported); photo of the animal and its sound. Mobi Pizza-FREE; make our own pizza, choose toppings, bake it, etc. Good for sequencing and vocabulary. MORE LEARNING GAMES Kids Patterns-FREE cognitive pattern skills; fill in the patterns; preschool to kindergarten age types of tasks Where’s Puppy-FREE; Fisher Price Laugh and Learn; puppy comes out and identifies body parts when you touch them Families 1-FREE; choose the member of the family/category that goes with the others FREE TEXT TO SPEECH APPS Locabulary Lite-Free; has moods, assistance, restaurants, and area for your own categories; Let’s you compose messages using predicted words and gives you the part of speech (verbs, nouns, etc.). Keyboard to type message and speak it Verbally; FREE keyboard with a list of frequently used words and phrases ready to use. Word prediction as well. ARTICULATION/SPEECH APPS ArtixPix-gives you one free /th/ deck then lets you purchase other decks for $1.99 (k, g, f, v, ch,s,s-blends, l, r-blends, r, z, l-blends, p, b, n, t, d, m, j) Talking Tom/T-Rex, Santa, etc-Free- Funny cat repeats exactly what the child says as they have said it (helps for recognition of errors); also help to get kids to initiate speech. Pocket SLP-$29.99 real photo artic cards and diagrams showing placement (palate and side views); auditory feedback as well Articulate It-$38.99-over 1,000 photos in all sounds of the English language, voice recording, can group sounds by manner or articulation or phonological process WRITTEN AND VERBAL STORY TELLING APPS AND CONV ERSATION STARTERS Story Builder-$3.99; asks questions and provides a visual cue to help students use complete sentences to tell an original story. They then listen back and hear the story. You can have them listen and write the story down after they listen to it. Story Wheel- FREE; record a story by the wheel to get a picture and then narrate a portion of the story. When done you can listen to your story with animated pictures. Mad Libs-$1.99; Use words provided under specific parts of speech to create silly stories. Clicky Sticky and Sticker Stories- 99 cents to $1.99 each; following directions, learning, reward, creating a story, sequencing, etc. Amazing Animals-FREE; great photos of a variety of animals for eliciting stories or teaching vocabulary and descriptors. 400 Amazing World-FREE; National Geographic photos of places around the world to generate discussion and stories WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY? FREE; Read about past events that happened in history on a specific day; good for older kids who may need a conversation starter or who enjoy his kind of info. Story Patch-$2.99; Help children create their own stories and import pictures or use 800 illustrations included Toontastic-$1.99-Empowers kids to draw, animate, and share cartoons through imaginative play. AUDITORY PROCESSING/LISTENING What’s That Sound?-FREE-gives you a choice of 2 or 3 pics and then you touch the pic. That corresponds to the correct sound. My Scene-FREE; children listen to the directions given by the caregiver to put the ___, in a certain location; work on prepositions, location words and following directions (1-step, 2-step, etc.) DRAWING APPS Glow Draw-FREE Draw Free-FREE Paint Sparkles-FREE BARBIE/DRESS UP APPS Barbie I Can Be-FREE; Career Barbie that can make pizza, bake, be a vet; can work on vocab. and sequencing Barbie Fashionista-FREE; dress up Barbie Dress Up Baby-FREE; dress up a doll in a variety of outfits; good for vocabulary, following directions, motivation, etc. FUN REINFORCEMENT OR VERY EARLY CAUSE EFFECT APPS Fun Fireworks-FREE; touch and fireworks explode Fireworks 123-FREE: Let’s the child choose, size, color and number of fireworks to explode Bubble Shooter Free-tap on the screen to shoot the ball/bubble; fun for a reward or to get kids to touch and follow the bubbles with more precision. Touch Trainer Lite-FREE; touch the item on the page and it moves with music to reinforce continued use of pointer to touch Gravitarium Lite –FREE; combines music, art and science to create different animations paired with music for relaxation. VOICE RECORDER APP Audio Memos SE- The Voice Recorder; FREE; record language samples, etc. and listen to them; use for taking notes; high quality recordings Dragon Dictation App; Free; lets you record and talk 5x faster than you can type info.; send e-mails, do homework, create documents FLASHCARD APPS Kindergarten.com: FREE or 99 cents; flashcards for actions, things, fruits, receptive i.d., problem solving, My First Apps: FREE; photos of various vocabulary items: actions, animals, baby things, etc.; shows the word and says it iTouchiLearn FREE: touch pictures to see a little movie depicting the word and words that go with it; also letter and puzzle games with words; touch the pic. That matches the word game also BOOK Apps Mickey’s Spooky Night-99 cents fun interactive story with Mickey and a spooky theme Zanny Born to Run-about $2.99-fun interactive story about a boy who loves to run; includes a feelings faces game that is a lot of fun Halloween Book-FREE; tells a cute story and works on answering Where questions? can also get a PDF copy at amylaurent.com BOOK Apps Making Pizza-FREE; easy level book that can also work on sequencing, prediction and storytelling. LittleMouse Lite-FREE; Book format with vocabulary items that are interactive; feed the food to the man, give the mouse items, clean up items; word is in print and said; The Little Book of ABC-FREE; book with all letters of the alphabet. Reads and highlights the letter and words as it goes. COGNITION & BRAIN APPS/SCIENCE 3D Brain-FREE: Touch the screen to rotate and zoom around the brain and see how each brain region functions and what happens when it is injured. UPPER RESPIRATORY VIRTUAL LAB-FREE; Explore the upper airway with a 3D simulator. See the nasal passages all the way down to the trachea. BrainPOP-Free; Watch an animated movie about a topic and take a quiz at the end; e.g., movie about mars; captioning is included for reading along. LITERACY APPS Toddler ABC Lite-FREE; trace letters; pick letters out in a reveal the picture game; sing the ABC song; ABC free SOCIAL STORIES/VIDEO MODELING Going Places-FREE; videos from Model Me Kids for getting hair cut, going to the mall, playground, doctor, grocery store, and restaurant SOCIAL SKILLS Sampler or SOCIAL HD: FREE video modeling stories about being polite, joining groups, apologizing, following directions, etc. TRANSLATILON APPS iTranslate-FREE; type in the word, phrase, etc. and it translates it in the written word; has the capability to speak it also Google Translate-FREE; speak your phrase, word, etc. and it will translate and speak it in the language you choose CASES FOR iPad Gum Drop Case-$59.95 on Amazon Complete security for the iPad 2, including screen and port covers Dual material construction for multiple layers of shock absorption Reinforced rubber bumpers on the corners Includes replaceable integrated screen cover for protection during use Full protection of ports and screen Replaceable integrated screen cover and belt clip Specifically for the Apple iPad 2 Otterbox iPad 2 Defender Case; $49.95; other Otterbox products go higher; see at Amazon as well
Our top picks for the best educational apps for toddlers and preschoolers for your iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Genius apps that turn screen time into learning time!
Ipad Apps
Credit: The 3AM Teacher, Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah Designs, KG Fonts, Hello Fonts It's no secret that I use my iPad ALL the time in my classroom. Some teachers are REALLY lucky and they have a cart of iPads or a class set. I only have one Wi-Fi iPad (my personal iPad) to use with my kiddos but we make it work! Before we begin let me say that I am lucky to have a Smartboard and projector in my classroom. I bought this handy little gadget to hook my iPad up to the Smartboard which helps ALOT to make the iPad more accessible to all students. This is a VGA adapter for the iPad, you can get it from the Apple website or at Best Buy. Now that we're hooked up, here are 10 of my favorite apps/activities using my iPad that benefit all the kids in my classroom. 1. iBooks This is a free app to download from the iTunes. Any read aloud book I read this year (Magic Tree House, etc.) I downloaded it from iBooks. To help with cost, I asked for iTunes gift cards for my birthday, Christmas and as a wish item for my classroom. When we read the book aloud, I would hook up to the projector so my kiddos could see the books much better than if I just held it for them. Sometimes my kiddos would read along on the Smartboard or have a specific set of questions they were working on while we read it aloud. I found that my kiddos were so much more engaged when I projected books onto the Smartboard. 2. mClass Assessment My district uses the mClass 3D Reading assessment (which also includes Diebels Next) as the K-3 reading assessment for our kiddos. I originally used a mini-laptop and a Bamboo tablet before I found out that I could use my iPad! This quickly became the only way to assess since it was so much easier! Sometimes I use a stylus when assessing but you could use your finger just as easily. (Note: my school also has Wi-Fi which makes it easy to sync, if you do not have Wi-Fi at your school you can sync when you take it home to your personal Wi-Fi or whenever you are in a Wi-Fi range) HERE are the directions to get the mClass button on your iPad. 3. Storia I have talked many times of my love for Scholastic Book Clubs, well the Storia app has added to that love. I send home Scholastic Book Clubs every month and my kiddos order books. I can spend my points to get FREE e-books using the Storia app, which I then project onto the Smartboard and read aloud to my class. They also offer some books with audio. 4. Class Dojo About halfway through the year my kids grow a little tired of all the incentives I offer for good behavior. Around January I set up Class Dojo for a new, fresh approach. Now that Class Dojo is available as a FREE app it has gotten even better! The best part of this app is that I can I project my class dojo page on the Smartboard and then open the app on my iPad. While I am sitting with my iPad and teaching small group (which is usually the time that is most difficult for classroom management) I can give Dojo points by clicking on my iPad and it shows up on the Smartboard! I don't have to say anything, I just teach my small group, do a quick scan of the rest of my kids working on centers and give a few points (or take a few points) as needed. As soon as my kids hear the "ding" of points being given it becomes super quiet! It also has an option to pick a random student, no more popsicle sticks! If I need to call on a student, I open Class Dojo and pick at random! 5. Brain Pop Jr. App We LOVE some Brain Pop Jr. in my class!! Usually I just project the website using my computer but sometimes I want to watch a video while teaching small group. I teach small group reading and math instruction everyday so I spend a lot of time at my horseshoe table. (Note: you must have a subscription to access all the brain pop videos, but there is also a FREE Brain pop video of the week you can watch each week if you don't have a subscription). 6. Small Group Instruction I use my iPad ALOT in small group. I play short videos from Grammar Jammers, read short stories from iBooks/Storia or use skill specific apps depending on my kiddos needs. So, how do we do this without disrupting ALL the other kids who are working independently and want to see what's on the iPad?? We plug in headphones using this fancy splitter! I have heard of some teachers requiring students to bring a pair of headphones to school like any other school supply at the beginning of the year so that they have headphones ready to go when using a headphone splitter. I bought headphones from Dollar Tree so I would have enough to use, they aren't the most durable but they get the job done! 7. Tap Roulette App This is the simplest app but it is AMAZING! Do you ever have an argument in your classroom that you don't want to solve?? Well this app will solve it for you! Have whichever kids are arguing put one of their fingers on the iPad and you click "Pick Finger". The iPad will flash and then pick one of the fingers, solving the argument by random selection! If you need to solve a simple problem (who was there first?? who should get the first pick?? who gets the red crayon first?? ) then this app is a lifesaver! 8. Pandora Radio My kiddos LOVE listening to music! Sometimes we dance to pop music, play freeze dance, play musical numbers/words/operations and other times we write while listening to soothing classical music. I plug my computer speakers into my headphone jack on the iPad, we choose a kid friendly station and we are good to go! Pandora has it all! (Note: Wi-Fi is needed to access Pandora) 9. Mad Libs This is another app that I project to practice our parts of speech as a whole group or for just a fun brain break. This is a great review of the different parts of speech. There are many FREE stories and also ones you can buy. I usually move around the room and choose different students to fill in each blank. They always find the final story to be hilarious : ) 10. QR Codes I found myself incorporating QR codes into more and more activities last year. My kids were fascinated with them. QR codes are SUPER easy to make using THIS website. And I usually make QR codes with answers or hidden riddles for different centers/activities around the room. I don't let the kids walk around with my iPad scanning them because I know kids sometimes drop things and I would be so sad if my iPad dropped on the floor and broke. These FREE QR codes were fun to use for test prep and then I used these QR codes in HERE to countdown the last 10 days of school! The countdown codes were a big hit at the end of the year. I also have some ideas for them in the upcoming school year! And that's how we do it folks! I hope I have given you a few new ideas for how to use 1 iPad in your classroom of many!
