My favorite iPad Apps

26 October 2015 / 1 comment
Hi there!  It's Shanon from OCD in first, and today I'm going to talk about a few apps that I have found useful on the iPad.  I also want to say that we only had six iPads in my classroom,  but it worked.  I honestly didn't think we were "deprived", until I started hearing how many teachers were 1 to 1 in their classrooms.  But, we weren't - and it still worked!  

Every morning, we started off with the TenMarks app.  We had one table a day with the iPads first thing in the morning.  They had a full 30 minutes to do their daily math, while the rest of my students were reading their Accelerated Readers and taking tests on the computer.   Every student was able to do this weekly.

Then we used our iPads during centers.  Students used the Reading A-Z app (Raz Kids) - which in my opinion was the BEST investment I ever made.  This app allows the teacher to set reading levels for the students.  Students log in to their account, and there are literally hundreds of books for them to read.  They can have it read to them, they can read it by themselves, or they can record themselves reading it, and then listen to hear how they sounded.  The books are engaging, interesting, and on point for the children's interest levels.    BUT THAT'S NOT THE BEST PART...  The teacher can assign certain books for students to record themselves reading as unseen text.  They submit their recording to you, and then you can go in and listen to their reading.  This helped me with my higher kiddos who didn't really need for me to do running records, but I was required to have that sheet in their folder.   I was able to hear their reading, score them, but use my class time to work on other things with that group.  It was a Win Win for us!

Another app that we touched more than any other was i-nigma - the QR app!!  I'm not sure who had more fun - me making products with QR codes or the kiddos with the self-checking centers.  One of my biggest issues with centers (way back when) was the question, are they really learning?  How are they checking to see if they are getting things correct?  With QR codes, my questions were answered!!  Happy, Happy, Happy!!

So - here's an app I just found a few months ago.  It's called Toontastic!  Y'ALL - It's CRAZY cool!!  This one is more for 3rd and up, but - It's awesome.  It walks students through creating an entire story, from setup to resolution.  It tells them exactly what goes in each part of the story arc, and then when they are done, they have their own little movie that they've created.   Oh, by the way, IT'S FREEEEE!!!!

Another free app that one of my old co-workers is using is called EPIC.  Epic has all kinds of books, and the kids have their individual accounts as well.  Students tell Epic their interests, and then it selects books for them.  But the students can select from other categories as well.  She said the kids love the books!

That's just a few of my favorite apps - I hope you find them useful!  HUGS!!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for letting us know about these apps. Never heard of TenMarks.


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