For PreK-5th grade
REMEMBER: apps are SO dependent on what skills are needed and many apps cross grade levels and curriculum areas easily. Here are some that I think could be useful for young students and for you! (descriptions in " " come from the iOS App store) For more apps that could be very appropriate for some elementary students, please also see
Apps for Special Needs Students in this wiki.
For You!
See my Apps for Educators/Leaders page for more apps you can use
- Hot Apps For HOTS (ebook, available for free via iBooks app) "In this interactive resource, readers will cycle through 9 stations focusing on each level of Bloom's Taxonomy (from remembering to creating). Each station will include an apptivity with a specific app, example products, and additional resources to support iPad integration in the iClassroom." NOTE: "Books can only be viewed using iBooks on an iPad, iPhone (3G or later), or iPod touch (2nd generation or later.)"
- Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities a teacher can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file.
- Stick Pick ($2.99) For teachers' use. "Stick Pick is the first app of its kind to uniquely link question stems to the cognitive or linguistic needs of each individual learner. Teachers can have multiple soup cans (classes) filled with sticks (students). During setup, teachers choose a category of question stems they wish to focus on for each learner. Questions can be based on Bloom's Taxonomy, English as a second language skills, and degree of difficulty can be chosen for each learner."
- FlipBoard (free) RSS feed reader-"Fill Flipboard with the things you like to read, from niche blogs to publications like Rolling Stone and Lonely Planet, and use Instapaper or Read It Later to save articles to read later. Flipboard creates a single place to enjoy, browse, comment on and share all the news, photos and updates that matter to you. In addition to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, you can flip through your newsfeeds and timelines from Google Reader, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr and 500px on Flipboard."
- Vodio (free) "Take video consumption on the go to the next level, by creating your very own personalized video streams from dozens of content services. Free up your time by watching the most talked about videos, instead of searching through hours of videos you might like."
- T-Charts (free) Pros and cons/decision making chart. Great for students to learn decision making skills. Also consider using to evaluate apps.
Cross Curricular-many of these could easily be used by even very young students
- PhotoTangler (lite, iPad $3.99, iPod $1.99) Lite version allows you to work with only 4 photos. "A simple yet powerful tool for turning your photos into beautiful collages! Simply import images or add text captions, and PhotoTangler will instantly blend them together as you work with them. Newly optimized for the iPad, PhotoTangler lets you work with and export higher resolution images."
- Comic Touch ($2.99) "Make your photos come alive by giving them the Comic Touch. Add balloons to give your subjects thoughts and words. Add captions to describe the scene or give the photo a title. Use the PhotoBooth-style warping effects to add some fun. Turn people into caricatures of themselves or give them bizarre expressions. Share your creations via email or save them back to the Photo Library for even more sharing options."
- Strip Designer ($2.99) Very full featured comic strip creator. More than a 100 strip templates with 1 to 9 photo cells or create your own layouts with up to photo 12 photo cells
- Toontastic (free) iPad ONLY! Different characters/background sets are .99 each or one time purchase of $9.99 for all current and upcoming sets. Puppet theater type app-record and create stories, comics. Especially like the "story arc" feature.
- Puppet Pals (free for both iPad and iPod) -similar to Toontastic without the story arc option. Different characters/background sets are .99 each or buy the "director's pass" which includes all for $2.99 one time purchase.
- iMovie (4.99) movie editing/creation-use your built in camera to capture video, then edit and publish right from your device. You also may want to look at Tutor for iMovie for iPad app for $3.99
- FreeSaurus (free) "a no-fuss thesaurus application. It's simple, it's focused and it works. Each definition shows related words, synonyms & antonyms."
- Merriam Webster Dictionary (free-supported by ads) "In addition to all the definitions from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the app offers voice search – to let you look up a word without having to spell it – along with an integrated thesaurus, example sentences, Word of the Day, Favorites, and more. A great tool for reference, education, and vocabulary building." Wifi access is needed to use the voice search, word of the day, and to hear the word pronunciations. Word look up does not require wifi.
- SimpleMind+ (free) "Mind mapping tool that turns your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch into a brainstorming, idea collection and thought structuring device."
- Popplet (lite/$4.99) Brainstorming app. With lite (free) version you can only create one Popplet at a time-no save option. If you want to save the Popplet, consider using screen capture (press and hold the power button and then press the home button) to save a .jpg version to Photos.
- Speak It ($1.99) text to speech for students who have communication difficulties
- GoodReader ($4.99 for iPad or iPod) Annotate, manage, transfer and sync PDF files.
- Evernote (free) "helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go." Be sure to add the "clip to Evernote" option to your mobile device to make it easy to save any web resource you find.
- Flashcards* (free) "Flashcardlet allows you to search for, study, and make local edits to Quizlet.com flashcards. Collaboratively creating and sharing study material does not get easier than Flashcardlet. You can email your flashcard decks or share them using Dropbox. Any subject you can think of already has a Quizlet flashcard set that is perfect for studying. You can also create and share your own [just create your free account at Quizlet.com.] Other flashcard apps can't handle large decks, deck sharing, images, intuitive gestures, or even manage to show nice looking cards. Flashcardlet feels like a real deck of flashcards and does not get in your way." In addition, there are tons of flashcard sets already made and freely available from the Quizlet.com site.
- A+ Pro Flashcards (free for a limited time, otherwise $4.99) import existing cards from Quizlet, draw your own images, record your own audio, email/backup up sets, Leitner spaced repition, easy user interface.
- iFlashCards ($2.99) Create your own flashcards-online or on the iOS device; can include text only or text and pics; includes a timer for taking quizzes
- ShowMe (free) interactive, recordable white board-"ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online"
- ScreenChomp (free) a little less complex interactive, recordable white board. "create on-the-go tutorials, mathcasts, or any sort of screencast. It makes screencasting a portable option."
- iBrainstorm (free-for iPad ONLY) brainstorming on your tablet. Has a companion app for iPhone, but it cannot be used without the iPad app.
- ScratchWork (free-iPad ONLY, requires iOS 5.0 or later) browser and notepad on one page
- SidebySide (free)-iPad ONLY) "A multiple-window reader/browser with offline reading and note taking capabilities. It turns the iPad into multiple resizable reading devices working in parallel." Different from ScratchWork in that you can have more than two windows open, they are resizeable and it has DropBox support built in.
- PreziViewer (free-iPad ONLY) set up and create Prezis online and then send to iPad to view and/or present them.
- Keynote ($9.99) Mac's version of PowerPoint--yes, you can import .ppt files to Keynote. You may lose some formatting when doing so. Best feature is that when connected for mirroring, you can view your presenter notes on your device while your audience sees only the slide.
- Videolicious (free) Create your own short (currently up to 50 second) videos on your iPad. 1. Choose your shots 2. Tell your story 3. Choose your music. Then Videolicious creates a finished video, edited and layered together like a professional video editor, automatically! NOTE: In its current version, developers recommend not using more than 5 or 6 still photos per video, as often, when trying to use 10, the app crashes. The developers are aware of this. It works better when you use short video clips instead of still photos. I spoke with Kevin from Videolicious on 2/20/12 and was told they are currently working on updating, but won't be releasing it until later in 2012, hopefully by the end of summer. My advice--get it now and check it out! Lots of classroom possibilities.
- SonicPics ($2.99) 1. Add images from your photo library or snap new ones with your camera. 2. Arrange your photos however you would like.
3. Record a voice-over narrating your images as you swipe through them. Here's a link to an app review lesson plan you might want to use with your students (easily adapted for book reviews, step by step instructions, etc.) Thanks to Louise Duncan, Australian educator, extraordinaire, for sharing! Check out her blog--lots of great ideas!
- Scavenger Hunt with Friends (Lite, .99) Easily set up your hunts and complete the items on your list using the camera on your mobile device to provide evidence that you found the item. Set up one-on-one or multi-player hunts with your friends and compete to see who can complete the most items and rack up the most points. Get points based on the difficulty level of the item." I read about a library media specialist who used this app to create a library hunt so kids could learn how it was organized.
- iBooks2 (free) The iBookstore now offers textbooks on Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, and Physics from McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Currently only available to customers in the United States. Textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are coming soon. Read a free sample of any book on the iBookstore before making it a part of your collection
• Reorder your books on your bookshelf or browse them in a list sorted by title, author, or category
• Organize your books and PDFs into personal Collections
• Easily adjust your screen brightness to find the perfect lighting for any environment
• Change the font size and pick from six included type faces to make your books more comfortable to read
• Find a word, character, or phrase anywhere in your book with the built-in search feature
• Keep your bookmarks, notes, and your current page wirelessly in sync between iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with the automatic bookmark syncing feature
- iTunes U An entire course in one app. The free iTunes U app gives students access to all the materials for your course in a single place. Right in the app, they can play video or audio lectures. Read books and view presentations. See a list of all the assignments for the course and check them off as they’re completed. And when you send a message or create a new assignment, students receive a push notification with the new information.
Pinterest (free) Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find in your life. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. Features:
• Browse pins from people and pinboards you follow.
• Repin, like and comment on your favorite pins.
• Pin with your camera!
- Edmodo (free) Facebook-like social networking space for your classroom "makes it easy for teachers and students to stay connected and share information. Use your iOS device to send notes, submit assignments, post replies, and check messages and upcoming events while away from the classroom. Teachers can post last-minute alerts to their students, keep tabs on recent assignment submissions, and grade assignments. Students can view and turn in assignments and check their latest grades."
- TED (Free) also available for Android OS Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. TED's official app presents talks from some of the world's most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus and music legends. Find more than 900 TEDTalk videos (with more added each week) on the official TED app -- now for both iPad and iPhone.
AND Don't forget about the Khan Academy, now in app form as well as online. (all Free!) "With a library of over 2,600 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 303 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace." NOTE about the app version: You will not get official credit for watching the videos and cannot do the exercises. It's just a convenient way to watch the videos for those who are learning just for the sake of learning.
Follow the links below for more info on apps for the very young and elementary aged kids!
FREE PODCASTS ON EVERY IMAGINABLE SUBJECT! Now a separate app. (free) Once you subscribe to one, new podcasts will come to your iTunes library automatically every time you sync.