Vocabulary Build

Description:

Vocabulary Build is a free app compatible with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Combining flashcards and quizzes, this app helps build vocabulary for your students providing 5,000 words and a 150,000 word dictionary and thesaurus. This can applied to middle school, high school and AP classes.

How it works:

Flashcards lists are built upon the lists of words you get right or wrong in the multiple choice quiz sections. You can also customize it to a compiliation of words to your liking. Can help students create word wall in the classroom.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vocabulary-build/id553379017?mt=8

Daily Poetry

Description:

Daily Poetry is a free app compatible with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. With a new poem each day, students can view a new, easy to read, and short work every day. Users can also submit poems and may be considered to be published. They are also post poems, pictures and status updates.

How it works:

Students cannot only receive a new, short work to read each day, they can browse collections of videos, podcasts, and event listings. Students in the classroom have the opportunity to post their own works and share with other students. This can be applied to the classroom for poetry within the classroom.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poetry-daily/id376587204?mt=8

Knowji

Knowji vocabulary apps are available for ipad and iphone.  There are several different grade levels , and many are common core aligned. The apps contain lists of vocabulary words as well as easy-to-understand definitions, illustrations, and audio pronunciations. The practice sessions  use a “spaced repetition algorithm” that reportedly helps to commit the word  to long-term memory, and there is even a record function that allows students to record their own pronunciations and have them evaluated for accuracy. 

http://www.knowji.com

Evernote

Evernote is a free productivity app that allows you to compile all of your notes in one place and export them in a pdf format.  Its simple interface also allows for students to work distraction free.  This app also allows for collaboration amoung students through shared evernote binders.  Evernote also allows for list making and other basic organization tasks.

How it works:

Students create a free evernote account and can take notes directly on their iPad or Tablet.  This is expecially good to use in a classroom, because accounts can be linked and documents can be shared between students.  This would work well for when a student is absent from school.  The app includes word documents and spreadsheets.

https://evernote.com/

iTunes U

iTunes U is an interactive app where teachers can build courses or utilize courses that have already been created by other users.  This app has courses in just about every subject imaginable.  As a teacher, this could be an invaluable resource to share with students.

How it works

iTunes U includes courses in just about every subject.  Students can download the free app onto the thier iPads and use these free courses to suplement and enrich what is being taught in the classroom.  The app itself is fairly easy to navigate, however as with any user created content, the teacher must screen the content to make sure it is what the students actually need to know.  Teachers can also create content for students to work through on their own.

http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/

Sid's Science Fair

Sid's Science Fair is a science app designed to teach science experiments at an early elementary age.  The app comes with three main parts that help students with various early elementary science skills such as sequencing, chart skills, and discovery.

How it works:

Students can explore Sid the Science Kid's room to learn about different science skills.  For example, they can go into various "rooms" and work on things such as sequencing events and work on chart skills in fun, relatable ways.  There is also a section of the app that allows students to discover various collections such as butterflies, buttons, or other things.  Students can also inspect these collections in order to reveal patterns.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sids-science-fair/id462788044?mt=8

Math Fact Master: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division

Math Fact Master: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Divisions

These flashcards cost $.99 and cover all four basic operations.  The teacher has the ability to control which drills are given to the students.  Teachers may also set up challenge sets and view progress reports for each child to use as some sort of assessment.

How it works:

Students log on to the app and select a drill from the set to work on.  The interface is fairly simple and easy for young children to navigate, but it is also advanced enough to grow with the child over their learning of basic facts.  The students can also monitor their own progress through the use of the progress report functionality.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-fact-master-addition/id419411014?mt=8

National Geographic Explorer for Schools

National Geographic Explorer for Schools

This app brings National Geographic into the classroom through the use of iPads.  This is a free app that gives students an interactive issue of National Geographic explorer every month of the school year.  The best part of this app is not that it is free, but that it has applications and suggestions as to how to link this text to common core and state social studies and science standards.

How it work:

Students open the app to find this month's issue of National Geographic Explorer.  The text is clickable, and has the functionality to be read aloud to the students.  There are also various activities that allow the child to interact with the pictures and images throughout the issue.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/national-geographic-explorer/id556957976?mt=8

Shakespeare

“Shakespeare” is an app that is available for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. It contains many of the dramatic works of Shakespeare, and it features easy-to-understand synopses of each line. This makes the works accessible while introducing some Shakespearean language. The app is free, but an upgrade to “Shakespeare Pro” includes additional notes, including biographical information, a guide to scansion, and a photo gallery.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare/id285035416?mt=8

Letter Lab

Letter Lab

Are your students struggling to write and recognize their ABCs? Letter Lab will help with that! Letter Lab is specifically designed for apple touch products, included the IPad, IPhone, and IPod. It presents the students with both upper and lowercase letters and provides student with the opportunity to interact with the shapes of the letter. In my classroom, I would use this app when covering the standard ,CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. I would use Letter Lab as a center activity to reinforce the content that had already been taught.

How it works: Letter Lab is creatively designed to let students trace the letters using their finger or a stylus. It also has a real world object associated with each letter. Students trace the letter, and then tap object to hear a voiceover that states the letter and the object. Students can select specific letters to work with using the tab on the side of the screen.

Price 0.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/letter-lab/id365981111?mt=8