Assignment+2

Assignment #2 - Apps

Educational Apps __Math Bingo__ is a great app that I used with my second graders this past school year. You can choose from four games: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There are also three levels of difficulty. Kids love this app! ($0.99)



__Math Drills Lite__ is another app that allows students to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. The full version of this app adds more features, but I've found the lite version to work well in my classroom. (Free)



__Rocket Math__ is a fun app with 56 different math missions. Coins, clocks, and fractions are just a few of the math skills incorporated into the app. As the games are played, players earn "money" to build and fly their rockets. ($0.99)

__Sums Stacker__ is a challenging app that incorporates critical thinking, problem solving, and strategic planning. Number sense, addition and subtraction, and coin values are all a part of this amazing app. I used this app with my second graders this past school year, but I certainly think first graders who need a challenge would enjoy it. It's fun to just sit back and watch the kids' wheels turn. ($0.99)

__Smart ____y Pants School__ is an awesome app I came across while reading a blog. I love it and I've already used it with my 4-year old. This app is designed to strengthen early reading skills. It focuses on the 5 building blocks of reading success : letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, phonics, regular phonetic words, and irregular sight words. You can add as many kids as you'd like and before a child starts to use the activities it assesses their skills. It then keeps track of their progress. I can't wait to use this with my first graders! ($4.99)



__Build a word - Easy spell with phonics__ is an app that helps young learners spell by relying on phonics (letter sounds). This app has a number of features built in for special needs students. ($2.99)

__Word Bingo__ is an app that was recently added to the app store. It seems like a great compliment to Math Bingo. Students can practice Dolch sight words using this app. There are also a few other word games that can be played. This app seems like it will be perfect to use with my first graders this coming school year. ($0.99)

__Spellboard__ lets students practice their spelling words. This app allows you to load your list of spelling words, record the spoken word and you're on your way. Multiple student profiles can be loaded and you can keep track of student progress. Another nice feature is that you can share quizzes with other Spellboard uses, that way you only need to load the spelling list once. ($4.99)



__Sight Words by Photo Touch__ is a great app to help kids learn to recognize and read sight words. The app offers different ability levels ranging from preschool through third grade. You can customize the app by including your own photos and recording your own voice. I think this will be a great tool to help my first graders who struggle with learning their sight words. (Free)

__Stick Pick__ is a great app for teachers. It allows you to randomly choose a child's name from a can of popsicle sticks with either a swipe, tap or shake. There's more though. I was simply looking for a tool to replace my current system for choosing students, but this app also allows you to set a difficulty level for each learner based on Bloom's taxonomy. Once a child's name is chosen, based on the ability level that has been set, a set of questions comes up for the teacher aimed at higher order thinking skills. The app also has the option to assess each student's response and it then saves that data. ($2.99)

Personal Apps

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Words with Friends__ is one of my favorite apps. It is an extremely addictive word-building game. I like that I can play the game with other friends who have the app. It makes it more fun to play with people you actually know as opposed to random opponents. ($2.99/also have free versions)

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Pandora__ is your own personal radio station. This app allows you to stream music directly to your iPad or iPhone. You start by entering the name of an artist, song, or composer you like, and the app does the rest. As music is played you rate whether you like it or not. From their your playlist is continually created. It's great to be able to listen to music you truly enjoy at all times. (Free)

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__WORLD BOOK - This Day in History__ for iPad is an interactive calendar that share historical events for each day of the year. You have the ability to click on different pictures and key words to get more information about an event. You might hear a song or a speech by a particular president. As someone who enjoys learning about the past, this has been a fun app to have to learn a bit about history every day. (Free)



<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__HitPad__ is an app that keeps you up-to-date. The app finds the current 'trending topics' and gives you the news, tweets, videos, web and photos about them. For someone like me who likes to know what's going on in the world, this app is perfect. (Free)

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__The Milwaukee Journal-Senintel__ app is one I have been using quite frequently. It is a free app that downloads the entire daily newspaper. I'm a news junkie so I'm always reading articles online or watching the news. This app is making me second guess get my newspaper delivered to my house every day. (Free)