January 21, 2011 | 2 Comments
Was Santa extra good to your family this year – leaving a new iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone under the Christmas tree? Although the Roche house wasn’t quite as lucky, I do have a few gifts to share with you. Below is a great collection of education related apps, many of them tested by teachers and students alike in classrooms around the world. I hope you take time to check them out and put them to good use. And Cupid, can I count on you for a Valentine’s Day goody?
| App | Description |
| Dragon Dictation
by Nuance Communications |
FREE. Dragon Dictation is a speech-to-text app listed in the Business category. There are lots of possibilities for kids who have difficulty writing. It would also be a great way for kids to practice speaking clearly and articulately. |
| SonicPics
by Humble Daisy |
$2.99. It’s easy to make slideshow movies using your own photos and recording your own narration. Upload one or more pictures from your Photos. Record your narration for each photo. Share your new enhanced m4v file via YouTube, e-mail, or by WiFi. |
| 123 World
by KidCalc |
$0.99 on sale as of October 2010. 123 World is perfect for younger kids who are learning the continents and getting to know the shapes and locations of countries. |
| Writer’s Studio
by miSoft |
$0.99. Wonderful for digital storytelling and publishing student-created books! This terrific app gives you everything you need to write and create pages or books, with art, text, music, and narration. Kids can draw and add text, add shapes (such as circles for Venn Diagrams), and do their own narration. They can import photos or graphics from their Gallery and create books. Great for publishing poems and stories, along with original artwork and the student’s voice reading his/her creation aloud. Have fun with your spelling or vocabulary words! |
| BrainPOP Featured Movie | FREE. Short, fun educational videos starring Tim and Moby. Play the movie, take the quiz, see your scores. Every day there is a different Featured Movie, which you can see for free. BrainPOP is a subscription website, but there are always some free movies and related activities. |
| Math Bingo
by ABCya.com |
$0.99 Lots of fun. Solve 5 equations in a row, just like Bingo. Choose from addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. 3 levels of difficulty. Choose from 8 cartoon avatars. Collect and play with BINGO Bugs when you make a high score. |
| 123 Color HD Talking Coloring Book for iPad | $3.99. Your kids will think they’re coloring a picture, but they are really matching numbers and letters (uppercase and lowercase) to fill in the picture. There are 4 categories of pictures–shapes, cartoons, world maps, and more cartoons. There’s also an option to hear the numbers in Spanish, French, or German. When kids color the World Map, the name of the continent pops up. |
| World Book’s This Day in History | FREE. This iPad only app is easy to use and shows 3-4 events for each day. There are links to short articles for each link. Up at the top there is a calendar icon, where you can select any month and day. See what happened in history on your birthday! Would be great as a research center activity in the library or classroom. |
| TypeDrawing
by Hansol Huh |
$1.99. Create pictures with your own words. You can choose the font, size, colors, and put in your own text. Backgrounds can be black, white, or a photo. I think students could use this app to play with spelling words, write poems, etc. |
| Doodle Buddy
by Pinger |
FREE. Great for any age. Draw with your fingers, use stamps, change colors and effects (brush, chalk, glitter, smudge) and erase. There are also several background options, including tic-tac-toe, hangman, and dot-to-dot, black, white, and photos. Drawings can be saved to Photos or e-mailed. Easy to use. Useful for hangman and other game options. Shake to clear your drawing and start over. |
| PopMath Basic Math,by PopSoft | $0.99. “Pairs of bubbles float on the screen and your goal is to pop each pair” for example “7″ and “3+4″. Once you’ve popped the pairs, you can move on to the next level, or keep practicing. You can adjust settings for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, or a combination of all. You can also limit the numbers for each function, for example if the child is learning multiplication facts up to a certain number. |
| 123 Color, by KidCalc | $0.99. PreK and Kindergarten. Most of them caught on how to color the pictures by matching the letters or numbers. For some students, the navigation was tricky for them, or their fingers were just a little too clumsy to touch the right area. They were happy when they completed a picture and the music played. It is easier to use on the larger iPad. |
| KidCalc 7-in-1 Math | $0.99. A great first math app. Number recognition, counting, and some easy math. The students can solve math problems on flashcards to reveal a puzzle picture. Writing numbers. Quantity recognition. Counting by increments. Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division. Reading numbers spelled out. |
| Stack the States Lite,
by Dan Russell Pinson |
FREE. Answer questions about the 50 states, and then drop them onto a platform. When the stack of states reaches the checkered line, you win a new state for your U.S. map. Kids can rotate the states before they drop them. Sometimes the states tumble and fall off. This part of the app is very entertaining and will motivate some reluctant students to keep answering questions. Questions include capitals, abbreviations, bordering states or countries, nicknames and more. |
| The U.S. States & Capitals, by Moatkin Systems | $0.99. “Identify the states by shape. Learn the state capitals. Help the states fly to their location in the U.S. map, helping you learn their geographic locations and relative sizes.” |
| ABC Dinosaurs,
by StoryBoy |
$0.99. Practice reading and saying the names of the dinosaurs. This is a great introductory app for K-2 kids since they can practice swiping, tapping, volume control, etc. |
| Dinosaurs,
by American Museum of Natural History |
FREE. A great introductory app to use at any age level to explore pictures of dinosaur fossils, recreations, and natural history. Students can explore the mosaic of real photos. They can practice adjusting image size and orientation: swiping, tilting, double-tapping, or pinch & grab, pinch & spread. They can also learn about dinosaurs by selecting its story–scientific name, pronunciation, locale, age, date of discovery. |
| Cat in the Hat, Seuss ABC, The Lorax, etc., by OceanHouse Media | $3.99 each. Kids could read the story on their own, or listen to the story individually at their own pace or on autoplay. We also played the audio over the speakers in the library. When kids touch any of the objects in the illustrations, the word for it zooms up. Great narration. |
| Counting Coins
by K12, Inc. |
FREE. (Both apps!) Practice counting out money and making change. Kids can drag coins, flip them over, sweep the board clear, and there are several real-world activities for them to practice. |
| PennyMe
by Acoco Interactive |
$0.99. Great for coin counting math for younger students. There are two settings–easy and normal. Quiz Game and Counting options. There is also a tutorial, and sound effects can be turned on or off. |
| Cash Cow
by Chillingo LTD |
$0.99 for limited time. Great for counting coins in math. 3rd grade and up. The object is to save the farm by counting change in various games. The games get more involved as you advance, and there are lots of options for improving and designing your farm. |
| ArithmeTick Math Flash Cards
by Pomegranate Software |
FREE. Great for practicing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, or a combination of skills. You can choose the difficulty level–Easy, Normal, Hard, Genius, or Einstein. The column of apples on the right-hand side show how well you are doing. You get up to 10 points for a correct answer, depending on how long it takes you to answer. More correct answers earn you extra time. |
| Math Drills Lite
by Instant Interactive |
FREE. Great for 3rd grade and up. Students solve basic equations and enter the number, instead of just choosing from multiple answers. The math problems can be customized for the student, selecting addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There are also several problem solving assists for the student: number lines, wooden blocks, facts, and hints. |
| Whiteboard Lite: Collaborative Drawing
by GreenGar Studios |
FREE. A fun drawing tool. It takes a little instruction to show the kids how to tap to draw, tap twice to show hidden tools. Kids can write & decorate their names, draw pictures, save to Photos. Choose from 6 colors and an eraser. There is also a collaborative function. Kids on separate iPods can draw a picture together, even though they’re across the room from each other. Whiteboard Pro costs $3.99 and has more colors and features. |
2 Comments so far
Thanks for the description. It is well said..Thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to take time to check them out..
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