Apps for Young Students
I am not a technically savvy person. At all. I’d rather use a dry erase board than my SMART board. I’d rather handwrite notes than type them.
Currently, I have two iPads and several laptops available in my class to use on a daily basis. When I first got the iPads, I remember not being able to figure out how to turn the volume down. Enter one of my second graders.
“It’s the button at the top on the right, Mrs. Glass. Just press it and the volume will go up and down.” Ah…thanks, Obi-Wan.
That being said, I have recently taken a leap of faith and started introducing apps into my classroom.
When I find a new app (mostly freebies), I let the parents know so they (or the kids themselves) can download it at home. After we try the app out for a week or so, I contact parents for feedback to see if it has been helpful or not.
The following apps have been student and parent approved:
Apps Gone Free – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one! I get a daily update of apps that normally cost, but have been released free by the developer for a limited time.
Beat The Computer (McGraw Hill) – Awesome app for help with multiplication facts.
Math Plus Minus – A cute app that mixes addition and subtraction facts, along with missing addends.
My Spelling Test Free – Free version of My Spelling Test. Highly rated.
Opposites – A great app for multiple levels of opposite words.
Prose with Bros – Great sentence practice, especially for older kids. Allows practice with vocabulary and parts of speech. Warning: I have found a few inappropriate words!
AccelaStudy – Great app for older kids. I recommended this one for my students who have middle school or high school siblings. Super SAT and ACT vocabulary practice.
Your World – Need a good geography app for middle level geography? This is a good one. Kids have to put countries and cities on a globe like a puzzle.
SimplePhysics – My younger kids love this, especially when we are talking about weight and simple machines in our life science unit.
Tap Times Tables – This is another good one for practicing crucial multiplication facts.
Monster Squeeze (McGraw Hill) – Very simple value comparison game for teaching greater than/less than.
USA Presidents – Want to learn facts about U.S. presidents? This is a good one!
Top-It (McGraw Hill) – Another value comparison app.
Equivalent Fractions (McGraw Hill) – Learning fractions? This is a must have!
Divisibility Dash (McGraw Hill) – Wonderful divisibility app!
Sight Words (Photo Touch) – Have a struggling reader? This is a great auditory app that will expose them to multiple choice sight words.
Language Lab (McGraw-Hill) – Good start for ESL and ELL.
Gopher Finding – This is another sight word app, but it is a lite version. Works well with struggling readers because it is in a multiple choice format.
Here are but a few that my students enjoyed. I’d love to hear about any you have found effective for young students.
Paula Kay Glass lives with her husband and three children in Oklahoma CIty. She holds a Masters degree in education, and her writing on the subject can be found on The Educator’s Room and PaulaKayGlass.com.
