I am totally and completely thrilled to be the proud new owner of an iPad, thanks to Evo and eBay green!
An iPad was certainly not in our budget, though both my husband and I, as educators, do recognize the value in the device for our kids, for teaching and learning. (And heck, let’s face it, for ourselves, too–for reading, shopping, organizing, gaming, and all that good stuff!)
So while I was at Evo Conference last week, speaking on a community-building panel with my pals Allison McDonald and Thien-Kim Lam, I jumped at the opportunity to win one of these rockin’ devices. And to my complete and utter surprise, I won!
But now?
I’m a bit baffled.
I have this brand-new, totally amazing, state-of-the-art device, a tabula rasa. And an overwhelming app store packed with games and resources for kids–sneaky teaching and learning at its best. But I don’t know where to begin.
I need YOUR help!
Here’s the skinny. . .
- Favorite iPad Apps for Teaching and Learning: Check out the latest piece on the teachmama.com channel for ways that YOU can help me–and many other parents out there!–in this iPad app search!
Huge thanks to eBay green–a component of eBay that encourages people to buy green, sell green, and think green every day. eBay green was a sponsor of Evo and hosted a contest that encouraged us to create our own pinboards with earth-friendly elements. I owe and incredible thanks to all of my pinterest followers, teachmama.com facebook fans, we teach facebook fans, and twitter followers for pinning, repinning, liking, and retweeting my totally cute pinboard.
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Congrats! We love Stack the States, My First Classical Music App, Word Bingo, Splash Math, and Khan Academy. Enjoy!!
thank you SO much, Jeana!! I will be sure to check them out!
For parents of special needs kids, Autism Language Learning is a great tool for teaching actions and pronouns. It uses video so it holds their attention and they love it! don’t forget to use apps as motivators when the kids don’t want to do their school work.. Works wonders!
Tammy! THANK YOU!!! Will def check it out! And I LOVE the idea of an app motivator!!
My students LOVE Brain POP, Brain POP Jr, For sight word practice I use sight words buddy and sight word sentences.
awesome! thank you, Dorothy–I’ll check ’em out!!
Geography Learning; Stack the States. Shake States, The States, Learn States, 50 States (yes, my 4 year old is obsessed with learning his States and thinks it is quite fun)
Problem Solving: Flow, Angry Birds (yes, there is some strategy involved), Little Crane, Bloons (not sure of the purpose of this game, but my kids pop balloons after strategically placing them??? They seem to enjoy it.)
Educational: JumpStart, Sight Cards, Letter of Day, Tell Time, UmiNumbers, KidsTrucks123,
Fun and Purposeful: Blackboard Lite, Moron Test (despite the name, it’s really fun and teaches children to READ directions before they make a decision, problem solving and fun for the whole family)
Interaction With Others: Draw Some, Minecraft
Educational Farm/Construction Videos: Big Machines, Trucks
Heather, thank you thank you thank you! You are crazy organized, too, my friend–thanks for categorizing them!!
Puppet Pals is amazing!
Will definitely check it out, Kelley!! Thanks!
If I ever got an iPad, the first ap I’d download would be Numbers League, probably the most fun you could have practicing math.
Players put together “crime-fighting” characters of different components which correspond to different number amounts. You then use math to match the crime fighter numbers with various baddies presented. When the numbers add up, you put the baddie in jail. There’s no fighting, just adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc. (Is 17 + 32 a better match than 17 + 45? 17 + 5 + 12?) It features a very addictive music sound track and funny comments when each criminal is locked up with a satisfying clang. Stylistically, it evokes a ’50s crime show or comic book.
One of my musician/programmer friends developed this for Common Sense Media, and I got to play with it in alpha/beta. It was soo much fun, they had to wrestle it away from me, and I’m not even a math person!
This link has a detailed review: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/mobile-app-reviews/numbers-league
An animated clip showing off the game here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=153039481433773
Marie!! HUGE thanks, my friend!! Cannot wait to check it out–sounds like something my kids would ADORE!! Cannot thank you enough for writing, and thank you tons for reading!
*Teach Me Kindergarten (K skills)
*Teach Me First Grade (first grades skills)
*Unblock Me (brain teaser and difficult at even the beginner level)
*Fashion Math (math facts)
*Hooked on Words (I am addicted to the scramble portion of this word game)
*Google Earth
*Miriam Webster Dictionary and Dictionary.com (my kids love and use these so much that they have created jingles to go with them)
*Puzzle Plus (great puzzles)
*Accounts 2 (never keep a check register again. We have this on both of our iPhones and our iPad and it is awesome. My husband can buy gas, put the amount on this app and it will sync to my phone and the iPad. Seriously, my husband thinks iPhones are totally worth it just for this app. I should mention we have the old 3G iPhones too. Not the new fancy ones)
*Tab Tale Publishing has a lot of great free books that are interactive. Lots of familiar and classic stories. One note here: it is almost impossible to use the interactive feature if you do it on autoplay. Choose read to me or read by myself options.
There are just too many good ones to list. I will list some more later!
BRANDY!! You always come through for me, and I owe you so big, my friend!! HUGE thanks!! Cannot wait to check these out!! (Esp the accounts one!)
Rover ( with this you can use some things that require flash player, pinterst, twitter, Elmo loves AbC I have the full version for the entire alphabet, super why, louie’sletter challenge, beginning sound sorting game by lakeshore, anything ABA they have rhyming and problem solving apps, howie’s hungry monster build words lite, gopher finding site words, what does not belong from brain go, alien buddies, marble math jr., xgerms counting, 10 frame fill, PCB bingo, ABA problem solving, ABA what rhymes
Thank you SO, so, so much, Patty!! HUGELY helpful–cannot wait to check these out!!
Totally forgot about PBS kids video. You can choose from a ton of episodes from all sorts of your favorite PBS shows. Personally, I love it when my kids watch Word Girl or Martha Speaks. When you hear your 4 year use the word redundant or arbitrary correctly, it is exciting!
Apps you will love for 4-6 year olds- Bugs and Buttons and Bugs and Bubbles. These two games are amazing and worth every penny! For me they teach all math concepts-they included about 18 games, sorting, patterns, colors, and they are leveld so they stay easy if a child is not getting many correct and they get harder when they are doing well.
Laura
Laura!! Thank you thank you! Cannot wait to check these out, my friend!!
I, too,just recently acquired an iPad, and I have no idea where to begin to find apps, how to download them, and how to use it with my small group of kinder kiddos. It belongs to the school so I can only get free apps, and they must be geared for kindergarten. I was told that I need to get an iTunes account, and then I was told by someone else that I don’t need one. I’m confused as I am not a technology person at all. Could you give me some pointers? I would most greatly appreciate it!
Lee Ann! I am working on the iPad post as we speak, so hold tight! Should go live next week, my friend. . . until then, yes, start an iTunes account, and then search ‘learning apps’ and see what you find. There are a ton that are free, that you will love. Go to PBS first. Then try searches for anything you need–free abc games, free puzzles for kids, etc. Check out the rating–how many ppl like them–and then see if you like them. And I promise I’ll ahve some ideas for by month’s end! Yay! So exciting!