Posted in Classroom management

252 Favorite IPad Apps for your Classroom

ipad-3-schoolApp use is taking over classrooms, but what as teachers really want are authentic, educational apps that promote higher order skills like critical thinking and problem solving.

Here’s my list, culled from my students and my PLN. Bookmark this page  because this is where I update throughout the year. Then, you’ll always be current (for example, it used to have just 107 apps).

If you have an app you use in your classroom, please add it to comments at the bottom. I’ll update as soon as possible.

If you’re the developer of a great educational app, please contact me. I’ll review it. If it meets Ask a Tech Teacher standards (high quality, ease of use, no/low advertising, quality educational value), I’ll list it. More details here.

Animation

  • Puppet Pals HD (free)–Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time
  • Toontastic–empowers kids to draw, animate, and share their cartoons through imaginative play.

Audio

Backchannel

Bloom’s Taxonomy    

Brainstorming

  • Lino–share notes and photos

Classroom Management

Classroom Resources

Collections

Common Coretablet pc

Drawing

  • AirSketch Free–Turn your iPad into a wireless whiteboard! Project live sketches to a local computer.
  • Drawing Box (free)–Drawing Box is the most suitable app to learn and practice drawing and painting. With responsive smooth pencil and brush strokes, graphical and intuitive interface, you can use it to make a quick sketch or a detailed study on the go.
  • Doodle Buddy–Finger paint with your favorite colors and drop in playful stamps
  • Doodle Cast
  • Draw–for K-2
  • Drawing Pad–exactly what it sounds like
  • How to Draw–Listen, follow the instructions and draw on your screen. See how easy it is.
  • iBrainstorm–FREE–drawing and writing with lots of colors
  • PS Express–Ph0toshop Lite–Adobe’s free app for editing photos on your iPad, iPhone, or iPad touch.

English Language

Financial

  • Pogo Pig–teaches 2-4 year olds fun lessons about savings.

Flashcards

Free apps

Gardners Multiple Intelligences

Geography

  • Atlas–Barefoot World Atlas is an interactive 3D globe for iPad that invites children to explore the regions and countries of the world, discovering hundreds of fascinating features and immersing themselves in the rich wonders of our planet.
  • Google Earth–Fly around the planet with a swipe of your finger. Explore distant lands or reacquaint yourself with your childhood home. Search for cities, places, and businesses.
  • Stack the Countries Lite Terra–Stack the Countries Lite makes learning about the world fun! Watch the countries actually come to life in this colorful and dynamic game!
  • Stuck on Earth–A new kind of travel app that brings you the best places in the world to visit, photograph, and experience. It’s the ultimate app for explorers, photographers, and daydreamers.apps
  • World Atlas–from National Geographic

Halloween

Health

  • Human Atlas (lite)–With this free download you can experience just some of the power of the Blausen Human Atlas. Turn the 360 degree rotatable Human Body figure, see narrated 3D animations of five common medical conditions
  • SRN Client–Student Response Network (SRN) is a powerful “virtual Clicker” student/audience response system designed for use in wired school computer labs or with wireless laptop groups.

History

  • Civil War Today–For less than one penny per day you can experience the war as it unfolded, one day at a time, with daily updates that let you live the events in “real-time” over four years.
  • Early Jamestown–interactive textbook exploration of the early days of the Jamestown settlement and the state of Virginia.
  • Gettysburg Battle app
  • Pass the Past–educational game to help students prepare for Virginia’s Standard’s of Learning (SOL) exams with a focus on World, United States and Virginia history, civics, and geography.
  • US History–McGraw-Hill Education’s American History Time Line is a fun and informative way to navigate the history of the United States.

How-tos (create them

  1. Educreations–create how-tos and turn into a video
  2. Explain Everything–whiteboard tool, import/annotate anything, share
  3. ShowMe–a white-board approach, turned into a video

Languages

Logic/Programming

Mandarin Chinese

Mapsman hand holding a tablet

  • LandFormer–Raise and lower terrain to solve puzzles in this unique and challenging game.
  • Stuck on Earth–A new kind of travel app that brings you the best places in the world to visit, photograph, and experience. It’s the ultimate app for explorers, photographers, and daydreamers.
  • TapQuiz Maps–Play TapQuiz™ Maps for an easy and quick way to master geography. Learn the countries of the world through a fun and engaging game!

Math

  • AIRR Math–student centered math activities in AIRR Math promote a strong, solid foundation for students’ success throughout their educational experiences.
  • Babakus–combines an abacus and calculator to provide math-challenged students with an excellent option for learning math
  • CalcMadeEasy–Free–One of the Best Calculators for iOS devices. CalcMadeEasy FREE version comes with fully functional Scientific Calculator and Notepad with automatic note taking capability.
  • Elevated Math–Elevated Math provides initial instruction or intervention on math topics that cover place value, estimation, large digit addition all the way through Algebra I (two years of math instruction!)
  • Egberta’s Equations–Egberta the macaw has a nest full of tasty eggs that Cliff the climber wants to eat. Unfortunately, the eggs are on top of a tall cliff. Help Cliff reach the top and get the eggs by completing equations.
  • Flash to Pass–easy-to-use, elegant program designed to facilitate mastering the basic math facts learned in Elementary School.
  • Fraction Basic–free video app provides a quick and simple way for you to learn and understand the basics behind fractions.
  • Free GraCalc–A powerful, flexible graphing calculator . . . and it’s free!
  • Gummii–game-based math
  • Grade 1 Math–Simple and easy to use math drill app for your 1st grader!
  • Grade 2 Math–Simple and easy to use math drill app for your 2nd grader!
  • Grade 3 Math–Simple and easy to use math drill app for your 3rd grader!
  • Hungry Fish–Practice mental addition and subtraction with Motion Math
  • iFormulae–simple library consisting of various formulae, equations with their example.
  • Math Bingo— If you need a way to break the tedium of repetitious math fact practice, get your students and iPad and let them have at Math Bingo
  • Math Board Addition–good basic addition practice
  • Math Drills Lite–Graphically rich and fun environment allows a single student to learn basic math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
  • Math Game–sharpen math skills
  • Math Glossary–MathTerms is an illustrated glossary of mathematics terms in English and Spanish.
  • Math Puppy–Bingo Challenge Educational Game
  • Math Ref – Free
  • Math Zoom–An animal adventure through the world of numbers!
  • Mental Math–Amaze and delight others as you multiply, divide, and square at lightning fast speed.
  • Motion Math–practice real-life scenarios using math
  • Murky Math–Grade 1—focused on basic Math skills for Grade 1. Content is aligned with Common Core Standards
  • Murky Math–Grade 2–focused on “applied Math & Logic” skills for children in 2nd Grade or advanced learners in 1st Grade
  • My Math Flashcards App–My Math Flash Card App is for mastering basic elementary math facts. Its an easy to use and customizable application to enable focused learning.
  • Percentage Off–Easy to use and accurate
  • Quick Graph–a powerful, high quality, graphic calculator that takes full advantage of the multitouch display and the powerful graphic capabilities of the iPad and iPhone, both in 2D and 3D.
  • Rocket Math–use rockets to learn math
  • Ruler–With a single touch your iPhone turns into a top accurate ruler.
  • Slice It–slide objects into pieces
  • SoundBuilder–most powerful heart sounds and murmurs app ever designed for a mobile device.
  • Splash Math 5 worksheets–5th grade–a fun and innovative way to practice math. 9 chapters covering an endless supply of problems.
  • Timed Test Arcade–Timed Test is a full-featured addition math facts timed test simulator. Create completely customizable timed tests.
  • Undersea Math–Learn Addition Visually – Solve all levels on the treasure map to find the treasure chest.

Mind Mapping–Thinking

  • iBrainstorm Project–Capturing and sharing your inner most creative genius has never been easier. Introducing the first multi-device collaboration tool from Universal Mind.
  • IdeaSketch–easily draw a diagram – mind map, concept map, or flow chart – and convert it to a text outline, and vice versa
  • Inspiration–paid app
  • Popplet–Great for work. Great for school. Popplet is a platform for your ideas.

Music

  • Easy Beats–free version of our drum sequencer built from the ground up to be the quickest and easiest way to create great sounding 4 bar beats.
  • GarageBand–turns your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio
  • Guitar–tudioShare allows the novice or professional musician to record, mix, and share your music with friends, fans, and fellow musicians anywhere in the world.
  • Soundrop–Draw lines and watch as Soundrop uses them to create music!
  • Toontastic–you and your kids can start your own garage band
  • UJam
  • Virtuoso–play the piano

News

Notes

  • Educreations–turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. Explain a math formula… Create an animated lesson… Add commentary to your photos… Diagram a sports play….
  • EverNote–easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use
  • Note-ledge–app for note-taking
  • Jots–acts like a piece of paper
  • LectureNotes–Android App
  • Notability–Notability powerfully integrates handwriting, PDF annotation, typing, recording, and organizing so you can take notes your way
  • Note Anytime–fee-based, but powerful.
  • Note Taker HD–the iPad app for professionals in need of note-taking software
  • Paper (free)–Capture your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings and share them across the web.
  • Paper Desk — Leave behind your paper notebook for your next class lecture or meeting. PaperDesk is a simple, easy-to-use notebook replacement made specifically for the iPad
  • Screenchomp–share a great idea… Explain a tricky concept… Help kids with their homework.
  • ShowMe–Turn your iPad into your personal interactive whiteboard!
  • Three Ring (free)–take pictures of student work and keep track of them online
  • Voice Thread–Talk, type, and draw right on the screen.

Parents

Photos/Pictures

  • PicSay– Color-correct your pictures and add word balloons, titles, graphics, and effects like distortion
  • SonicPicsLite–the easiest way to turn your images into custom slideshow movies to share with your family and friends
  • Talk n Photo–add a photo and append audio over it, explaining the photo
  • Thinglink–make photos interactive

Preschool

Programming

  • BeeBop–based on the Beebop floor robot–free
  • Hopscotch–programming on an iPadmodern communication technology

Publishing

  1. Explain Everything–create a presentation explaining everything
  2. Mixbit.com–create 1 second-1 hour videos and share

Reading Fluency

  • Action Words–learn action words with amazing pictures
  • Ansel & Clair: Paul Revere’s Ride–a History lesson that fully leverages the interactive capabilities of the iPad
  • Audio Books–apps for books purchased through Audio Books (and free ones)
  • Cat LITE — Dr. Seuss
  • First Site Words (fee)–focuses on the core vocabulary your children will need throughout their lives.
  • Free Books–download any of our 23,469 classic books, and read
  • IBooks–amazing way to download and read books.
  • Kindle–read ebooks, newspapers, magazines, textbooks and PDFs on an easy-to-use interface.
  • Murky Reef–Murky Reef is a series of thematic educational apps that encourages critical thinking through contextual game play
  • SparkleFish–a hilarious audio story completion game that will have you laughing uncontrollably.
  • StoryKit–Create an electronic storybook.
  • StoryLines–award-winning game of ‘telephone’ with pictures
  • Super Readers (fee)–improve reading skills
  • Tappy Alphabet–fun app to learn letters; available on Google Play
  • Young Reader–highly customizable eBook reader and speed reading coach all-in-one

Resources/Research

  • BrainPOP–Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app
  • Chinese Pad–Only touch the panels, you will be instantly good Chinese speaker. Over 400 word & phrases are available for speaking, hearing, and seeing the Chinese character spelling
  • Dictionary–Dictionary.com app
  • Heritage fotopedia–With 30,000 awe-inspiring photos, this much loved app has been called the world’s largest photo book, an inspiring travel guide
  • iLearn Chinese–introduces Chinese characters to non-native speakers or young kids in a fun and intuitive way: to understand their origins as pictures of the objects they represent.
  • Merriam Webster Dictionary
  • Kids Picture Dictionary
  • KT Dictionary–English Chinese
  • SparkVue–collect and display live data from iPhone etc to the iPad
  • TED app–TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people

Science

  • 3D Brain–Use your touch screen to rotate and zoom around 29 interactive structures.
  • 3D Cell Simulation and Stain Tools
  • Bobo Explores Light–clever and fun
  • Brainpop App
  • EMD PTE — periodic table
  • Explore the Animal Kingdom–Let your kids go on a safari and discover the animal world anytime!
  • Frog Dissection–humane and inexpensive way to help all students learn
  • Google Earth App
  • GoSkyWatch–Easily and quickly identify and locate stars, planets, constellations and more by simply pointing to the sky
  • LeafSnap HD–he first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution
  • Molecules–Molecules is an application for viewing three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulating them using your fingers.
  • Monster Physics
  • Murky Reef–Murky Reef is a series of thematic educational apps that encourages critical thinking through contextual game play.
  • Project Noah–share your science explorations
  • Rat Dissection–students can experience a virtual dissection of a rat (MS/HS)
  • Science 360–The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science360 for iPad provides easy access to engaging science and engineering images and video from around the globe and a news feed featuring breaking news from NSF-funded institutions.
  • Science Glossary–A glossary of scientific terms and short biographies that support our science education website
  • Science House–growing library of over 80 hands-on Science lessons that are great for home and the classroom.
  • Simple Physics
  • Smithsonian Channel—

Slideshows

Sounds

  • Belfry Sound Effects–sound effects player written for schools and small scale theatre venues

Spanish

  • ConjuVerb–contains over 600 of the most used verbs in Spanish
  • Spanish Smash–Learn Spanish vocabulary the FUN and EASY way

Special Needs

  • Babakus–combines an abacus and calculator to provide math-challenged students with an excellent option for learning math
  • Occupational Therapy–a long list of greast apps including stress, social skills building, and more
  • Speech Therapy and Language Apps–apps like Conversation Builder, StoryBuilder, Tense Builder, Rainbow Sentences, designed for kids who need a different approach
  • More–click here

Spelling

Studying

Thinking

  • Educreations–turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard; share your ideas with others

Typing Practice

  1. ABC Buddy–free
  2. Ghost Type
  3. Keyboarding Champ
  4. Tap Fun Lite
  5. Tap Typingmodern communication technology
  6. TapWriter
  7. Type It!

Videocast

Vocabulary

White Board

Writing

Miscellaneous

  • Color Uncovered–Explore the surprising side of color with Color Uncovered, an interactive book that features fascinating illusions, articles, and videos developed by the Exploratorium.
  • Letter School–for handwriting
  • PBS Kids–Watch videos from your favorite PBS KIDS television series anytime, anywhere (in the USA).
  • Puppet Pals–Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time; popular with my play-acting kids
  • Scan–fastest, simplest and most user-friendly QR Code and barcode scanner available

Great Collections

Are you an IPad school/class? Visit these websites:

 

 

Author: Jacqui
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
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