Apps I'm Loving Lately

Hey everyone! Oh how I have missed blogging! I have been so busy! I'm hoping to get more into a balance of blogging more frequently, we'll see how that goes.

This year is rocking my socks off! My kiddos and I sure are having fun as we learn every day. It's kind of a crazy mess as we all figure out common core but it's keeping me on my toes.

I have been loving on some technology lately, due to some very generous parents. I had a family donate 2 ipod touches to my classroom. With my ipad, 2 shuffles that I got from a grant, and now 2 touches I have quite the apple classroom. I have had such a blast getting the touches set up and adding all of my favorite apps. I decided to be very limited in what I put on them, thus making sure my kiddos are really only playing games that are benefiting whatever skills I deem necessary.

Literacy: My kiddos use these apps during Daily 5. I have 3 students at a time using "technology" (1 ipad, 2 ipod touches). I usually do 3 rounds of Daily 5 a day so that means 9 students a day get ipad or itouch time. Each student gets a turn every few days - I keep track of it all on my Daily 5 clipboard.

1. Phonics Tic Tac Toe - Students practice all kinds of phonics skills. This app is so fun and gets in so many skills that my kiddos need to work on like long/short vowels, blends/digraphs and more. 

2. Word Bingo - Practice sight words in a fun way. My kiddos love to earn the "bingo bugs".

3. Same Meaning - Practice synonyms.

4. Same Sound - Practice homophones.

5. Timed Reading - Easy way for the kiddos to practice fluency on their own.

6. SAS Flash Cards - Made by the SAS company (located in my area) you can download tons of flash card decks. I use this as intervention for my kiddos who are practicing our district's sight word sets. They can even self check by listening to the word after they say it.

7. Word Magic - Great phonics practice of vowel pairs and blends.

Math: My kiddos play these apps during my Math Games time which is 3 afternoons a week. I typically will have them work with a partner on the touches and sometimes 2-3 students on the ipad. 

1. Math Bingo - Addition, Subtraction (even multiplication and division for you upper friends).

2. Sushi Monster - Seriously one of my favorite math apps right now. Students have to find the two addends/partners for a sum and feed them to the "monster". As they get better the monster changes which is very motivating if you are an 8 year old. :)

3. Jungle Math Bingo - Just like regular math bingo but with fun jungle music and animals.

4. Freefall Money - Great practice with counting money, identifying values and more.

5. Teaching Number Lines - Basic but a good introduction and practice of number lines.

6. Word Problems - Also basic but I use this one sometimes with my lower math students in math groups.

7. A+ Math Success - Start struggling students on this and in 31 days they will be so much more successful in addition and subtraction.

8. Teach Me First Grade and Teach Me Second Grade - This one technically is Reading and Math together. I originally bought the first grade version last year and had some of my lower students use it frequently. This year they came out with a second grade version. I wish it was a bit more challenging but it is great review and my kiddos love to earn "coins" and buy things from the "store".