ipad lovin'....

After a long and hard fight to get the funds my amazing principal has gotten 4 ipads per grade (k-4) to rotate throughout the days/weeks. We have been slowly but surely using the ipads at small centers where the children use a variety of applications to reinforce their skills and develop ideas that have been part of our curriculum. 

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE AMAZING OPPORTUNITY!!! I am so happy my students and I are able to incorporate this type of technology into our daily learning! Can you tell I'm excited?! :)

As a school we have created a blog to share thoughts, ideas and apps. I am so lucky to work with such dedicated teachers. I wanted to share some of the wonderful resources we have come across to help us in our effort to integrate technology more...

Apps can get very expensive and although some of them look great online...when we put them to use it can sometimes be a very different story. My colleague and friend, a 2nd grade teacher thought she had found a super math app...she paid for it, only to find out the child speaking had a terrible lisp and the kids couldn't understand what they were being asked to do. Not to mention it was driving her nuts-o! haha! That is why it is always a good idea to research any reviews before purchasing any app. 

This is an excellent app review site where teachers and techies alike give their two cents. 

This is also a helpful site.  

Here is a list of apps worth checking out:

Phonics:

Intro to letters
Montessori Crosswords
Word Magic
Pocketphonics
Spell Blocks
Build a Word
Alpha Writer
Alphabet Fun
Phonics Made Easy
Spellboard
Spelling 1-2

Reading:

Sight Words HD
Speedy Reader
Timed Reading

Grammar:

Grammar prep: subject and verbs
Grammar prep: using commas, pronouns, apostrophes
iQuestion
iSentence

Writing/Projects:

Story Kit
Puppet Pals HD
Glow Writer
Story Builder
Story Buddy
Sentence Maker

Math:

Intro to Math
Math Magic
Math Series
Animals Counting
Approach to Montessori Numbers HD
Colors, Shapes and more flash action
Pattern Recognition
Fun Felt (shapes)
Learning to Tell time is Fun
My first Tangrams HD
My first Weighing exercises HD
Time, Money and Fractions On Track
Mathboard
Mad Math 2.0
Make Change (money counting game)
Math Flashcards
MultiGenius
A Montessori approach to Math - Hundred Board Times Tables

Letters and Numbers:

Alphabet and Numbers 1-100

Geo/History/Science:

Geo Walk HD
Earth Flags HD
A Life Cycle app
Wonders of the World
NASA
Fotopedia Heritage
Surf the Ages (I think it is for middle school)

International Diplomacy World Leaders for iPad

Google Earth

Kids Books:

The Penguins of Madagascar
Miss Spider's Bedtime Story
Green Eggs and Han

Productivity (projects):

Sonic Pics
Sundry notes
Dragon Dictation
Whiteboard
Drawing Pad

Are you using ipads in your classroom or school? What do you use them for? What is your favorite way of using technology with your kiddies?!