My November Apps

A new month means a new folder with some new apps and the return of some old favorites.

My system seems to be going well.  I have had only 2 students venture into the "off limit folders" and because I know my apps well, I quickly heard they were where they were not supposed to be and redirected their learning.  Everyone else is just very excited to use the apps in our monthly folders.

What's new this month?

Mathletics (what I've said about it previously)
 
If you have not yet got this free app - get it!  All the kids in our school have user names and passwords to access it.  It is excellent practice that meets our Manitoba Curriculum.

Spelling City - a class favorite from September.

  
Another freebie that has word list personalized by ME!  Search my name "Christine Williams" to find the word lists.

Monster Squeeze


This app is $1.99.  I was lucky and got it for free.  The kids love it, but I don't think I would pay that price for it.  Watch for a sale instead.

Mo Willem's Pigeon App


For 4.99 we will have hours of fun with this app.  We will draw the pigeon, create our own stories and listen to each others stories.  It is kid friendly, easy to use.  Kids ALWAYS love it!

Doodle Buddy



It's free and it's FUN!  We have almost all had a turn using Doodle Buddy with our idress app project.  We have also learned how we can use Doodle Buddy to practice our spelling words.  I think this month we will be creating our own art work with Doodle Buddy.

This is my last month with the pod.  Not sure how I will live without it come December.

Fun twist on homework!

Having my own little first grader inspires me in so many ways, it also "grounds" me.  I can see when the burn outs are coming and the reactions to homework etc when it hits home.  Fortunately for me, my little first grader LOVES everything about school.  Locking herself in her bedroom and playing school is a regular occurrence at our house.  So when she was balking at practicing her spelling I figured most others are too!

This weekend we played with 2 different apps:  Doodle Buddy and Max Doodle.  There was a lot of play involved but we also practiced those spelling words!

Doodle Buddy:

We played with the pens, colors and glitter options.  I dictated a word and she spelled the word for me.  This was lots of fun.  Oh the potential I see in the classroom.  No more dead white board markers!  

Max Doodle:  

With this app we got a little bit more adventurous.  We chose a background picture just for fun, but did not play with pencil options.  This time I was the recorder and she practiced reading her words, another essential part of spelling in grade one.

Our final bit of practice involved me writing again since I wanted to "learn" the app.  We played with the pencils, highlighters, crayons and colors.  

Through this whole process I taught my little first grader all about screen shots as well.  Something we have been working on in my classroom.  She was thrilled with this new discovery and I am finding screen shots of EVERYTHING saved to my camera roll!!!

Tip:  In case you don't know what a screen shot is, it is when you click the home button and the power button at the same time.  The camera takes a photo of whatever is on your screen at that time and saves it to the camera roll.  How fun!