Monkey Word School Adventure

He's back............
that favorite little monkey that my kiddos love has a new game  Monkey Word School Adventure  It's an educational app for reading and writing.  There are spelling games, phonics games, word seaches and sight word reading games all intermixed.  While playing the games you earn creatures to store in your terrarium.  There are customizable settings and the difficulty increases as your child plays.  

The game is advertised for children ages 3 - 6, but in my opinion it is perfect to reinforce most grade one skills!  The games is priced at $1.99.

I can't wait to introduce it to my kiddos!




Thanks to Carrie for recommending it to me and you might want to check out the site that she follows Smart Apps for Kids.

Halloween in the Tech Classroom

Before I was blessed with a pod of ipads, I embraced my pod of "slow going" desk tops.    We now have just 1 slow going desk top in our classroom.  We still use all kinds of great sites during our lab time and I post them on our class wiki for the kids to explore at home.  Check out this great link to awesome Halloween games on line. (It is one of my most favorite tech blogs)

http://www.technologyrocksseriously.com/2010/10/halloween-fun.html

And here are a few Halloween apps (just for fun)........

Abbey Halloween Math - free


Halloween counting and words - free

Halloween Sticker book - free

Carve a pumpkin - free


H"appy" Halloween!
 

Trialing a "Pod" for Math Centers

I  have the opportunity to have 4 ipads in my classroom for 1 hour during my math time in the morning, so this week I have been trying to find ways to use the pod as a part of our daily plan.

So far here is how it works:
Each day 4 students get to be the ipad math students of the day.  They get a "free pass" from doing their math journal and instead get to choose a math game to play from the math folder. All of the games I have strategically placed in there so it really does not matter which they choose (this is a little tricky since 2 of the 4 ipads are not set up the same as the other 2, that's what happens when you borrow!)  The kids LOVE it!  Also,  at the end of our math lesson, some of the fast finishers get to spend time in the math folder.  So in that hour at least 8 kids have successfully used the pod.

Today we explored a "new to us" app.  A colleague of mine said it was her class favorite (thanks Cynthia) and guess what, it was installed on our ipads already:) (One of the many that have been loaded but I have had NO time to explore)!  It's called Hungry Fish!


I introduced it on the lcd projector with my new classroom hdmi adapter!  The little fish has a number on his stomach (which you can set), he then needs to eat bubbles that equal his number.  You need to join bubbles to make the number before the fish gets too skinny and dies.  The more you feed him, the more he grows and the more points you get.  The game has addition, subtraction and negative options!  They were clapping and cheering and extremely excited to write the new app in their agendas, so I guess it was a success!

What other math apps do we use?  Well they have always loved Monkey Math School Sunshine (but it's too easy for this time in grade one).  They also love Math Bingo.  Candy Count has great vocabulary such as greatest and fewest.  Patterns is challenging and meets the curriculum outcomes for grade one.  I use skip counting on the lcd to practice oral counting of sets and many kids love to play during their ipad time.  Finally my son (who is in grade two) LOVES the other monkey math app that introduces multiplication.  We have not used it in grade one this year but it is loaded on my ipad.

How do you use ipads during math and what math apps are your kiddos loving?

 

ipad lesson plans

This looks like a very worthwhile site to give teachers an idea of what to do with the ipad. There's so much information out there and it can be overwhelming. It's important to pick one --get comfortable with that and then go forward with something new. Ahhh-good advice I should listen too!!! Check these out and I'll let you know which one I'm going to explore.

http://pinterest.com/techchef4u/ipad-lessons/

Pinterest

I have recently taken an interest in pinterest!  I have my own page of pins and am pinning a few things, but have not yet figured out how the whole thing works.  How on earth people find little old me to follow on pinterest is beyond me, yet they do.  I have pinned very little and am still unsure how to pin a whole site that I like, not just one thing.  Nevertheless, I had this http://pinterest.com/ktbailin/ipad/ recommended to me by a friend.  At quick glance it looks like it could be great.  Thought it was worth sharing with all of you!

App Happy!

Wow!  Today a colleague of mine stumbled upon a comprehensive list of apps geared for children with asperger's syndrome.  This list looks fantastic for the primary classroom or for any children with special needs.  I LOVE how the list shows a picture of the app, names the app and gives a brief summary of what to expect.  The list is also organized into many sub lists such as writing, reading, games, art, music, communication and so much more.  I think my Christmas holiday will be spent exploring many of these apps!  Check them out too and feel free to leave me a comment about the ones that you think are excellent!

http://www.asperger-manitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/iPhone-iPad-and-iPod-touch-Apps-for-Special-Education.pdf

Fun with Fingerprints

I stumbled across 4 new apps by fingerprints.  3 of them were books.  We did not log in to access all the parent features, we simply took the guest option, but my own children had fun with the 3 stories.  They were educational and asked comprehension questions as the story went along.

Then this morning I check out the finger print play maker.  After creating an avatar with my fingerprint and recording my voice to it, I was able to play letter recognition and number recognition games.  My voice recordings cheered me on, or let me know when I had made a mistake.  Very cool!

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fingerprint-play-maker/id478120893?mt=8

These apps are free for a limited time...... check them out!

Sites Worth Visiting

There's so many great sites. Here's a few more I felt were worthy of our blog.

     Ipadschools    Ipods in Education-pros and cons    Writers Studio App   Appolicious with tons of Educational Sites

     Lifecards-Postcard Apps

Puppet Pals

Wow, there are so many great Apps out there. I think I have to do some picking and choosing over which ones are worth teaching and the value of the content. This one seems like an easy, fun one to use in the classroom with loads of potential. I've tried it out without purchasing it but it looks like it would be one of those ones that's worth buying and being able to use the extra options. Here's the description from the creaters of the Apps.

Puppet Pals:
We have always loved animation apps and empowering users to be a content creators and not just consumers. The problem has been, that in the app store, many frame by frame animation apps have been clunky and intimidating. Our goal with puppet pals was to present a familiar straightforward method to create your own "jib-jab© like" animations. All you have to do is select your actors and backdrops, press record, and drag them around. Everything you drag around is recorded in realtime (including your audio). You can even flip characters with a double tap or resize and rotate them using two fingers. The result is a simple and fun way to quickly create your own animated movies. There is something very satisfying about being able to see you animations come to life instantly without the painful frame by frame process.

Puppet Pals

Great Googles

Isn't Google just the best. All I did was searched Grade 2 apps and here's the first bit that came up. I didn't have a chance to check them all- go figure. Technology information changes so fast, too. I bet by the end of the summer there will be tons of additional reviews.

Here's some helpful sites to check out reviews on those endless number of educational apps.
http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Grade+K-2+Apps#Social Studies- many preschool-K-1 apps but it does go up to Grade 5

http://www.iear.org/
This site is beyond fantastic and a must to check out. Their subtitle is: A Community Effort to Grade Educational Apps---WOW. They even have suggested uses for the educational app. There's also tags so you don't have to search endlessly for specific topics.  It's geared for K-12.
OK gotta go--I may not be able to find time to go to bed tonight!

How do we know if those apps are good?

So just how do we know if those apps are any good?  And with there being millions of apps in the app store how do you even stumble across the good ones?  Well I happened to stumble across a few sites and blogs that recommend apps.  Most of them are recommended by imoms or ikids..... I haven't checked them all out but it looks like a great place to start.................. let me know what you think!

http://www.giggleapps.com/
http://theikidsblog.com/blog/
http://www.iphone4kids.net/2011/05/07/great-books-of-the-month-may-2011/
http://www.theiphonemom.com/category/elementary-school-and-beyond

This imom and iteacher is loving her ipad2!
Christine 

Looking for links

I swear I could spend hours just looking for great ideas online.......... the possibilities are endless, too bad there is not enough time in the day to try them all. 

Here are some sites I have found that review and recommend apps for kids.

http://www.ipadapps4kids.eu/
http://kids-apps.mobi/category/ipad/ipad-educational-apps/

The favorite app at our house this May Long weekend has been FlickFishingHD.  So much of a favorite that when the whole family was ready to let mom have a turn with her ipad, the battery life was at 10%.  Thank you very much... now get outside and catch some real fish so I can have a turn!

Links to good apps!

Well I do not have many of these apps personally, but about a month ago when I considered getting an Ipad, I bookmarked this site and am just getting around to checking it out. 

http://www.onlineclasses.org/2010/06/16/40-amazingly-educational-ipad-apps-for-kids/