Chapter Eight Apps Corner
Apps Corner is designed for teachers and other educators who are looking for innovative ways to integrate apps into their content-specific curriculum. Apps Corner not only provides great apps with current information but also shows how other educators are using and integrating education apps. As a result, Apps Corner is designed with all educators in mind, regardless of their interests or subject area. You can use Apps Corner to expand your resources by reviewing apps outside your curriculum area; remember many apps associated with one curriculum area can be adapted for use and added to lesson plans in a wide variety of other curriculum areas.
Use Apps Corner as a springboard for collaborating and sharing the successes and hurdles of integrating apps in a classroom or an entire school system. Consider Apps Corner a place to locate app integration ideas and resources. Information on educational apps are organized in four Corners (Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, and Secondary), and different apps are available for each chapter. Many apps are free, others cost from $1 to $5. Inexpensive site licenses for classrooms, schools, and school districts are available for many apps.
Early Childhood
1. Biscuit
A sweet puppy dog tale that’s enchanting for the little ones regardless if they’ve read other Biscuit story books. See what else Biscuit finds at the pumpkin patch besides pumpkins. We love that this app also contains a coloring book and a sticker book feature too.
2. Berenstain Bear
Pre-schoolers can touch words and characters to see the word read aloud to them, and turn the pages themselves by touching the lower right corner. Can be read to them with the audio or the text can be enlarged for all readers.
3. Book Word
An intuitive, educational word search game for new readers, rabid wordsmiths, and everyone in between. Link letters left, right, up, and down to build words and earn points with this fun app.Learn sight words and help your students learn the expected high-frequency words they need to know by the end of 1st grade with this cute app.
4. Wet Woo
This app is organized in channels that include Animals, Fun Shows, Learn, Music, People, and Places and developers have listed hundreds of hours of kid-friendly programming with everything from funny kitten videos to a Discovery Education short biography of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Elementary
1. Garage Band
GarageBand turns your iPad into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy a full range of Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro — even if you’ve never played a note before. Plug an electric guitar into your iPad and play through classic amps and stompbox effects. Use the built-in microphone or a guitar to record, or capture any performance.
2. Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy
This app displays the night sky just as you’re seeing it, but with more detail and descriptions of constellations and stars. It is a great tool to use with your students in class to figure out where the stars are located and it will plot distances for you.
3. Mathematical Formulas
This app serves as a great reference and review tool that catalogs and explains math formulas for geometry and more. A must have when you are teaching strategies and skills for district tests. This app can be used for reviewing weekly or district tests.
4. Brain Tuner Lite
This free app is a great tool for getting your kids to practice math skills each day. The brain Tuner is a super fun and engaging tool that not only gets students motivated to learn though math but will keep them engaged.
Middle School
1. Britannica Kids: Solar System
This most prestigious of encyclopedic brands, Britannica has a line of apps aimed at the tween age group across a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the rain forest. The intuitive interface and mix of information and reinforcing games helps engage young people in a critical field of study at this most impressionable time.
2. Stack the Countries
Learning the names of countries is just the bare minimum of what students will learn while playing Stack the Countries. They will also learn capitals, landmarks, and geographical location. Stack the Countries really contains three games in one. As the student progresses in the levels the additional games unlock.
3. Stanza
This app offers the digital book revolution to your pocket with a reading interface that is unrivaled in its clarity and ease of use. With over 4 million downloads around the world, Stanza has become an iPad phenomenon, and is featured as one of the top three Apple favorite.
4. Brain Thaw
Brain Thaw is an addictive puzzle game that will help keep your brain sharp. You're Newton, the most clever penguin in the land, and you love to snack on digits! Eat the right numbers to solve each puzzle according to a given math rule (e.g., “Multiples of 3”). Watch out, though; fearsome yetis are everywhere, and there’s nothing they like better than making a meal out of little eggheads like you.
Secondary
1. Maxjournal
Maxjournal is a simple and elegant way to make a daily diary or journal, with extensive photo scrapbooking features. Designed to be easy to use and easy to navigate, it makes it a joy to sit down and gain introspection. Everything you need is at your fingertips. Create separate journals for any situation – personal, work, travel – or for different users in your household. Each journal has individual settings and password control.
2. 3d Brain
3d Brain is an interactive app that allows you to rotate and zoom around 29 interactive structures. Discover how each brain region functions, what happens when it is injured, and how it is involved in mental illness. Each detailed structure comes with information on functions, disorders, brain damage, case studies, and links to modern research.
3. Keynote
Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device, and it allows students to create a world-class presentation. This app is complete with animated charts, transitions and is simple as touching and tapping. Use full-screen view to present right on your iPad and or use video mirroring to present it on an HDTV, and preview your slides and notes on your device using the presenter display. Keynote works with iCloud, so your presentations stay up to date across all your iOS devices automatically.
4. iMovie
Make a beautiful HD movies anywhere with iMovie, the fast and fun moviemaking app. Designed for the Multi-Touch screen, iMovie puts everything you need to tell your story at your fingertips. Browse and play projects in the Marquee view.Make a movie in minutes by adding video, photos, music and sound effects. Then give it the Hollywood treatment by adding a theme, titles and transitions. And you can share your movie with the world right from iMovie.