Moving Beyond the Workbook: Amazing Apps

July 21, 2015
Posted by clbartlett on

I’m back for Day 2 of my blog series, “Moving Beyond the Workbook.” Today’s topic is Amazing Apps. I’m going to share my favorite apps for getting students to practice those oh-so-important skills in a meaningful engaging way.

These are my two favorite finds from last year. I love, love, love Plickers! (pic. on top) You can use it in a one device classroom so it’s great when you don’t have enough devices for everyone.

Kahoot! is also amazing. This requires more devices so that can be a limitation but when I use it, I pair up my students or put them in groups. This is more like a game show so the kiddos really like it.

My students love Grammar Wonderland. It’s fun because they can move animals around to capture verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. You can also set the difficulty on this one so it lends itself to differentiation.

Epic! is free for teachers. Epic! has tons of digital books for kids and my students loved using it last year.

Here are a few more apps that I love.

(1) Bluster practices prefixes, suffixes, rhyming words, and more. 
(2) I use the Kindle app all the time. I purchase or borrow books from the Prime library. I then project the books on my Activboard. The kids love being able to see a book that large.
(3) Show Me is great because you can write on it and show it on the Activboard too. You can pass it around and have kids show their thinking on the board. This is a great alternative to worksheets. If you need documentation, just snap a screenshot of the kid’s work and save it as the student’s name.
(4) Hooked on Phonics is great. I use it with my low babies. We just happened to luck out and get it when it was free or at a really low price.

I use apps more in math than in reading.

(1) Make 10 app is a great way to practice those Base 10 concepts. You can also make it harder and have students make 100.
(2) Base 10 Bingo is awesome. I believe it is a paid app but so worth the money. It provides great practice counting hundreds, tens, and ones.
(3) Money Bingo is by the same maker as Base 10 Bingo. This is also a paid app. But if you are like me, I will get anything I can find to practice those money concepts.
(4) Cyberchase Shape Quest is one that I haven’t played around with too much but the kids love it. It goes with a PBS show so there’s that. Also, it provides practice identifying shapes.
(5) My students love the Geoboard app. This is so much easier than pulling out all those Geoboards and rubber bands. I still do use real Geoboards so they can use their fine motor skills getting those rubber bands hooked but this is a great alternative.
(6) Tens Frames Snap is kinda like 21. Students touch the screen when the ten frames show the same numbers on the top and bottom
I could go on about apps all day but I’m sure that the blog post would be too long to read. If you have any apps that you recommend. please tell us in the comments.
Join me back tomorrow to talk about using Would You Rather questions in your curriculum.
Also, be sure to enter my my giveaway for a $50 gift card to Erin Condren. Click here to enter.

3 Comments on “Moving Beyond the Workbook: Amazing Apps”

  1. Wow I use lots of apps too and haven't heard of these! Thanks and I did have question about plickers. Is it hard to scan the cards for student answers? Do you have to do it more than once if not scanned right? How long does it take to get the results?

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