YouTube Kids App released this morning. This free app, available for iPhone or iPad, provides younger children full access to Youtube content appropriate for their age. You will see Sesame Street, Bob the Builder, and Fireman Sam as examples.
Viewers have a few ways to find content within the app. They can choose to search shows, music, learning, or the explore button. Or they can click the magnifying glass and type their search.
While kids are watching a video, they have access to simple controls, or can navigate to other episodes within a particular channel.
When starting the app, by default background music and sound effects are auto enabled. As a parent you can click into the settings and turn them off. You can also set a time limit so the app auto turns off after a specific amount of time.
Youtube Kids App is a great resource if you want to allow free exploration of videos for any young child.
There are many great ePortfolio options available, including Evernote or Google, however they can be a bit overwhelming for the students in primary grades. Especially if you want to have them save exemplars.
Seesaw is a free iDevice app that is very simple to use allowing any student capable of using an iPad to take a photo to save an exemplar into their ePortfolio.
Instead of calling them ePortfolio's, Seesaw uses the term journals, both class journals containing works displayed by the entire class and individual journals containing works by any particular student.
The process is quite simple. As a teacher you create your free account which will be tied to your classroom. Set up all your students inside that class.
From there you can add either a photo, video, drawing, or something from the camera roll.
Once you upload an item, like a photo, you can add annotation, voice recording, or text.
Then you select which student is associated with the artifact. You can select multiple students if it is a group project.
The app allows for student access as well. The only rights students have will be to add artifacts. Students do not need an account, just scan a QR code and they are in. While logged in as a student they will have the ability to view any artifact from within the class, not just their own.
Let the students do the work: take the picture, create a drawing, shoot a video, or select a project from the camera roll to insert into their own journal. As a safe guard, before it is finalized into a students journal the teacher must approve the artifact from within their teacher account.
Seesaw allows for you to invite parents so they have ability to see only their child's artifacts.
If you have been looking for an ePortfolio type tool to use with K-3rd grade, this is a perfect fit. Easy to use so students do the work, teacher has full control over anything posted, and parents have access to their child's work. Also a great visual recap come conference time.
These two free, device neutral, online resources are sure to bring high engagement and active participation into any classroom. The idea is simple, students answer questions in a competitive atmosphere, there will be a winner.
For both Kahoot and Quizizz, the facilitator creates a series of questions to be answered by the participants. Each question can have a time limit before the participant must select a response. The quicker the participant chooses a response, the more points they earn providing their choice was correct.
Using Kahoot, the questions are asked to the participants one at a time. Participants view the projected screen, answer a question by selecting the corresponding color on their device, points are awarded, and a new question is provided. When finished, persons with the most points will be displayed.
Using Quizizz, the facilitator starts the activity at which time participants are given questions in a random order. The participants read the questions on their device and answer them at their own pace. Once all participants complete the activity, persons with the most points will be displayed.
Quizizz would be a great tool to use for an entire class, or as a center since it is student driven. Kahoot is teacher driven providing time for discussion between each question being asked.
I've tried using both resources with groups of at least 40, and each time they worked fine.
Both Kahoot and Quizizz allows teachers to create their own questions, which can include images. When finished with the activity, the teacher can save the data describing how students answered each question. Teachers can explore through the many public assessments created and shared by others.
In either case, these opportunities provide a nice review experience or possibly a motivating pre-assessment experience. Definitely stated, the experience will be fun, highly energetic, and competitive.
Integrating Math Manipulatives into a classroom can provide a rich experience for kids learning about math concepts and number sense. One manipulative that is most likely under utilized is the number line.
Clarity Innovations has created a free Number Line App for the iPad. This app can be used to help students visualize the four major mathematical operations.
Options in the app allow you to change the tic marks for several different common increments, or you can even enter in your own custom numbering. There is a setting for tic mark spacing, and a setting to cover up the tic mark labels.
Once you adjust your settings, you can use the text tool to type in numeric expressions or equations.
Finally there is a jump tool where you can bring in your jumps, as many as you like, both forward and backwards for addition and subtraction. The jump interval can be manipulated to be as long or short as you wish, with the interval visible or not.
An annotation tool allows you to add free hand items for additional clarity.
Currently this app is limited to just positive numbers. Several people have posted comments requesting to have the number line extend into negative numbers. The app also does not provide a way to share your work, so if you want students to create images they would need to take a screen shot of their iPad using Home - ON/OFF sequence.
The Number Line App is a great resource for elementary students learning the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division while also strengthening their number sense.
Are you looking for some iPhone or iPad apps that allow students to practice particular math skills that seem to be keeping them behind the pace of a class? Look into MathTappers Apps and check out the apps they have to offer.
Math Tappers Numberline Students practice placing numbers on a numberline under a variety of options, such as between 0-100, between 0-10, or between -10-10, and with or without tic marks.
Math Tappers Fund Sums Students practice addition facts for sums totaling 5, 6, 7, on up to 20, or 100. Students can play in a ten frames mode viewing a picture version of the sum or view the numeric representation of each sum.
Math Tappers Multiples Students practice multiplication facts for products equaling 5, 6, 7 on up to 15, or 25. Students can play in apple mode which provides a picture representation of a multiplication array, or view the numeric representation of each product.
Math Tappers ClockMaster Students practice converting different representations of a traditional analog clock into a corresponding digital representation or even as text.
Math Tappers Estimate Fractions Students practice their understanding of fraction representation by relating them to the nearest half, and extend their understanding by completing addition and subtraction problems.
Math Tappers Equivalents Students practice learning the equivalent representations between fractions, decimals, and percents using a number line, circle graph, or array model.
Math Tappers Carbon Choices Students track their activity for a week to determine how green their lifestyle is towards the environment as the app calculates the amount of Carbon Dioxide is emitted into the air from their consumptions.
Each MathTapper App is free to use, and without ads. Most of the Apps, all but Clock Master and Carbon Choices, track data for multiple users by allowing each user to complete the App activity under their own name. Thus, the student and teacher can obtain feedback on progress gained over a time period.
MathTappers Apps are perfect for an iPad or iPod center, or if you only have one device and you let the students share. If students have devices at home, these would also be perfect apps for kids to practice skills over the summer.
Yooukids is a nice free iPhone and iPad app allowing you to create playlists of videos to younger children keeping them from surfing Youtube for anything and everything.
Once the app is installed, the default mode is "kid" mode, where they have access to playlists.
In order to put on additional playlists, you set up a 4 digit PIN, login to your own Youtube account for personal playlists, or search for public playlists. After you find the playlist, you can either sync the entire set or sync individual videos.
Yooukids would work great in Primary classrooms with iPods or iPads. A teacher could sync playlists of a variety of books read online, like Storyline Online, and students could watch or listen on their own without the teacher in fear of kids wandering into Youtube cyber space.
A+ Spelling is a free app that involves the students from start to finish in an iPad environment which helps them master spelling lists.
I had the opportunity to visit a first grade classroom and observe how one educator implemented this app with her students.
Her first step was to review the spelling list of words with her class.
Then each student enters their list on an iPad. One nice feature about having students enter their list is that they first type it in, and then the student voice records their annunciation. Here is where it can get tricky, first graders tend to make a few mistakes during their initial entries. Hmmm, imagine that. Be ready to revise and re-record entries as students create their lists.
When the list is completely entered, there are several activities students can complete to practice their spelling competency. In each activity the student listens to the word, then types in their spelled version.
Finally students can "test" their word list, which will assess them over the entire list. Students are instantly scored on their words providing them with an opportunity to respell any missed words, and also completely retest. All test results are stored on the iPad.
Little Stars Toddler Game is a great Pre-K to kindergarten practice app for students. This free app is ad-free, great layout, for boththe iPadand iPod, and easy to use. Students can work in one or two player mode, listen to the word, and choose the image that matches. Correct answers get a verbal congratulations and moves their rocket along the path.
The preloaded topics of the game can be seen below, covering many basic skills. Teachers can choose which categories the game will draw from in the settings.
The power in this app, as well as most by Alligator Apps, is that the app is customizable. Teachers can adapt the game to include categories of skills that may not be loaded already or modify the categories already loaded to match their curriculum materials. By using the camera and microphone built into the iPad, this is very easy.
Add categories like basic sight words, images from around the classroom or school, teacher and student names, etc. are just a few ideas for customizing the app for a specific classroom or student. In addition by recording the audio, this app could be customized in any languageexpanding the possibilities!
Next week is Computer Science Week and it's a great time to introduce coding and programming to your students. Code.org is recruiting classrooms around the country to participate in an hour of coding next week with their Hour of Code. Check out the great programs, computer science statistics, and lessons for teachers to use on this site. There are also some great apps for the iPads to introduce students to the concept of programming.
Kodable
Free app that would be great for introducing students of any age to the basics of programming with drag and drop features. No reading required, collect cute little fuzz ball characters, and work through the first section with over 35 levels to master. Purchase additional levels for $1.99 or go Pro with the app for $6.99.
Daisy the Dinosaur
Free basic app for beginning elementary coders. Students must be able to read to follow the instructions for the challenges. Drag and drop format to make Daisy do what is needed.
Hopscotch
Free app based on MIT's Scratch program. This is also drag and drop with a great free play atmosphere allowing students to program their characters to move, draw lines, add words, and respond to movements of the iPad. One of the top rated apps, and a great way to allow students to create!
Light-Bot, Lite (Free), Hour of Code(Free)
There are three versions of this app, for the Hour of Code there are 18 different challenges for the students. There is an additional lite version of the app as well as a pro version available.
Have students work together to problem solve and achieve a common goal, helping the grow in their problem solving skills, collaboration, and perseverance. You may have the next great computer programmer in your room right now!
Jan Cuny
Program Officer, National Science Foundation
“All of today’s kids will need—along with reading, writing, and arithmetic—a basic understanding of computation and the role that it plays across a wide range of disciplines. Coding is engaging and empowering. It’s a necessary 21st Century skill.“
When starting the app, by default background music and sound effects are auto enabled. As a parent you can click into the settings and turn them off. You can also set a time limit so the app auto turns off after a specific amount of time.
