I’ve shared some great free apps for turning your iPad into a measurement tool: protractor, reading a ruler. Measure Length – Tiny Chicken by TapToLearn is another app that’s perfect for teaching students how to use a ruler to measure inches, centimeters and millimeters. They’ll move a ruler on their screen and find the length of different farm animals – fantastic for elementary school students!
Check out one of the Common Core aligned iPad lesson plans in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
There are lots of choices for current events on iPads but a kid-friendly option is News-O-Matic. This app offers free trial issues and has articles written especially for children. It includes videos, images and extra resources to help bring the news to life for your students!
Use this app with my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan on current events!
If you’re looking for experiments for a school science fair or an easy way to access steps for an experiment, try DIY Nano HD. This free app focuses on an exploration of nanotechnologies, and the properties of atoms and molecules. It includes informational videos, easy to follow instructions and is great for all ages!
Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan for Earth Science or one of the environmentally friendly QR scavenger hunts in my Teacher Store!
I’ve talked about all the ways I use QR codes in my classroom and it is so easy to make your own! The free iPad app QR Code Maker gives users the ability to copy and paste any URL and turn their link into a QR code. Save the QR code to your camera roll and share with students.
I have lots of QR hunts in my teacher store (here’s bundle #1 and bundle #2)
*this app works great on your iPhone too!
The are lots of great free iPad apps for primary source documents and Civic Quotes combines the words of famous Americans with images that depict a period in history. It’s a great free app to find inspiration for a biography report or introduce different historical figures.
Here’s a Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan for teaching with primary source documents on iPads!
Check out this Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan for a biography study!
A fantastic free app for learning letters (and new words!) is Endless Alphabet. This app lets students manipulate letters on the screen, tapping on each letter to hear its name. Students spell out words too, adding to their vocabulary as they learn the names of letters. Great for the primary classroom or English Language Learners.
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle for teaching ELA in the classroom! (Here’s bundle #2 and bundle #3!)
My students publish a variety of work on their iPads and use different apps throughout the writing process. When it comes to typing up their final product we often use PaperPort Notes. Before they send their work to print, I use the highlighter and marker tool to show them where edits and revisions need to be made. I write over their work, and send them back to their seats to make changes. The best part is that I can erase my notes once edits are made without losing any of the text on their page!
Are you in the middle of the writing process? Check out my common core aligned lesson plan using Grafio Lite. Here’s another common core aligned lesson plan using graphic organizers in the classroom!
*great for peer editing too!
There are so many virtual iPad tools that I love using with my students (base ten blocks, sticky notes, geoboard, atlas, glossary, dry erase board…). One free app that can substitute a ruler is Ruler for iPad and iPhone. Have students place an item on their iPad screen or measure distance between two points they tap on the plane.
If you’re teaching students how to use measurement tools Reading the Ruler is a great free app to help students understand how inches and centimeters can be broken down into smaller pieces.
Here’s my bundle of Common Core aligned iPad lesson plans for teaching math in your classroom (or check out each one individually!)
One of my favorite topics to teach in the classroom is healthy eating. There are lots of great free apps to support this subject at all grade levels.
Here’s my Common Core aligned QR Scavenger Hunt “Intro to Healthy Eating” and the “Food Plate (aka Food Pyramid)“
There are lots of apps I love to use to teach literacy skills: Bluster, Sticky Notes, iPrompt, Idioms, Captions, Mad Libs, Jumbled Sentences and Synonyms.
McGraw Hill has a handful of apps to teach literacy skills at the primary and elementary level: Word Wonderland (primary and elementary) and Grammar Wonderland (primary and elementary). All have lite versions that are worth checking out!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle for teaching ELA in the classroom! (Here’s bundle #2 and bundle #3!)
Eating healthy is important and there are lots of ways to use iPads to help students make good choices. A fun free app from 4H is Eat and Move. I consider this app a “health calculator” because users can find out the calories of common foods and how much time they’ll need to swim, dance, jump rope, etc. to burn the calories in their meal. This app is fantastic for extending a lesson on healthy choices and inspiring students to eat well and stay active!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad QR scavenger hunts on Healthy Eating or the Food Plate (aka Food Pyramid).
There is a wonderful free app that introduces students to Westward Expansion through the famous painting by John Gast. Manifest Destiny allows students to explore the motivations of pioneers, the struggles they faced and terrain they explored. I love that this app centers around a primary source document and helps children think about the western United States in the past and present.
Try one of my Common Core aligned iPad Scavenger hunts if you’re teaching Westward Expansion in your classroom: Lewis and Clark, the Dust Bowl, the Trail of Tears, the Gold Rush, or the Great Plains.
I’ve shared some of my favorite virtual tools for the iPad (sticky notes, geoboard, atlas, glossary, dry erase board…) and another fantastic free app I love is Number Pieces. This app simulates base ten blocks and allows students to manipulate the pieces and annotate their screen. It’s perfect for children learning place value and teachers who want their students to explain their work!
Not teaching place value? Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plans for using free apps to teach: Symmetry, Fractions, Polygons, Graphing, and more using iPads with your students!
It doesn’t have to be Poetry Month to learn a new poem! Poems by Heart from Penguin Classics teaches users how to memorize a poem. They offer two free poems to get you started and there are more available through in app purchases. Whether you’re teaching fluency, extending a biography project of a famous poet, or just celebrating great works – check out Poems by Heart for a poem to memorize!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle for teaching ELA in the classroom! (Here’s bundle #2 and bundle #3!)
This fun free app, How Canadian Are You, Eh? is perfect for checking your knowledge of Canadian history, geography and pop culture. I’ll be using it with students during our unit on Canada. Great for all ages, this app chooses 20 random questions and provides the answers once you’re finished quizzing.
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan using this app in the classroom!
Here’s a lesson for teaching Canadian geography!
Have you tried my Canadian QR code scavenger hunt?
My students might be great with their math facts but every year long division is a struggle. If you’re looking for an alternative to math videos, try out the fantastic free Long Division Touch app which teaches the steps for long division. It’s a great inspiration for creating tutorials with your students!
Check out my Common Core aligned bundle of iPad lesson plans!
Not ready for division? Here’s a factor lesson for teaching factors on iPads!
I love apps that simulate a field trip and I’ve shared some of my favorites (Art Walk, TourWrist). Timeline: Art Museum is an excellent free app that allows users to explore the artwork of artists from the 14th to 20th centuries. I’m a big fan of timelines (Titanic, American Revolution, Math History, Revolutionaries) and this one is great for finding paintings from a specific time period or by a particular artist.
Use this app as inspiration for one of my Common Core aligned biography lesson plans (or this one)!
The World Wildlife Fund
has a beautiful free app that contains high quality pictures and lots of information about different animals. Whether you’re looking for information on pandas, whales, turtles or tigers, this should be a go-to app to gather facts and find inspiration.
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan using this app in the classroom!
My fifth graders don’t have their own account or login, but Khan Academy is still a great way to introduce new topics. We often use BrainPop and student created tutorials to learn and review the steps for solving different math problems, but Khan Academy is a fantastic resource for upper elementary, middle school and high school students. The Khan Academy app is a great way for me to preview videos while I’m on the go or use with a small group who is struggling.
If your students are making their own tutorials check out my guide ->Screencasting Teacher Tools: Tasks, Procedures, Checklists and Rubric (on iPads) and Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan
If you’re looking for a fun, free app for teaching place value you have to try Math Bugs. Perfect for identifying place value to the thousands place, students will create bugs with the number of attenteas, wings, etc., dictated by the place value of the digits in the number presented.
Check out my Common Core aligned bundle of iPads lesson plans for teaching math in your classroom!
