I’ve shared some great apps for teaching art history and the Monet 140+ app is perfect for focusing on one artist. With high quality images, a biography, timeline and detailed information about each painting, there’s a lot to explore in this free app! This app can also be used as a multimedia, interactive informational text.
Use this app for inspiration for one of my Common Core aligned biography lesson plans! Create Your Own Encyclopedia Entry, Write a Resume, or Give History a Voice
Exploring the world around you can take many forms. If you’re looking to do this on a global scale, NASA’s Earth Now is a fantastic free app that allows users to spin the earth with different filters. Check out daily temperatures, ozone, sea level and more!
Teaching sustainability? Here’s my Common Core aligned QR Scavenger Hunt “Intro to Healthy Eating” and the “Food Plate (aka Food Pyramid)“
The History Channel has lots of options for exploring the past on mobile devices. Bet You Didn’t Know is a fun app for trivia that gives users lots of options. You can also view clips of shows and specials on the History Channel app.
Check out my bundle of Common Core aligned Social Studies iPad lesson plans!
Perfect for practicing rounding in the ones through ten thousands place, Tiny Chicken Learns Rounding is a free app from Tap to Learn that focuses on this single skill. Apps that have multiple math skills are wonderful but I often like to direct my students to single skills apps (ex. reading a ruler. long division, place value, symmetry) to keep them focused or to reinforce a specific concept.
Teaching math on iPads? Check out my Common Core aligned bundle of iPad lesson plans!
Geometry Pad is a fantastic free app for drawing on a coordinate plane on iPads. Draw figures, add text and identify the points on the grid. This app is great for teaching how to identify x and y values and creating your own polygons.
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan for teaching geometry in your classroom.
There are lots of apps for math fluency but Math vs. Zombies
has to be one of the most engaging ones! Students use math facts to turn zombies back to people in this fast moving, sharply illustrated math fluency game. It’s a great app for changing up your skill and drill flashcard routine!
This app is featured on my Common Core Math Apps List #1
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!
In classrooms with just one iPad there are lots of apps that you can use to create presentations (Educreations, Doceri, ScreenChomp, Haiku Deck). If you have access to 1 to 1 technology you have to try NearPod for presentations. Use an old PowerPoint as a template and upload it to the NearPod website. Add interactive items like quiz questions and polls that will keep students engaged and help you access student understanding. Once your presentation is created, students can watch on their own iPad screen as you control the pace of the presentation. It’s easy to use and with free basic accounts it’s definitely worth checking out!
If your students are making their own presentations, check out my screencasting guide!
There’s plenty of free “wow your crowd” apps and Essential Skeleton is one of them! Users can manipulate a 3D skeleton, highlight different sections and read information about each bone. Multiple entry points make this a great app for students of all ages.
Have your students explain what they see in one of my favorite screencasting apps!
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!
There are lots of great tools for the iPad and another to add to your list is the free Protractor app. Perfect for teaching different types of angles and a great preview for students before using the real thing. Have students place objects or cut outs of shapes on their iPad screen to measure angles!
Here’s my bundle of Common Core aligned iPad lesson plans for teaching math in your classroom (or check out each one individually!)
There 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!
Want to spread the news? Download the flyer here: Swim Dive Splash
Please don’t confuse me with the adult fiction author Monica Burns (she’s in the iBookstore too – but I’ve never met her!)
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!)
