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)“
Trees Pro HD by Nature Mobile is a fantastic free app for exploring trees in your neighborhood and beyond. Forty tree species are listed with beautiful, high quality photographs and information on their leaves, fruit and general characteristics. This is a wonderful resource for teachers and students!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plans on composting, rocks, endangered species, the Amazon Rainforest, and more!
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!
If you’re exploring the ocean with your students or looking for an informational multimedia text, check out Ocean Science. This fantastic free app is full of beautiful pictures and rich information about ocean life. You and your students will learn all about the power of the ocean and why it’s considered the final frontier!
Here’s a post on apps to help live sustainably!
If you’re teaching outdoor skills there are three apps from Columbia Sportswear that are worth checking out. These apps can provide great extension activities for lessons on physical education, life skills, and math class.
GPS Pal -> for keeping track of outdoor expeditions
Take Ten -> tips for what you’ll need for exploring the great outdoors
What Know to Do -> a pocket guide for tying knots
If you’re students are staying indoors, try out one of my QR scavenger hunts for a mini adventure!
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 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!
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 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)“
Thank you for attending my workshop this month!
If you weren’t able to make it, check out my presentation Free iPad Apps for the K-5 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
SlideShare is a great resource for PowerPoint presentations. This website allows you to view presentations created by teachers (and all sorts of people) that may be useful for your classroom. It’s also a fantastic place to share your presentations with others.
Check out my SlideShare presentations:
It’s important for all students to use math vocabulary when describing how they’ve solved a problem. Math Terms Glossary is a free app that students can use to access definitions of math terms. Most entries include pictures and a Spanish translation of the definition.
Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan bundle for teaching math on iPads!
I love using Dropbox in my classroom, in fact I can’t live without it. Dropbox is fantastic if you’re looking to conserve resources or save time making photocopies.
Here are just a few things that are in my students’ Dropboxes right now:
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle with activity sheets that can be completed in other apps on your iPad!
If you use rubrics to grade student work you have to try ForAllRubrics! Once you set up your class list, this website allows users to import rubrics they’ve already made, or easily create new ones. Open the site on your iPad and with a few taps you’ll have projects graded in no time. It’s easy to access previous grades, print out data, and it’s free for teachers!
Here’s a Common Core aligned guide to creating Screencasts in your classroom (it has a rubric too!)
There are lots of great ways to explore current events and I’ve shared some great free apps for accessing multimedia informational text. One of my favorite news apps that I use at home and school is Watchup. This free app allows you to create your own news program by choosing short clips from different news sources (EuroNews, AP, PBS, etc.).
I love customizing any tool to fit the need of my students and Watchup is a fantastic free app that allows you to do just that!
Use this app with my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan on current events!
There are lots of great apps for teaching literacy to your students and here’s another to try out in your classroom. In Find Synonym the user unscrambles letters to spell out a synonym for the word presented. It includes definitions for each word and you can even unlock the antonym level if you answer enough questions.
Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!
Here’s a Common Core aligned lesson plan for teaching literacy using iPads in your classroom!
