Farrar Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 We have an absurd number of apps for math, but not that many for language arts. Anyone have any they love? To get the ball rolling, a few I do know about... Scribble Press - free app to let kids "publish" their own ebooks Mad Libs - unfortunately pretty limited, but has a couple of free ones Toontastic - lets kids draw, narrate and sort of animate their own stories Rory's Story Cubes - like the game There are lots of spelling apps, but I haven't seen one that seemed awesome. Anyone have one? Any for punctuation or grammar? Any others for creative writing for kids or storytelling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dchapelschool Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Really, none? Come on. There must be something past basic phonics apps, right? Who can code? I'd love to make a good punctuation game app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Oh my God! I have over 50 math apps installed (not counting the dozens I deleted) and only very easy reading ones. I want to know too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Maybe we've found what's missing in apps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 There are some good vocabulary ones - 7 words, Word Stack, Word Link and Word to Word. They won't work for young kids, but 5th grade and up will be able to manage. But - no grammar apps ... whose going to make one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 There are some but they aren't very good... We have tried all of these: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-games-by-tap-to-learn/id434660444?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-app-hd-by-tap-to-learn/id379790077?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-jammers-primary-edition/id386384446?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ilivegrammar-winter/id413834740?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-dragon/id397730260?mt=8 probably the most game like but still lame http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-sort-by-grammaropolis/id416441549?mt=8 .. I wish they would make a better app because we love their fee-based online stuff There are tons more but I got burnt out trying them because they were all so similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I haven't yet tried any apps (just got a new Android phone) but I've started looking. http://www.funeducationalapps.com/grammar-apps/ http://www.onlineclasses.org/2010/06/16/40-amazingly-educational-ipad-apps-for-kids/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Okay - for little kids learning to read - Reading Raven. The Sentence Editing grade level series of apps are helpful for teaching punctuation. We use Sound Literacy with AAS. There are the StarFall apps - how can you not love those? ;) Most LA apps are very skill specific, they aren't as easy to generalize as math facts are it seems. Let me think....we like Simplex Spelling for structured phonetic encoding. We like SpellTrekking for a totally different approach that is similar to guided copywork with an emphasis on spelling. We use PDF Expert to do JOH Cursive on the iPad with our stylus. I could maybe think of a few more. I really like Scribble Press too :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 I've now looked at all these and tried most of the free ones... and none of them seem standout. They all seem really limited (not really interactive) or something you could do without an app (correct this) or are really babyish looking or ugly or just look boring. I mean, I can sit and drill the kids. The point of an app is that it has unlimited examples or that it makes it fun with a game or fun graphics. There are a lot of good phonics ones. They were just coming in when my kids were learning to read and I wish we'd been able to take better advantage of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I've now looked at all these and tried most of the free ones... and none of them seem standout. They all seem really limited (not really interactive) or something you could do without an app (correct this) or are really babyish looking or ugly or just look boring. I mean, I can sit and drill the kids. The point of an app is that it has unlimited examples or that it makes it fun with a game or fun graphics. There are a lot of good phonics ones. They were just coming in when my kids were learning to read and I wish we'd been able to take better advantage of them. I have a different take on apps. I don't expect them to be a lot different than what *I* can do (if they are fine, but if not, sometimes I have USES for those apps anyway) - for many reasons. My children are more likely to work on an app than with paper and pen - electronic appeal. I have 4 kids on the ground and 1 on the way, I work from home, DH is busy renovating the house and is outside all day - anything that encourages independent work, practice, and review is a GOOD Thing at our house. :) I love app-based tools that are just like the physical thing - maybe that makes me weird, but I'm organizationally challenged. If I have it on my iPad I don't have to *FIND* it. I don't have to round up parts, go get things etc. I can have a whole schoolroom of supplies right there and ready to go. Yep, I even sit with my children and teach them things from apps that are set up as teaching tools. SO, for me, if it looks boring but gets the job done, whatever, it works for me! It really depends what I want the app to do and if it will do it. Hope that makes sense! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 That does make sense. And I don't have a problem with apps that are just get the job done apps. One of my favorite apps is Math Board and it's definitely in that category, I just like that you can customize it much better than any other math drill app I've seen. But my kids get tired of those fast. And when I compare something like Math Board to something like Dragonbox, there's no contest. What Dragonbox does for algebra is innovative because it uses the unique abilities of the iPad. Or something like Stack the States, which uses the medium well. So, yeah, I guess I do expect that sort of out of the box thinking from apps worth paying for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacefully Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Or something like Stack the States, which uses the medium well. Dan's apps are EXCEPTIONALLY well designed. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Dan's apps are EXCEPTIONALLY well designed. :) Aren't they? He's given us geography, math, and physics. Dear Dan Russell-Pinson, please come up with something awesome for spelling, grammar or punctuation. ;) Scribblenauts is good. We do have that. And we used to have Hangman. That's a good thought too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Okay, I tried one that I think is okay. Verb Mayhem makes you click the words really fast to identify parts of speech. It's not bad. Sort of like the equivalent of Math Blasters for parts of speech. It has a free level - I might buy the actual thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 (edited) Scribblenauts is good. We do have that. And we used to have Hangman. That's a good thought too. Why is Scribblenauts for 9+? Eta What is this expensive Sentence Builder? Anyone use it? Edited October 6, 2012 by stripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Scribblenauts is 9+ just because most kids younger would struggle to spell well enough to play successfully (you have to write the things you want to make). My kids have been playing it for awhile, but with spotty success because they misspell the things they need. There's no inappropriate content, if that's what you're asking. I looked at several sentence building apps and downloaded one that was free and they all seemed really, really lame. A scrambled sentence app is actually not a bad idea, but the ones I saw were WAY too easy for any kid capable of reading the sentence in the first place. They all gave too many clues about the sentence (as in, boxes the size of each word... duh) and the sentence examples I saw were all really simple anyway. It's just not hard to put together a sentence that's just a subject, a verb and an object. I think a more complex, inexpensive scrambled sentence app would make sense. Also, an app where you try to make a long sentence that's still grammatically correct (maybe sort of like the card game You've Been Sentenced). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Just saw this one Story Starters by Jarrod Robinson From http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/classroom-solutions/2012/04/free-ipad-apps-will-transform-your-teaching Story Starters: If you are looking for a fresh take on creative writing, look no further than Story Starters. A virtual hub of thought-provoking and inspiring pictures from around the globe, Story Starters provides instant inspiration for writers at any ability level. Simply click on an image in the gallery and ask students to provide a matching story. This is the perfect way to differentiate a literacy lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kesmom Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 (edited) Ok check these lists out http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101/literacyapps/ Popplet looks interesting; it has Toontastic as well, and two pricey apps called Story Builder and Sentence Builder http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101/writing/literacyapps_writing/ Has anyone tried these? I also saw one called Storyometer. http://www.storyometer.com/ Edited October 24, 2012 by stripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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