Here is a list of some of the most popular apps we recommend for use on the iPad: we use all of them in school and, in our view, they have enormous educational potential.
1. Britannica Kids: this series of apps is ideal for project work. They contain lots of easy to find information, lavishly illustrated, and also many interactivities and games to reinforce information and concepts. Titles include: Dinosaurs, Solar System, Knights & Castles, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Aztecs, Rainforests, Volcanoes, Snakes, Endangered Species. They are designed for children to use and contain a great deal of multimedia content to bring topics to life.
2. iBooks: the iBooks store contains a growing number of popular children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction. Popular authors in use in the school include Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Jeff Kinney (Wimpy Kid) as well as DK non-fiction. We have found that pupils love to read these books, both individually and in pairs, in digital format.
3. Stories to read: Some of our favourite books that are downloaded as apps (rather than as iBooks) include: Titanic Dog to the Rescue, Marc Brown’s Arthur series, Are Whales Smart or what? (other titles in this series focus on dogs, bees and squirrels). The App store contains thousand of children’s books, for all reading levels, many superb illustrations and interactive features.
4. Maths Titles: There is a vast range of high quality apps designed to help children with their maths. Here are some of the ones we use and recommend:
1. Britannica Kids: this series of apps is ideal for project work. They contain lots of easy to find information, lavishly illustrated, and also many interactivities and games to reinforce information and concepts. Titles include: Dinosaurs, Solar System, Knights & Castles, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Aztecs, Rainforests, Volcanoes, Snakes, Endangered Species. They are designed for children to use and contain a great deal of multimedia content to bring topics to life.
2. iBooks: the iBooks store contains a growing number of popular children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction. Popular authors in use in the school include Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Jeff Kinney (Wimpy Kid) as well as DK non-fiction. We have found that pupils love to read these books, both individually and in pairs, in digital format.
3. Stories to read: Some of our favourite books that are downloaded as apps (rather than as iBooks) include: Titanic Dog to the Rescue, Marc Brown’s Arthur series, Are Whales Smart or what? (other titles in this series focus on dogs, bees and squirrels). The App store contains thousand of children’s books, for all reading levels, many superb illustrations and interactive features.
4. Maths Titles: There is a vast range of high quality apps designed to help children with their maths. Here are some of the ones we use and recommend:
- Maths Word Problems (www.teachercreated.com). This is a series of six apps of increasing difficulty designed to motivate children to solve mathematical problems. The app provides objects which can be moved around the screen in order to assist in the problem-solving process.
- McGraw-Hill publishes a wide range of high quality maths apps for primary school children. They have also begun to publish literacy apps of a similar standard.
Titles include: Beat the Computer, Sail through Maths, Name that Number, Equivalent Fractions, Divisibility Dash
- Brainingcamp (www.brainingcamp.com) publishes a range of excellent apps across a broad range of maths topics
- Electrokite (www.electrokite.com) publishes a wide range of excellent apps with particular focus on maths and literacy development. Maths topics include probability, mixed numbers, perimeter and number operations
- TaptoLearn Software (www.taptolearn.com) also publishes a range of attractive apps with direct curricular links. Topics include graphs, time, fractions and number operations, in addition to spelling and grammar.
5. BabogBaby: this app presents a virtual teddy bear, which will help teach young children 33 basic words (numbers, shapes and colours) in Irish, as well as Welsh and Scots Gaelic.
6. Montessori Approach to…(www.rantek.us) publish a wide range of apps for children of all ages, and encompassing a wide range of subject areas. These include World and European geography, plant and animal life, number operations, geometry, vocabulary and many more. All of these apps are attractive to children and well designed in educational terms.