I was scrolling through the daily list of Apps Gone Free and found the Move and Match app that was free for the day (regularly $1.99). This app is very simple to use. Just like the name implies, you can create activities for your students to move and match images and/or text. My students used this app to practice building words. Below is a sample of what I did to complete this activity. The Set up.....I found this process to be very simple to create some activities. Students enjoyed sorting letters and their sounds. They had to isolate each phoneme and blend the individual sounds back together creating the word that matched the picture. Both phonological and phonemic awareness were being practiced by students.
When students were completed with their pictures, they would take a screenshot by pressing the home and power on/off button simultaneously. After they had captured their image, they would use the Kidblog app to sign into their blog account. This image was then embedded into each students' individual blog account. The next step is to have students create their own activities for others to complete. I will be posting more about that soon. Make sure to check out the Move and Match website for more ideas and information.
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I came across this app recommendation from Tony Vincent's Blog Learning in Hand. Tony does a great job of highlighting the features of this app. I wanted to add to the highlights of this app by providing a screen cast of the app below. If you are looking for a fun way to turn photos into jigsaw puzzles, Up in Pieces is the app to accomplish this. Once the image is loaded, you are able to choose the type of jigsaw puzzle you would like created. Open up your newly created puzzle and drag the puzzle pieces from the tray to create your picture. I can see a lot of potential for this in my 1st grade classroom. Each of our Journey's reading lessons via Houghton Mifflin Harcourt introduces students to new words each week. This curriculum even comes with pre-made photo cards of the words that could be downloaded and inserted into this app for students to practice. At the recent iPad U hosted by GWAEA I learned about three new apps to help primary students hone their spelling skills. These apps are created by @Reks While they make a variety of apps, I am highlighting the three apps are below:
1) Build a Word Easy Spelling learn to spell sight words, long and short vowels--with 700+ words, students can choose to learn, practice or test. The app keeps a history of the students progress. You can use upper/lower case letters as well as toggle audio feedback on and off. ($2.99) 2) Build a Word Easy Spelling with phonics--same capabilities as the previously listed app with more emphasis on phonics. Toggle on audio and/or visual prompts. ($2.99) 3) Build a Word Express--this is the free version that allows a lot of the similar functionality as the other apps but there are in app purchases needed in order to reap the whole benefits of this great app. What: Storybots is a great interactive website that is really geared toward youngsters. I came across this site when I was looking for some fun videos that talked about the alphabet and the sounds represented by the letters. ABC Fun provides fun and engaging videos that explain each letter in the alphabet. They are short and to the point but presented with fun, energetic robots. Starring You! Make your students movie stars. You can put yourself into a video with the Storybots. Upload an image from your webcam, computer or Facebook and let the Storybots do the rest. Kids will love it! Activity Sheets provide fun practice that are Storybot themed. Connect the dots, color and word searches are just a few samples of what Storybots provides with their activity sheets. Create Books is a free iPad app that will let your students create their own Storybot books. There is a fee to create a book once the app is downloaded. However, what a fun way for students to put themselves into books. Beep & Boop! is a behavior game for your IOS device. Set goals for your kids as well as prizes for when those goals are reached. Good behavior/choices are rewarded with a beep while poor choices receive a boop which in turn takes away a beep point.
Techtastic Integration While the Storybot family of resources are really geared towards primary aged kids, they really do an effective job at engaging kids in learning with the fun, energetic Storybot robots. Use the videos as attention getters for introducing letters in the alphabet. Activity sheets can reinforce newly learned letters. For the last few years, I have always had atleast one first grader that has had a cell phone. While it is debatable about the parent's intentions for this cell phone, it never fails to at least ring one time during class. I can only imagine that it is a matter of time before more and more primary aged kids are bringing their own devices. While this may be a few years out, I came across a site that allows you to embrace cellular technology now. iFake Text allows you to input a conversation. After inputting the conversation, it creates a "fake" screen shot of your conversation on an iPhone. How can this be used in my classroom? One way that I have been integrating this into my classroom is for our daily proofreading. I create a conversation on iFake Text. When creating the conversation, I make sure to leave some errors that need attention. My first graders then use the screen shot of the "fake" conversation to perform their daily proofreading. It is a simply tool that provides an authentic experience. Need a tool to get your kids engaged with spelling.SpellingCity.com has been around for a long time. Choose from one of their pre-made lists or enter your own lists. Students can take a test over the words, learn the words and even play games with the words. It is a fun, free interactive resource for getting your students excited about working with their spelling words. |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |