5 Top Apps to Start the School Year

I passed out the iPods last week at it was like Christmas in August.  The smiles and the questions and the FUN-oh did they have fun.  After I passed them out and went over all the information, I allowed the students time to explore which was really important.  Here are a few of the amazing things they discovered in the first 20 minutes without any teacher direction.

Notice the ear plugs-each iPod came with one set.

On Google Earth, many students found their homes and showed their new classmates where they live.  Another student found where they went on summer vacation.  I was excited that the students started using this app because we start geography today and will be using the app to extend the unit as well as apply the state indicators which includes knowing mountain ranges, rivers, and Great Lakes. Also with Pop Geo USA the students will be able to label states, capitals, cities, and national parks. 

On Whiteboard, they figured out how to write words and send them to a friend in class. I didn’t even know how to do that.  It was crazy to watch them “talk” to each other and send their message to a friend across the room. This was confusing in the beginning because each iPod is assigned an ID so the message came with ID and then the message. But the students figured out who was who and loved this application.

On Number Line, students began to put fractions, decimals and percents in order on a number line from least to greatest. This is a more advanced app because some of the fractions need to be reduced so there is higher-level thinking with this app.

On Homonyms, students were choosing the correct homonym to fill in the blank in a sentence. Some of the students referred to this app during Poetry Friday. It was exciting to see how the new app could be used with our new poem, "Book bags Weigh a Ton." 

Sharing new ways to use the Apps.

These are five of the apps that I chose to start this school year.  I purchased  Homonyms and Pop Geo and the other three were free.  They had fun exploring and they took their iPods home this weekend, so I am sure they will have a lot to share today during our weekend share time.