iPads in the Primary Classroom: A few apps to get you started

As we continue to go 1:1 in our district in Springdale, AR, one of our biggest challenges is finding great apps for our Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade classrooms to use.

Here is a short list of just a few FREE apps to get you started:

ABC - Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids - Learn to write!
By Dot Next

Just as the title of the app suggests, this is simply a magnetic letter board for your students to use. The letters are easy to pull from a tray and drag and manipulate. 

Talking ABC - Magnetic Alphabet for Education in English and Spanish

By Tatiana Churanova

This is basically the speaking version of a magnetic alphabet board. The voice is fairly natural, but can sound a little strange on some words. When choosing the letter, it names the letter for the student, but will not make the sound of the letter by itself. As soon as you start to blend the letters together, it will begin to "sound it out" for the students.


ABC Alphabet Phonics - Preschool Kids Game Free Lite

By Innovative Investments Limited


A great app for students learning to or struggling with identifying letters. A voice on the app says a letter name, and the child touches the letter to identify it. As they progress, more letters are added to the screen to make it more challenging for the students. A highly engaging app, with immediate feedback for the students.


Little Writer - The Tracing App for Kids

By Innovative Mobile Apps

A great app for students to learn how to write letters and sight words. The app will not let a student continue until the child traces the letter according to the path the app displays. 

To help this process transfer into their handwriting, teachers could have students write the letter or word on their iPad onto a piece of paper as well. The use of a child friendly stylist is a great option as well.
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These apps can be a great way to get your iPad classroom started. Of course, there are many great apps out there, and these are just ones that I have seen success with. Feel free to comment below on other apps that are worth trying out for our primary students!

Digital Badges: A Simple Way to Motivate

Digital Badges have started to become a big deal in the everyday classroom. In a way, you can think of them as the new paper certificate. As stated in the title, they are a simple way to motivate students. 

Why do students care about badges? The answer is Gameification. 

In all of the video games and apps that your students are playing, they earn badges. If you will notice, they earn them for all sorts of things: finishing a level, the time it took for them to complete a task, finding extra items (like coins), and so on.

Kids (and adults) love collecting those badges in the games they play. In turn, they can quickly love collecting badges in your classroom. 

So after reading this, you may be thinking 2 things:

1) How do I create badges?

2) What do I give them out for?

Badge Creation Websites

Credly - My personal favorite. What I believe is the easiest and quickest Badge Creator out there.

Open Badge Designer - Not as easy as Credly, but they seem to have more options for design.

Badge List 

Makewav.es

Badge Ideas

Here is a quick list of things that you could give badges for in your classroom!

• Bronze Reader - after 10 books are read
• Silver Reader - after 25 books are read
• Gold Reader - after 50 books are read
• Super Reader - after 100 books are read
• Problem Solver Badge
• Collaborator Badge
• Hard Worker Badge
• Citizenship Badge
• Perfect Attendance Badge (Monthly)
• Academic Growth Badge

These are just a few ideas to get you started, please feel free to comment below to add your badge ideas that you have or will add for your classroom!

Remind - A Great School Year Begins with a Great Communication System

For the last few years, several teachers have used Remind 101 to communicate with students and their parents.

Recently, Remind 101 has had a makeover and they are now just referred to as Remind. With the new name, also come some great features!


What is Remind?

Remind is a simple communication system for you to use with a group of people. Of course, teachers use it with students (over the age of 13) and their parents to communicate the important info about their classroom.

Parents or students sign up by using a code that they text in to the Remind system's number. They are then set to receive notifications by the teacher. It's that simple. All the teacher has to do is send a message out from the Remind App on their phone, or the Remind website.

Why use it?

So you may be thinking, "Okay, well I have all of their emails and phone numbers, why do I need to use Remind to communicate?"

Here are my responses:
1. How many emails have you sent out to parents that have never been read by them? They are like the rest of us, your email most likely got lost in the pile of junk mail, and if it was read by them, it was too late.
2. How many of your students or parents, do you want to give your personal number to? My personal answer on that is zero.

By using Remind to send text notifications to your parents and students, you are increasing the likelihood that they will actually read the message sent, and you are keeping your own personal cell info private. It truly is a win-win for all stakeholder's involved.

Chat

Remind has a Chat feature that is controllable by the teacher. If they would like, they can turn chat on, and students/parents can respond to the notifications sent by the teacher. This conversation will only be seen by that teacher and that specific student. The conversation is also logged in the Remind system for documentation of the conversation. The teacher can set up "office hours" for the chat. This gives total control to the teacher as to when the chats can occur.

I would personally set up a separate remind group for parents to sign up for than students, this way you have control over setting these chat settings up for each group separately.

With the new school year upon us, now is the perfect time to set up a communication system like Remind!

(These are solely the opinions of this Blog Writer - Remind has not given compensation of any form for the publication of this Blog article)