iPad Apps - Kid in a Candy Store

        In June 2012 my staff decided to become a one-to-one school using iPads as our device as choice.  My next step was to decide what apps we should put on each iPad.  I spent many hours pouring over lists of recommended apps and curriculum topics and outcomes to arrive at the following lists:

The Basics for Everyone in Grades One to Six  

Pages (Inkpot with pen) $9.99 - word processing

Keynote (Podium with papers and mic)  $9.99 - slide presentations

Book Creator (book with scissors on tiedye background) $4.99 - can create a book with text, illustrations and audio which may be uploaded to iBooks

Accelerated Reader (blue with white stripes) FREE - allows students to take book quizzes but not to do Star Reading tests (yet)

Show Me Interactive Whiteboard (Show Me on screen) FREE - can create slideshows/video like presentations

Google Earth (blue and white earth) FREE - reference

Rover (skateboarding dog) FREE - allows iPad to play Flash sites

i-nigma (iphone - orange and red pattern) FREE - QR code reader

NearPod Teacher & Student  (orange/blue nearpod) FREE (2 apps)  - a student response systemwith limited storage - extended storage expensive and has an annual fee

Teacher Kit (t on green chalk board)  FREE  - attendance, grades, behavior recorder and tracker

Evernote  ( elephant on green) FREE - bookmarking system

DropBox  (blue box icon) FREE - storage of documents 
Typing Fingers (student and keyboard) FREE - keyboarding

iPaint (paint can) $0.99 - drawing app
DrawFree for iPad (paint pallet and brush on black)  FREE - drawing app
Stop Motion Studio (colorful camera on clapboard) $0.99 - digital storytelling
Animations Express (name on clapboard) FREE - digital storytelling
Puppet Pals (clouds in front of curtains) FREE - digital storytelling

Apps for Grades K – 3

BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week (Moby & Annie)   FREE - reference

Audiboo  (iphone purple microphone) FREE - audio recording

Chicktionary (three chickens)  FREE - word game

Dinosaurs:  The American Museum of Natural History Collections (T-Rex skull skeleton) FREE - dinosaur reference

Fotobabble  (f in red speech bubble) FREE - record audio for a photo

Four in a Row (2 orange and 2 blue circles) FREE - strategy game

Math Tappers:  Find Sums  (iphone symbol on green) FREE - Math

Math Tappers:  Numberline  (iphone symbol on green) FREE - Math

LinguPingu  – English French/Francais Anglais (penguin) $1.99 - French

NFB PixStop  (words) FREE - digital storytelling/video creator

NG Word Builders  (abc blocks) FREE - phonics and spelling

Phonics Genius (words) FREE - phonics

Scribble Press  (scribble on orange) FREE - book creator

Sock Puppets (sock puppet on green background) FREE - lip-sync video creator

Story Wheel (student with book and grad cap) FREE - story game

Virtuoso  Piano Free 3 (piano keyboard) FREE - piano

Word Wall HD (card and title) $1.99 - reading

Learning A-Z (Rooster)  FREE - reading

Rocket Speller  (rocket ship) FREE - spelling game

Doodlecast  (cat) $1.99 - drawing with audio recording

Image Chef (typewriter and flower) FREE - photo and video fun

Sentence Builder (green with name) $5.99 - helps build grammatically correct sentences

Language Builder (yellowish green with name) $9.99 - helps build grammatically correct language with auditory playback and audio clips

Audiobooks (book with earbuds) FREE - over 5000 free audio books

Grades 4 to 6

iMovie (Star on brown background)

Garage Band (Guitar)  $4.99

BrainPOP Featured Movie (Moby) FREE - free educational videos

The Star Phoenix (Black SP on blue) FREE - Local Newspaper

SaskTel Rider App (Green Rider Logo and SaskTel) FREE - Provincial CFL team

Tourism Saskatchewan HD (camping scene) FREE - Provincial information

Tap Quiz Map World Ed (map and words The World) FREE - Quiz of place names

Podcasts (white microphone on purple) FREE - a podcast player

Stack The Countries Lite (happy face on a globe) FREE - a geography game

Wordventure! (Red W and !) FREE - a MadLib type game

SimpleMind+ (teardrop) FREE - mind mapping

FunWithWords (green name on black) FREE - MadLibs type game

NASA App (White NASA on blue circle) FREE - official NASA app

Unblock Me (orange and red rectangles on brown) FREE - logic game

Dictionary.Com (white D in circle with rays) FREE - dictionary

Evernote (elephant on green) FREE - bookmarking system

Atlas for iPad (white atlas over map) FREE - atlas

Voicethread (black vt in white circle on black) FREE - collaborative recorder

Sudoko Finger Arts (S on scrabble tile 2) FREE - daily sudoko puzzles

Image Chef (typewriter with pink flower) FREE - photo editor and picture creator

Draw Something (yellow pencil on blue) FREE - Pictionary type game

Angry Birds HD (red angry bird) FREE - game using physics and math skills

Words With Friends HD (W on yellow tile) FREE - word game

      Out iPads are going to travel with the students up through the grades so I had teachers install the first apps above on all the iPads and then I had the bottom two lists specific to each division.  Teachers were also encouraged to add any apps they thought might be useful.  Each teacher was given a $50 iTunes card, paid for by the school, to purchase those apps that came at a cost.