Including technology in the classroom is a MUST in the 21st century. Students must become aware, at an early age, ways to use the increasing amount of technology. One use of technology in my classroom is in the form of iPads and iPods. My students use these tools for learning daily. In the classroom, they can be used in a small group with teacher instruction or in independent stations.
In a guided reading group students become easily engaged in text when on an iPod is in from of them. Book apps, such as The Cat in The Hat, The Ugly Duckling, and PBS kids have books for students to read on their own, or follow along. Toy Story and The Little Mermaid are some of my students favorites.
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Students used Story Kit to
record their reading of a
guided reading text. |
The StoryKit application is a great extension for a guided reading lesson, math lesson or any task you want students to preform. With StoryKit, students are able to take picture, add text, and voice to create a story, an I have who has, or to record themselves reading. This app allows the book created to be exported and shared. This is one of my favorite apps to have my students use.
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| Little Speller |
When students are working in cooperative groups or independently the education apps are highly engaging and can always fit a needed focus for the students. Grasshopper Apps has numerous apps for early elementary ages students to use, both reading and math. The rhyming app helps students to independently find rhyming words, this concept helps early students with their phonological awareness! Little Speller app shows students a picture and students need to hear the sounds in the word and spell the word. Another
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| Montessori Matching |
highly engaging and beneficial app is Montessori Matching Board. With this app, students need to match sounds of letters, letter names, and shapes. Students learn to connect and are reinforced with sounds, letters or names that are being called.
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| Sight Words |
Alligator Apps is another great resource of early elementary apps in the classroom. Alligator Apps have
Sight Word Games. Students can scroll through a set of words, listen and repeat, or have a game mode and need to select the words from a set of words. This assesses students recall of the words. Similarly is
Phonics Genius, different phonics blends are given for students to practice with.
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| Tic-Tac-Toe Phonics |
Lake Shore Learning also has apps for the iPad and iPod! For early elementary students Letter of The Day Interactive lessons allows students to practice sounds. Students are able to here a song involving a chosen letter, and get to match beginning sounds to pictures. Students also get to practice tracing their letter. This app is great of students who have trouble with motor skills and those students that need extra help on sounds. To go along with beginning sounds is Beginning Sound Sorting. Students, or teacher, select from pictures, such as fish. Students then need to match beginning sounds with the picture. Fire, frog, and fly all pictures with the beginning sounds. Students are also able to click on the picture to tell them what the word is helping to build vocabulary. To help students with Phonics skills Lake Shore Learning has Tic-Tac-Toe Phonics. Students need to use phonics skills to find missing sounds, syllables is words, letter sounds, short and long vowel sounds, and what does not belong. These are all skills that are the base of fluent readers!
These are a few of the many apps that are beneficial for students learning. Small group or independently iPads and iPods are a great resource for students learning. This technology is not meant to teach the students, it it meant to be a resource for there learning. With these tools student are able to record themselves reading and see themselves as fluent readers. Students are able to listen to numerous audio text that help them hear fluent readers, and learn new vocabulary.
Including technology in the classroom is a MUST in the 21st century. Students must become aware, at an early age, ways to use the increasing amount of technology. One use of technology in my classroom is in the form of iPads and iPods. My students use these tools for learning daily. In the classroom, they can be used in a small group with teacher instruction or in independent stations.
