Some of My Favorite iPad Apps

The teachers in my buildings have the opportunity to apply for a set of 10 iPads for their classrooms.  I am so excited to get these iPads out into our classrooms.  Since this is a new endeavor for our schools, I thought I'd highlight some of my favorite apps for the classroom.

Evernote -- Evernote is one of my favorite apps both in and out of the classroom.  I use it to take notes at all of my meetings, and I love that I don't have to carry a stack of notes with me anymore.  They are all on my iPad...or on my iPhone...or on my laptop.  I have access to them everywhere!  In the classroom, Evernote is a great place to create student portfolios.  You can set up folders for each of your students, and then can send work directly to your Evernote account.  Once again, you aren't dragging portfolios home with you.  Everything you need is right there in the app!  Evernote can also store links, photos, voice recordings, just about anything!  Oh, and it's FREE!

Educreations -- Educreations is a great interactive whiteboard app, perfect for students to generate their own content.  One of my favorite ways to use this app is to have students record their solution to a math problem and explain how they came to their answer.  Educreations records what the student is writing as well as what the students in saying.  This is a great way to create your own classroom Khan Academy!

TocaBoca Apps -- I absolutely love all of the TocaBoca apps, especially for early childhood and primary grade students.  Toca Band, Toca Hair Salon, Toca Kitchen, Toca Builders...I really do love them all.  The Toca Boca apps are wonderful free play apps.  They allow children to explore and be creative versus a lot of other apps that force children to play the game in a specific way.  We know that play is the work of childhood, and the Toca Boca apps are a great way to play!

Puppet Pals -- Puppet Pals is an awesome storytelling tool!  Students use characters, backgrounds, and themes to narrate a story.  This is a great app for students who want to retell a story, share a book they loved, or bring a story they've written to life.  Here's a video of my preschoolers doing a group retelling of Pete the Cat last year: 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to iPad apps and what you can do in your classroom. I've put together some pinterest boards with even more apps that I've been adding to every day:

Creation Apps
Early Childhood Apps
Elementary Apps
Apps in Spanish
Apps for Teachers
iPad Classroom Resources