Welcome to iPads 3-5!

—This page offers many different options for incorporating iPads in grades 3-5 literacy block.—

Daily 5 and iPads:

Here is a list of many apps you can download and implement in each section of the Daily 5. In fact, these are some of the very apps I use in my own 4th grade classroom and my students absolutely love them!

Read to Self: Children's Stories, Children's Classics, ShelMovies, Free Books, Kindle, and Nook.

Read to Partner: ICDL, MeeGenius, PlayTales.

Listen to Reading: ICDL, Shoemaker, Audiobooks, Dog Story, Play Tales, MeeGenius, and ShelMovies.

Word Work: Words Mine, Word Avalanche, Word War, Bluster, SparkleFish, Whirly Word, Same Meaning I and II,
Chicktionary, Angry Words, Wordball, Same Sound, Word to Word, Fact or Opinion, WordsPuzzle and Textropolis.

Work on Writing: SparkleFish, iDiary for Kids, BrainPOP, neu.Annotate, Pages, Numbers, Toontastic, ShowMe,
ScreenChomp, Popplet. Just a few fun writing/tracing apps include Head Pad, FirePaint, Magnetic ABC, and Chalkboard.

Not only do these apps fit nicely into the Daily 5, but there are many apps out there that coincide with thematic units including folktales (fables, fairy tales, etc.), poetry, graphic novels, informational text, and comics.

Excellent Websites for Apps that Build Literacy:

For those educators who do not implement the Daily 5/CAFE, here are many online resources for you to browse to pinpoint certain skills you want students to work on through specific apps. Some of these website even offer apps for math, science, and social studies!

http://www.interactioneducation.com/ipadsineducation.html

http://www.onlinecolleges.org/40-ipad-apps-that-librarians-love/

https://spreadsheets.google.com/lvkey=tenru11ELMGfma9kDka2moQ&type=view&gid=0&f=true&sortcolid=0&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/03/01/top-10-education-apps-for-ipod-touch-and-iphone/

http://certificationmap.com/5-great-ipad-apps-for-3-5-teachers/

http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Grade+3-5+Apps

http://onswipe.education.com/education/#!/entry/12-great-ipad-apps-for-elementary-school-kids,50076cc37af68a84dc1ba81c/2

Pros and Cons:

The viewpoints on how positive or negative classroom iPad curriculum is lands on a very broad spectrum. Many people today have strong viewpoints on why iPads are an essential tool in the classroom, while others are set against it with a passion. Several of the common pros include: easily accessible/portable, fast and easy to use, draws children in with fun apps and games. However, there are also some common downfalls, including: a keyboard option that is more difficult to use, not a laptop, and the ever-present fear that children will become addicted to it. Here are a couple online articles that discuss the pros and cons of incorporating iPads in the classroom.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ipad-teaching-learning-apps-ben-johnson

http://wirededucator.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/an-ipad-in-every-classroom-teacher-tested-student-approved/

What are your thoughts? Are iPads good or bad to use in the 3-5 grade classrooms?

Accessing Apps on the iPad:

Here are two great sites to get you started with downloading educational iPad apps for children.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/education.html