The best iPhone and iPad apps to help both elementary school students and teachers be more productive and make the most out of their school year.
Depending one where you are in the world, back to school time might be here right now, just around the corner, or coming up at some point in the future. School supplies, textbooks, clothes, and more are no doubt on the list of must-haves for anyone with kids about to go to - or go back to - school. But whether you're a parent or a teacher, there's something else that should be on everyone's lists - apps! Here are some of our favorite apps for elementary school classrooms and kids!
SMART Notebook
For any teacher who has a SMART Board in their classroom, SMART Notebook is a must have. You can create slides just like you would in Keynote or Power Point and then share them to a SMART Board in your classroom where the kids can interact with, and learn from them.
If you're a teacher and you have a SMART Board and iPad available to you, you'll definitely want to pick up SMART Notebook.
- $6.99 - Dowlnoad Now
Intro to Letters
From identifying letters to tracing them, Intro to Letters by Montessorium is a fun way for young children to start learning their alphabet and become familiar with both capital and small letters. It's beautifully designed, and works as well as it looks.
If you're a parent with an elementary level child learning their alphabet, get Intro to Letters.
- $4.99 - Download Now
MathBoard
MathBoard can follow a child all the way through basic math in kindergarten and first grade to 5th grade and elementary graduation! Your child can be quizzed or work out practice problems, and since MathBoard is highly customizable, you can choose the difficulty level and types of math you want to do.
If you want a great way for your child to get in more math, get MathBoard.
$4.99 - Download Now
Moose Math
For younger children that need a story line to grab their attention, Moose Math is a perfect way to get them interacting with and learning numbers. From the easy to follow story lines to the charming characters, it's sure to grab young children's attention and have them wanting to count and solve simple math problems.
Moose Math is ideal for children at the kindergarten to first grade levels that are just starting off with numbers.
- $1.99 - Download Now
Mibblio
Mibblio allows smaller children to learn sounds such as a guitar, piano, and more while listening along to to rhymes and tunes, both classic and new. Some "Mibblets" are free while others are paid. Once you purchase them, they show up in your library for your child to choose from.
If you want to introduce your child to basic music, you want Mobblio.
- Free - Download Now
Intro to Geography - North America
Intro to Geography - North America, also by Montessorium, lets kids learn the location and flags of places in North America. Using a road map, a great interface, and an easy to follow progression, kids will be asked to perform tasks that increase in difficulty and help build their knowledge.
Intro to Geography is a great way to help your kids learn more about the world around them.
- $3.99 - Download Now
Super Speller
For learning and managing spelling lists, Super Speller is a great resource for child, parent, and teacher. With the ability to add custom spelling lists, record the words, and have students take tests, it's an easy way to help kids master spelling words. You can manage lists, add new ones, and administer tests all within one app.
Super Speller makes it dead simple to enter spelling lists and quiz children on them.
- $2.99 - Download Now
Your picks for best elementary schools apps?
These are the apps we found to be the best overall learning tools for either a parent, child, or teacher. We'd also really like to hear from all of you parents and teachers out there. What iPhone and iPad apps do you use to help elementary level children learn and keep their attention? Let us know in the comments!
Reader comments
Best iPhone and iPad apps for elementary school: MathBoard, Super Speller, Intro to Letters, and more!
While I'm one of the developers, I'd like to contribute and recommend our augmented reality space exploration app SkyView - Explore the Universe. Trying not to make this a cheap plug here, but I wanted to share an experience we've had at a local elementary school.
We were asked by a local school to give a presentation on our app to several 4th grade classrooms (one of our founders' kids is in one of the classes). We brought several iPads, iPhone, and iPods and hooked up a quick presentation to show the children. Our motivation was twofold: 1) get the kids excited about space and astronomy, and 2) get the kids excited about computer science.
Our hands-on part of the presentation was the best. It was so satisfying to see the kids all the kids in the classroom using SkyView, swinging their devices in the sky with comments like "look there's Orion!" and "look your face is in Pisces!". We even got some kids to ask one of the questions we hoped they would ask: "how can I make an app like this?".
Being a parent of two children using the Accelerated Reader (AR) reading comprehension system I was continually frustrated looking up books on their poorly designed website. So I decided to create an app that lets you scan the barcode on a book and look up all the critical information. The feedback from parents, teachers, and librarians alike is that this is a "must have" for anyone using the AR system. Check it out
http://appstore.com/BookScannerApp
Thanks,iu that sounds great for my son.
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It was a scratch my own itch app for me but then I showed it to a few teachers and parents and they all fell in love with it. Enjoy!
That iu was random
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Just bought. Terrific app. Thanks.
Thanks for the support!
Mike, I'll give a shout out to your app. I was in Miami with my church on a mission trip and we were working at a county park that has classes for children with mental disabilities. They needed help sorting their books by level. The youth I brought were searching a website they told us about and I said, I'll bet there is an app for this. Sure enough, I came across your app and we were able to go through so many more books scanning with your app then we could have typing on this website. Great job.
Thank you for sharing this story. I can't tell you how happy that makes me as a developer. I released BookScanner hoping that others could benefit from it in small ways. Hearing how you were able to help others and my app was a small part of that experience makes all my efforts worthwhile.
For younger children, please consider the e-books by You Tell Me Stories. Our apps were created by educators and language experts to show caregivers HOW to read to a child in a way that stimulates conversation and builds listening, thinking and language skills.
Research has demonstrated that the most effective read-alouds are those in which children are actively involved asking and answering questions and making predictions rather than passively listening. To learn more, visit http://youtellmestories.com/
If you are a teacher in a school and want to teach your students music easily with fun just try this. You will really love it. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jazzy-world-tour-free-musical/id57490952...