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"Rounding up the best and favorite elementary school apps is not an easy task, the market is saturated and there are so many standouts that cover the gamut of grade levels. Obviously, one of the first considerations we focus on when writing a review is, of course, the learning potential of an app. Another important aspect is the shelf life - how long will the app be useful and stand up to the test of time? We want this to be a lasting resource for teachers and parents, the solid go-to list that will serve you well for quite some time. *Notice at the bottom of the page we starred some super apps that cross than more than one content area. We have put together a great list but if you know of an app we may have missed, please let us know about it in the comment section below. (Coming soon: Apps for Special Needs & Book Apps)"

"I'm a student voice advocate. Fortunately, my employer supports this and as such, we have been incorporating the voice of students in the guidelines around social media (You can see the teen guidelines at schools.nyc.gov/socialmedia). Most recently I had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of elementary students about social media and which platforms they are using. Admittedly, I'm not much of a user of social media platforms for the under 13 set, so I knew I had a lot to learn. Interestingly, across the board, one platform rose to the top and I had never heard of it before."

"Study Jams is a Scholastic website designed to help elementary school students learn and review math and science information through songs and videos. To use Study Jams students search for a topic in the math or science category. Each Study Jam offers a short tutorial on that topic in the form of a video, slideshow, or song. When there is a song available Study Jams provides a karaoke format for kids to sing along if they like."

"This past year, fourth and fifth grade students at Independence Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, have had the opportunity to participate in an after-school Scratch Club led by STEM teacher Chris Simon. Scratch is a free program from the MIT Media Lab, which permits learners of any age to create games, tell stories, make animations, and much more. In its new 2.0 version, Scratch is entirely web-based, so it can even run on a Chromebook! Yesterday was the final day of "Scratch Club" for students at Independence Elementary this year, and several students shared the reasons why they enjoy Scratch and have loved the Scratch Club. In this five minute video compilation of their ideas, pay attention to how several students mention the importance of "agency" and choice. Many report how they love the opportunity to be self-directed in their learning and to have opportunities to use their imaginations to create. Also notice the way one student references the "hard fun" of programming, which is something Gary Stager talks about often in the context of students learning to code. "

"oday's "Best Educational Apps for Kids" list is Science apps for kindergarden and early elementary kids. I did not include those animal related apps, as there will be a separate list of "Best Educational Apps for Kids" on "Nature and Animals". If you know any good science apps for kids age 6 to 10, please leave the app name in a comment. I will update the list periodically."

"Quite few families are planning to give a tablet to the kids for a holiday gift. After getting the device, it is time to find the good apps to put on the iPAD or iPod Touch. I am going to start listing "Best Educational Apps for Kids" by age and subjects. As a starter, today's list is Math Apps for Kindergarten and Early Elementary Kids. I am sure there are a lot more apps out there, if you have an app you'd like to add to the list, please add the app's name at the comment area. I will periodically update the lists based on readers' inputs. It will be very helpful if you can attach a link to the App Store. Since some apps have the same titles, a direct link to the app store can help minimize potential confusions. B"

"Today's Best Educational Apps for Kids list is Natual and Animal Science Apps for Kindergarden and Early Elementary School Kids (age 6 to 10). There is another list of science apps for this age group but on other subjects, such as astronomy, physics, or chemistry. For this other science list, you can visit an earlier post HERE. Please add your favorite nature and animal science apps in the comment area. I will update the list periodically. I"

"Elementary education overemphasizes literacy at the expense of disciplines that lead to greater academic, professional and personal success for adults. By placing STEM disciplines at the center of elementary education, we lay the foundation necessary to meet adult personal and professional challenges while providing an environment in which to apply the 3Rs."

"iTooch Elementary is an app covering the official Maths, Science and Language Arts curriculum for grades 3-5. Each title contains 40-50 chapters and includes 1000-2000 activities. The apps created by iTooch are currently being used by more than 300,000 students and have been created by teachers to make sure they comply with the U.S. National Common Core Standards. You can click here to see the teachers behind the development of iTooch."

"A while ago I reviewed iTooch Elementary School app by EduPad. I was very excited to see such a comprehensive app matching school curriculum. Today I am sharing iTooch Middle School. Similar to iTooch Elementary School, this is a very comprehensive learning app for Grades 6 to 8. For each grade, there are Math and Language Art, plus Health for Grade 6. The iTooch Middle School App serves as a shell app, hosting the 7 titles. It is helpful to know that each of the 7 titles can act as an app by itself without the shell app. "

"Skype is an instructional tool that provides boundlessopportunities for authentic teaching and learning.  It allows us to explore beyond the four walls of our classrooms.  As elementary teachers, we sometimes battle to hold our students' short attention spans. Integrating Skype lessons brings the curriculum to life in ways never before possible.  You know that special moment when you announce a class activity, and it's greeted with claps, screams, and cheers?  That's Skype.  It brings pure joy, wonder, and intrigue to your students. Here's a list of ten ways to utilize it in the elementary setting, followed by some logistical tips for success."

"This year I have been focusing on design challenges and design thinking with my gifted elementary students, grades 2nd through 6th. Last semester I introduced a series of activities to have them explore, learn about, and interact with design thinking principles and strategies. For a description of those activities, see https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/introducing-design-thinking-to-elementary-learners/ To re-introduce design thinking again for this spring semester, this week I asked them to do the Extraordinaire Design Studio:"

"Two years ago, my school obtained a grant from the Sphero Robotics company that brought 10 Sphero Robots to our school. At first, we used them in math and science. However, this year, we expanded our use of robotics and acquired Ozobots, SPRKS, bb8s, and BeeBots. My elementary faculty impressed me with their ability to use these 21st-century robots in a variety of subject areas including language arts and humanities. Here are four examples of how A. Harry Moore teachers used robots to teach lessons in English, Language Arts, and Humanities classes."

Marianna Husain (@mhusain), fellow iVenger and author of the Bobcat blog, had the idea to create easy to follow handouts for teachers on a weekly basis to support them with the multitude of apps available on the elementary devices (see full list of 150+ apps here). As there are 5 elementaries and 9-10 ed techs creating these resources on a rotating basis, I suggested a template to streamline the process and make them appear more uniform. In reviewing the apps listed, I felt that they fell into 3 natural categories: tools, activities, and pro

Over the last ten months since I launched iPadApps4School.com I have reviewed a lot of mathematics apps that are appropriate for elementary school students. These are the ten that have been the most popular over the last ten months (based on total clicks and shares through social media).

"Last year at this time, I was trying not to think about kindergarteners. I was still teaching ninth grade English and had just accepted a job teaching technology to K-5. I was excited about the challenge, and I knew that I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Developing the tech curriculum challenged me to teach programming or at least computational thinking at each elementary grade level. Our school is mid-pivot in technology -- we're in our second year of a middle school 1:2 iPad program, our first year of having a cart of iPads available for elementary, and our last year of two PC labs for the students to use (next year we'll have only one lab). Knowing this, I wanted to design a program that mostly used tablet-based tools."

"We were recently gifted with a Makerbot Replicator (5th Gen) to pilot in our elementary school library. Our librarian, Angelique Lackey, and I knew that time was short before the end of the year, but we wanted students to experience the power of creating with this device. "

"Where 3D printing has yet to really make a huge impact, but provides an ample amount of opportunity, is within educational institutions. These range from elementary schools to high schools, universities, and maker spaces around the globe. One reason that 3D printing has been quite slow in making its impact in these institutions is simply because of the lack of knowledge of the technology by the decision makers in charge. Because the technology is so relatively new, the greatest impact may come via the introduction of 3D printing into public and private grade schools. The younger a person is, the easier it usually is to introduce new ideas and methodologies. This is why young children are so quick to learn new languages, when compared to their older adult counterparts. This is what makes elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools the perfect place to begin really introducing a curriculum based around 3D printing. Just about every subject within a school curriculum could benefit from 3D printing technology. We will outline a few of these below:"