We have all the Everyday Math apps, and they are the same games kids are familiar with in the math instruction. This is the favorite. Our kids enjoy these apps when given free choice time on the iPad, so you know it must be fun. For Baseball Multiplication, to get a hit you must answer a math question correctly. An incorrect answer - strike one! Kids need practice with multiplication tables. Lots of practice. This app is an easy way to offer that!

I forgot to mention that it's $1.99 but they offer Everyday Math apps free from time to time.

This app has lessons and tutorials for learning Spanish. It's $14.99 but that includes many different lessons you can use, and within each lesson there are many different activities. I like that it takes one simple conversation in a lesson, (for example two people talking at a train station,) and gives so many opportunities to learn. The conversation is spoken by native speakers and allows you to just listen to the conversation, listen and see the words, then listen and practice speaking parts, etc. etc. There are quizzes on each lesson and I found myself really working hard to perfect written skills in the quiz (spelling and punctuation) and also working to perfect my sound by trying to say each phrase like the native speaker. I like how it breaks the lessons down, and the iPad format really adds to the experience, rather than just transferring a computer program to a different format. Our middle grade students enjoy this app. It is used by our Spanish teachers with grades 3rd - 7th. Our native speakers can focus on the written language quizzes while novices can do the entire lesson. One of the best we have found for Spanish instruction.

This app is $2.99, but our young special needs students really enjoy it. It's nice to provide a familiar layout and program for our special needs preschoolers and kindergarteners to use. These students are often familiar with the website, but do better with the touch format of an iPad.

GarageBand is amazing, and we think it's worth $14.99 because it's used so much with our music students. But, we've used it as our main voice recorder in Spanish classes, and in library, because of its high quality recording. It's easy to use and easy to export audio tracks. Obviously would be too expensive just for this one use-- but If you use it across the curriculum like we do, it is perfect!

To use GarageBand for voice recordings, a few changes need to be made. My students picked this up quickly, and even though it sounds like a pain it really takes just seconds. (1) Touch the wrench in the top right. You will need to turn the metronome 'OFF' for voice recordings, so you don't hear the tick tock while you are recording. My students like to leave the 8 beat intro on, to give them a countdown and make sure they don't start talking too soon. 2) Touch the puzzle piece in the top left. You will need to set the track length from the default of "8 bars" to "automatic." This way the recording doesn't stop after 8 bars but continues for as long as you want.

Our preschool autistic students love GarageBand more than many other touch/music type apps. They know how to choose an instrument (guitar, keyboard, drumset, etc.) and then they can touch the iPad and hear the sounds. The drumset is a clear favorite, followed by the keyboard!

This is an animation app, but the best thing is that it uses a story arch that the kids have to fill in. On the 'conflict' part of the script, it adds music in the background that sounds like there's a problem. I want to use this up through 6th grade to go over story arch. It introduces it in a very clear way and kids can be creative but still learn plot elements.

We have the full version for $2.99 and it is worth it. Our special education students particularly love it.

This is graphic organizing on an iPad! Perfect for listing facts in a more visual way.