iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

alphabet

Alphabet Organizer – Create Alphabet Books on Your iPad

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Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 1.06.53 PM Alphabet Organizer is a free iPad app offered by Read Write Think. The app is designed to help students learn the alphabet and learn new words.

Once you have created a profile or selected a profile on Alphabet Organizer you are ready to start building alphabet charts and books. In the first screen you will given the choice of making simple word lists or making word lists with pictures and definitions. Should you choose to use pictures you will have to find the pictures somewhere outside of the app and import them to the app. You can make lists for every letter of the alphabet or make lists for just a few letters at a time. After making your lists you can move on to having those lists used in printable charts or picture book pages.

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Alphabet Organizer supports multiple users on the same installation of the app. That makes it possible for students to share an iPad and not affect each other’s work. Creating a profile only asks for a first name and that name could be a pseudonym. No information about students is stored by Read Write Think.

Read Write Think offers an extensive list of lesson plans that incorporate Alphabet Organizer.

ABC Minsters – Quick Lessons on the Alphabet

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Screen Shot 2014-01-29 at 6.24.45 PM ABC Minsters is an iPad app offering short lessons on recognizing letters of the alphabet, handwriting, and spelling. The app has four basic steps that students repeat to learn each letter of the alphabet.

When students open ABC Minsters they can choose any letter of the alphabet to get started. The chosen letter will appear on the screen in uppercase and lowercase with simple directions for how to write the letter. Students simply trace the letters with their fingers. After correctly tracing the letters students will see a screen filled with objects whose names begin with the letter they just traced. Students tap the objects to hear their names read aloud. One object will be selected for a spelling exercise in which students drag letters into place to try to spell the name of featured object. The final before moving onto a new letter is to put the letter of choice back into its proper place in the sequence of the alphabet.

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ABC Minsters could be a good little app for students in pre-K through grade 1. Readers outside of the U.S. should note that the app pronounces Z in the American style of “zee” rather than “zed.”

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ABC Minsters is currently priced at $0.99

A to Z Mrs. Owl’s Learning Tree – Alphabet Quizzes for iPad

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Screen Shot 2013-02-05 at 8.36.13 AMA to Z Mrs. Owl’s Learning Tree is an iPad app that children can use to practice identifying the letters of the alphabet. The free version of the app provides quizzes in which students hear a word, see a picture representing that word, then select the matching word from a word list. Each word is read aloud to the child.

The paid version of A to Z Mrs. Owl’s Learning Tree includes an additional quiz, a phonics guide, and flashcards.

Both versions of the app allow you to specify if you want “Z” pronounced “zee” or “zed.” The background music can be turned off in both versions of the app.

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Two Apps to Help Children Learn to Write the Alphabet

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Screen Shot 2012-12-13 at 11.15.31 PM Even though children today are growing up in a digital world, they still need to learn basic handwriting. When you and I learned to write it was on paper that had extra large lines to help us form our letters. Today, that same concept is applied to many apps in the App Store. I recently tried out a bunch of these apps and found two that I like.

Alphabet Tracing is a free app that shows students how to draw uppercase and lowercase letters and allows them to trace on the letters on the app. The app also shows children how to write numbers one through nine. Alphabet Tracing uses little toy trains and caterpillars to show students which way to trace each letter and number. It’s a simple app that lacks sound, but I like its simplicity.

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ABC Writing Zoo Animals is the other alphabet app that I like. The app has two basic modes; writing letters and writing words. In the writing letters mode students see an animal whose name starts with the same letter that they have to trace. In the writing words mode students see a word and hear it read then trace the letters to spell the word. ABC Writing Zoo Animals is a freemium app. Up to letter “H” is free. For the full alphabet the app costs $1.99.

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