Favorite 5th Grade Apps!

"Devices come and go, but progressive teachers who adapt will last longer than any device". 

-Andrew Marcinek

I saw this quote today posted on my edutopia.org Facebook feed and I absolutely love it!

I was very blessed to receive a grant for last school year that provided 30 iPads, 30 cases, a charging cart and money to buy lots of incredible apps for my students!  It was given to me by members of our school district's foundation and I could never thank them enough.

When we would practice skills last year in class I often had my students get out their iPads and open up a whiteboard-like app to help them practice.  I was very surprised when a few of my students told me they would rather use pencil and paper!  I never thought I would hear them say that when I asked them to open up their iPads.

When I saw the quote above, it took me back to that moment.

As teachers, we must be progressive.  We must allow ourselves to iPads.  Some students prefer using pencil and paper.  And some really enjoy using white boards and markers.  As the school year approaches, my hope for the upcoming year is that I will truly adapt to and cater to the way my students learn best.

I want to share with you a few of my favorite apps to use with the iPads I won with my grant!

EDUCREATIONS (free!)  http://www.educreations.com

You can do sooooo much with this app!  I have had my students create recorded videos where they can swipe through pictures they found on the internet and talk about each of them.  They have also created their own photos and done the same thing.  You can almost use it like Power Point.  My students created numerous Social Studies projects using this app.  We also use this as a whiteboard for practicing math and sentence structure.  Another thing I really like about this app is that it has pre-made videos on it that students can watch to help them understand a concept.  It is very easy to use and my kiddos love it!

CONTACTS (free, comes with the device)

This app comes already on your Apple device.  The main thing that we use this for is a digital word wall.  I have my students add 'contacts' (vocabulary words, people's names or terms that we are studying) and write a description of it in the Notes line.  It was perfect for making our classroom word wall purposeful and for helping students remember to spell commonly misspelled words!

EDMODO (free!)  https://www.edmodo.com

I am IN LOVE with this app and my students are as well!  It is basically a social networking site for your classroom.  As the teacher you can monitor everything your students post on it, which I really like.  The first thing you do is create your account and register your students.  From there your students can login and explore.  They can upload their own profile picture, post on the classroom wall and reply to each other's posts.  As the teacher, you can write posts and create polls that your students have to respond to.  You can assign classwork, homework, post links, and even assign due dates for assignments.  I often posted articles for my students to read and they had to respond with 3 facts about the article and one question for the author.  You can even assign homework with this app.  I found that my students who did not have a computer at home had smart phones in their home.  Students can download the app on their smartphone and do their homework on there!  LOVE this app!


Those are 3 of my very favorite apps to use with my students.  I will post more through the school year!

Like or leave me a comment if you'd like! :-)