Saturday, April 21, 2012

Textropolis - a Word Game

My 8 year old son came home from school yesterday raving about a great game they play at school on the iPad and "could we get it too mom?"  So off to the app store we went and found this app he desperately wanted was free ~ my kind of app:)  Since all of our devices are synced at home he thought it would be great if we could both play on our own devices and race each other.  I have to laugh...... Friday night here we are playing spelling games for 2 hours and that kid is good!  He definitely held his own!
iPhone Screenshot 3   iPhone Screenshot 2




How to play:  Well they give you a name of a city like Kingstown and you need to build as many words as possible using those letters.  Each word you spell is defined for you (if you care to read the banner on the jet that flies over your city ~ I must confess I had no time to read the definition I was racing to spell the most words!)  You can choose hint and it will give you a definition of a word that you can make with the letters you have.  After you have spelled so many words it unlocks a new city name for you to play.  The game tells you how many words are even possible to spell.  I have no idea what happens when you actually spell all the words for a city, we have not got that far yet.  


However, we must be addicted............... we both woke up this morning and grabbed our devices to carry on!  


If you love word games, this is a good one!  My son's teacher has blogged about how they actually use it in their classroom.  What a great time filler!
 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Science and the iPad

Implementing the iPad into my every day lessons has not been as easy lately.  I have been busy working with a student teacher and helping her with her first ever Science unit that she has planned and taught in full.  When you have someone else doing the teaching you don't realize how often you "borrow" from that science time to do other things such as my monthly theme or my ELA ~ my technology time:)  I have also been busy preparing my students for their week long Standardized test (the CAT-4).  It is highly stressful, time consuming and significantly impacts the organization of my day.  Hopefully in another week we will get back to some quality iPad time!

In the mean time, I have still been finding time to explored my beloved pinterest and today I stumbled upon this lovely link to some Science apps.  It is VERY diverse... yes junior high teachers there is something here for you too!  Even high school!!!!!!  Some of it is pricey, some of is looks fun and some is just way cool if it meets your curriculum.  Here's the link.  Check it out and if you find one that you particularly recommend, give me a reply.  I would LOVE to hear about it!

Learn Sharks - I think I'll get this one for my son and it's a freebie!

Learn Sharks

Nasa App HD - this one looks pretty cool too!

NASA App HD

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Earth Day

I LOVE Earth Day.  I have loaded my wiki with tons of free websites and books to celebrate Earth Day and help enrich the learning experiences of my first graders.  I have also discovered this free app that is an interactive book.  
iPhone Screenshot 1

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-four-seasons-an-earth/id427865899?mt=8

I came across it on a blog that I love to follow and plan on downloading it tonight.  I have not previewed it myself yet, but thought it was worth sharing!

Also check out my wiki Earth Day page http://mcisaac1w.wikispaces.com/Earth+Day



 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Autism Awareness Month

It's almost my 1 year iPad anniversary!  I remember this because I remember I got in on the very end of the free apps because of autism awareness month!  I also remember missing out on a whole bunch:(

These apps are great for all preschool children as well and K and 1!  Check out Mrs. Malchow's blog (I love her).  She gives ALL the details about the great links to the free apps and she talks about sites that offer daily deals in April!!!!




http://malchowsreflections.blogspot.ca/2012/04/autism-awaress-month.html

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

iPrinting - mostly "my" school related

So in our building our school secretary uses a Mac.  She purchased an app that allows her computer to be the master "print control system".  As long as her computer is turned on, the iPads will search for her computer and then give a list of printing options ~ virtually everything she is connected to including photocopiers and the color cube.  It works great, as long as it's not the weekend:)

Well today I wondered would my iPhone print too.  And yep, it does!!!!!!  There is one catch though.  It will not print if I am just roaming on the cellular network.  I needed to go into the settings and turn on the wi-fi.  The phone immediately found the network.  I was able to connect myself to the network and with a simple "tap" I printed my document to the photocopier!  Yay for technology!!!

Note to staff:  the wireless network connection is horrible in the main office and there is no connection in the staffroom!  Walking into the hallway or going up or downstairs makes a huge difference.  I often print from my classroom from the iPad as it is way more reliable!