Recommended Apps

Recommended Apps

Below you will find a selection of apps that we love to use in school. Some of these apps are subject specific but some can be used in a range of ways.  If you use any apps at home that you think we would enjoy exploring, please do let us know!

 

Numbots
Numbots is a maths app which aims to move children away from counting on their fingers, to adding and subtracting one and two digit numbers. It’s a fun, interactive and engaging platform which encourages each child to beat their last score and build up enough coins to personalise their avatar. Numbots is used in Key Stage 1 and in Lower Key Stage 2.

 

Each week, the children are asked to play for 5 minutes a day, 4 or 5 times a week. We run a competition each week to see which class has the most children playing for at least 15 minutes a week. Can your child’s class be the lucky winners of the Numbots trophy?

ttrockstars Times Tables Rockstars (TTRockstars)
Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practiced every third week or so.

This format has very successfully boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of pupils over the last 4 years at King Solomon Academy, the school in which it was created. Now it is used in over 2500 schools – both primary and secondary – worldwide.

We have a weekly competition to see which class has the most children earning more than 100 coins. Can your child’s class beat the others to win the exciting TTRockstars Guitar?

Letter School – Free from iTunes and GooglePlay.
Is your child finding it difficult to form their letters? Letter School is a great app that allows the children to trace over letters. It includes capital letters and lowercase letters and has a range of fun animations to keep you engaged in your handwriting practice!
Popplet Popplet Lite By NotionAvailable– Free from iTunes (Similar free apps available for android)
Popplet lite is a simple app that enables users to create spider diagrams or mindmaps to organise their ideas in a clear, visual way. The page has the advantage of being infinitely sized so you’ll never run out of room!This app is easy to use with simple drag and drop controls. Users can use text and images, enhanced by colours and lines.Popplet has been used already in school to assist children with collecting and organising research in topic lessons. It has been used in Science to create animal sorting diagrams and in Literacy with story planning.

Diagrams created on this app can be saved as an image and printed out to be used during lessons or given in as homework.

Why not give it a try next time you want to organise your ideas!

Spell Bot provides a different, interactive way to help children

independently learn their spellings so why not give it a try?

 Spell Bot Lite  Spell Bot LiteBy Walsall Academy
Available– Free from iTunes (Similar free apps available for android)
 Spell Bot lite is a simple app that enables pupils to set up their own spellings and then practise and learn them in an engaging way.Younger children might need some guidance initially, although will quickly pick up how to use this app. It is easy to use the voice record function to record the child reading their own words. They then use the large play button to start the test in which they get instant feedback and a score at the end.Spell Bot Lite is still in the early stages of being used at school and is better when used by individuals or small groups.Spell Bot provides a different, interactive way to help childrenindependently learn their spellings so why not give it a try?
 Explain everything  Explain EverythingBy MorrisCookeAvailable- £2.29 for apple.
 Explain Everything is a wonderful app that allows you to create, annotate and narrate presentations or explanations. You can record your use of drawings and text with the addition of your voice to create a screen-capture of your actions. It is quick to pick up how to use this app and offers the ability to import, draw, type, move and zoom around the page easily. Recordings created on this app can be easily saved or e-mailed and shared.We are exploring the uses of this app within school at the moment and are currently focusing on its use to capture children’s methods and thought processes whilst completing mathematical calculations. Watching back the recording has proven invaluable in spotting next steps in learning.There are many possibilities to this app! Give it a try!
POW Strip designerBy Vivid AppsAvailable- £2.29 for apple.
POW! Comic strip creator is a simple yet highly effective app that enables people to combine photographs, drawings and web images with speech balloons, warped text and  stickers to create graphic novels or to display pictures and information. It is simple to use by people of all ages and offers the ability to move and zoom around the page easily. Comic strips that are created are easily shared from this app and can be saved as an image or e-mailed  to be printed and displayed.POW! Comic strip creator has been used already in school within literacy and guided reading sessions to create our own stories and comics. We will be exploring more ways this month…There are many possibilities to this app! Give it a try!
   Pic Collage
By Cardinal BlueAvailable free for apple and android.
Pic Collage is a simple yet highly versatile app that enablespeople to combine text, photographs, web images, stickers and even videos on a page. It is very easy to use by people of all ages as it is controlled by simple touch gestures. Collages that are made are easily shared from this app and can be saved as animage or e-mailed to be printed and displayed.Pic collage has been used already in school to display practical learning, helping to learn spellings, making persuasive leaflets during literacy, for homework, as a presentation tool and we will be exploring more ways this month…There are many possibilities to this app! Give it a try!