Silk: Interactive Generative Art

I recently stumbled upon an app for IPhones and IPads that art students will love. The app is Silk Interactive Generative Art and it allows students to create various pictures with lines of light. It is very easy to use and the pictures can be saved for printing. There is also an online version here.  The app is great to teach symmetry and balance. Below are a few examples I quickly created.

Listen to Our Poems: Set 2

Throughout the year the students have been using the IPad app Hokusai to record themselves reading their weekly poems. We use poems in the class each week to  introduce our phonics focus but to also help with fluency. Below are QR codes to some of the poems they recorded. You can use your smart phone or IPad to scan the codes. I recommend using the app "I-nigma." I like this one because the students do not have to line up the scanner closely on the code. They can get anywhere close to the code and it will work.

It Began with a Frog

 It Must Be a Whale

 Jack and Jill

Miss Mary Mack 

 Money

 My Cat

 My Dog, Tag

 Spinning Spider

 Ted

Listen to Our Poems: Set 1

Throughout the year the students have been using the IPad app Hokusai to record themselves reading their weekly poems. We use poems in the class each week to  introduce our phonics focus but to also help with fluency. Below are QR codes to some of the poems they recorded. You can use your smart phone or IPad to scan the codes. I recommend using the app "I-nigma." I like this one because the students do not have to line up the scanner closely on the code. They can get anywhere close to the code and it will work.

A Hunting We Will Go

 Bugs on My Rug

 Crayons

 Drip Drop

 Friends

 Hills, Chills, and Ills

 Hot Dogs

 I Like Jam

I'm a Little Teapot

Aging Booth

Just for fun on the 100th day of school, we used an app on the class IPad called Aging Booth. Aging Booth lets you take a picture and then it adds "aging" marks to show what you might look like the in the future. The kids were laughing hysterically about the pictures. I will admit though that a few of them thought it was "kind of creepy." I couldn't agree more!

Spelling City

Here is a quick video I made using the App "Explain a Website" to show you how to access the features of Spelling City at home. The video is not perfect but you get the point.

Phonics Genius iPad and iPhone App

One of my favorite phonics apps is Phonics Genius. The app has flash cards of short vowels, long vowels, blends, and digraphs. You have the option to have the words read aloud. This is great for introducing the specific sounds. The sound can then be taken off to have the students practice reading the words independently. The app also allows you to add your own phonics words. I plan on using the app for Daily 5, to introduce the weekly phonics focus, and in guided reading.