Wednesday, November 21, 2012

iPad App Wednesday!

We are so blessed to have not just one, but TWO iPads in our classroom! These were funded by a project I posted on Donors Choose (If you are a public school teacher and you haven't started using Donors Choose, get on it! I will post about that wonderful website tomorrow!).

Children with autism often have a difficult time differentiating expectations if they are unclear. For instance, we use the same table for morning group and snack time. I have a visual that I change so that they are aware that they can sit in different seats and that different activities are occurring at this table throughout the day. So, what does that have to do with iPads?

I know many teaches have games on their classroom iPads for students, but I am not that fun. I found that when there are non-educational games on our iPads, my students had such a difficult time understanding that they couldn't play them every time they had a turn on the iPad. Therefore, EVERY app on the iPad is educational! Now, many of them are games, and my kiddos think that they are playing (well, they are) - but first and foremost, they are learning and refining their skills. Afterall, a huge reason I wrote the grant for these iPads was so my students could have an additional engaging way to learn skills related to their IEP goals. Again, I guess I'm just a mean teacher :)

Each Wednesday, I will be reviewing 3 of my favorite iPad apps. These are teacher chosen, student approved apps - but occasionally I'll throw in a few that I like to use to keep myself organized!

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox - This is a great app for some of my lower functioning students that are working on basic skills such as 1:1 correspondence, shapes, colors, counting, and letters. It's super engaging and the cute little monkey makes giggle noises and flips when they get the answer right!

Monkey Word School Adventure - This is a variation of the Lunchbox app, it's great for my students working on sight word recognition, rhyming, and spelling. This app has the option to choose "players" and to target skills depending on which student is playing the game (one of my favorite features of an app!) I only wish it tracked progress! But... it has the same cute monkey!

Monkey Math School Sunshine - Yet ANOTHER app with our monkey friend, but this one with a math focus. This app targets counting, numerical order, less and more, basic patterning, and more!


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