Way back in the year 2010, I received my first iPad, and I still remember the first two educational apps I fell in love with because I still use them today. If you know me at all, you know my top #1 app is Doodle Buddy. But I have another app that is tried and true and just hasn’t received as much limelight yet. So here goes, a little love for ABC-Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids.
For this iPad app, think old school letters on the refrigerator. I don’t know if they were around in the sixties when I was growing up, but in the seventies, when I was of babysitting age, all my families had them. Old school, new school, these little letters in any shape or form are a great tool at home or in an educational setting.
- A is a little list about this app.
- B is for the basic set of capital letters you receive with the free version.
- C is colorful letters that come in blue, green, yellow, pink, and red.
- D is the deal you receive if you buy all current and future expansions for $4.99.
- E is for the expansion sets: lowercase, shapes, and themes (monsters, pirates, space, and so many more).
When I showcase this app, I have three activities I usually share. So give these a whirl, and I’m sure you will come up with many more. These would work well in the ELA or ELL class.
Six Person Sentence
Group of 6
- Assign one student a verb, one student a noun, one student an adjective, one student an adverb, and two students to “write down” any word.
- Group forms a sentence with their words.
- I usually let them change one word, if necessary.
ABC-123
Large group (20+)
- Count off by giving everybody a letter.
- Everyone “writes” a word with that particular letter.
- Count off by giving everyone a number.
- Groups gather together by number.
- Students within groups organize themselves alphabetically by their words.
Banish Boring Words for a Prewriting Activity
Group of 7
- Count off by number to form groups.
- Each group receives an overused word.
- One group member “writes” the overused word.
- Other group members “write” synonyms.
Example: Eat Better words: gobble, inhale, chomp, nibble, demolish, and snack.
You can certainly click here and get my list of “Banish Boring Words” to use with your students. Please let me know if you use this app in your classroom, as I would love to pass on other great classroom activity ideas.
Featured image created by the author.
Diamante Poem – This type of poem is in the shape of a diamond. Each line uses specific types of words (adjectives, -ing words, etc.). What makes it especially nice is that it doesn’t have to rhyme. This app has some examples to illustrate how to write a diamante poem, and it leads you through creating your poem step by step. When you’re finished, you can save the poem as an image to your photo gallery. 
Acrostic Poem – Think of a word and then write a word or phrase for each letter in the word. This app will lead you through creating an acrostic poem and even helps you brainstorm words. Acrostic poems are often used when students write their name vertically and then write out adjectives going across that describe them, but the uses are endless. 
Haiku Poem – This app makes writing this Japanese-style poetry super simple. Walking you through the steps of brainstorming words and phrases and making note of the syllables, you’ll find that constructing one is easy and can be very profound. 
Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics – This well-crafted app introduces students to a wide variety of poetry. Even without the premium downloads, the free ones supplied each come with audio that highlights the lines as the poem is read with inflection. Students can record themselves reading the poem and even earn poetry points by memorizing them. 
POETRY from The Poetry Foundation – Let students encounter a wide variety of poetry in this app. They can discover titles by spinning the category wheels (emotions and events) or by searching for a specific author in the index. Poems that have audio are indicated with a small speaker icon, great for extra support for struggling readers/writers as well as students who may benefit from hearing it read aloud. 
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a work of art. This work can be displayed via social media or made into a “mini-poster” for bulletin board placement. And you can also help students “summarize the main idea and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning.” Whether for professional development (e.g. book study, article jigsaw) with adults or ask ing students to work in small teams with a buddy to analyze text, this type of activity is powerful for engaged learning.
Here are the steps you can take to create your Typorama quote project. Remember, these techniques can be used whether you have the app or not. If you and your students are on a computer, try one of the aforementioned, browser-based, free quote generators.
List of Copyright-Friendly Image Resources
As with any tool, the strength of the learning that results comes from how much thought students have to put into it in the first place. So they should definitely be asked to storyboard their cartoon first and have it peer edited for clarity, flow, and understanding. The app encourages students to use “Story Arcs” in planning their masterpiece. According to the website, “A Story Arc is a scaffolding tool that helps you map out a story’s plot. Whether they’re learning Language Arts or Science, kids can practice communication skills using story arcs as formulas for convincing arguments.”
