Review of iTouch Apps by my class

My class wrote reviews of their favourite iTouch apps on their MLE/Fronter pages. I thought I would share them here.

A:
We have iTouchs in our  class. We use them for learning and sometimes we use then for fun. There’s a game called Angry Birds. You have to pull back the sling shot and let go to fire and you have to predict were the birds are going to hit the other birds.

G:
I’ve been using the ipod touch lately and have been playin lots of apps so it is so cool. I really like to play pop math.  It is a maths game that you put a number to a maths question and if you’re right the maths question will disappear. Then you just finish the rest. Another  app is fluid. It can really calm well (relax). It plays a type of dusk music and then you tap the screen and water slowly, calmly splashes like a small puddle.

J:
In Oak just last week we got ipod touches which helps us with our work and sometimes  miss lets us go on games. My favourite game is Touch Pets and  my favourite maths game is Pop Maths.

S:
If you are angry there is an app to calm down. We also have Touch Pets for free time. Sometimes we have Pop Math for Math.

T:
iPods are so cool. They have apps for when you are angry. When you feel like this you can use a calming app. One of them is called FLUID. You use your finger and rub the screen and it makes kind of an enchanting sound.

The game that I love is LET’S GOLF That game lets you connect to the people all around the world and people who are in the room with you.

Also you can play a good game called Angry Birds it’s fun and its a science Physic game because you have know where to hit the enemy’s buildings.

J:
We use the iPod touches for learning and there is a particular game which I  like called Pop Math. In this game there are bubbles and inside them are maths questions which you have to match with the answer. A game I like to play on the iPod touch is Angry Birds, where you catapult birds at structures to knock them down. I really like the Fluid app, it helps you calm down, it’s really smooth. I think iPod touches ROCK!!!!!

Using the iPod Touch in unexpected ways.

We have been using the iPod Touches in class for just over 3 weeks and I can hardly imagine not having them. I had planned on using them in a number of ways in the curriculum but the children have suggested using them in ways I hadn’t thought of!

Generally speaking there has been a significant improvement in the children’s behaviour in class and the way they respond to one another. This may just be a coincidence but long may it last ;o)

Due to the very nature of the children I teach there still has been the odd ‘moment or two’ where one child or another has become angry and has had difficulty managing their own behaviour. The iTouches have again played a significant part in helping them calm.

One child, who was having a ‘difficult’ day and came in from a playtime very angry, used the iPod Touch app Fluid as a calming activity. Essentially it’s a liquid water simulation which responds to your touch and generates ripples and little waves in response. There also is Zen music which plays quietly in the background. Being able to put earphones in his ears helped block out other sounds in the classroom and he was able to calm himself quickly.

Another good ‘calming’ app is Bubble Wrap. Not quite as rewarding as the real thing, in my opinion, but the kids seem to love it!

In a Maths lesson earlier this week I wanted the children to generate 2 digit numbers by rolling dice and then finding what number they need to add to this to get to 100. I had put dice on the tables (which always seems to cause all such excitement!) when a child said ‘Why don’t we use iChoose‘ It’s an app that has, amongst many other things, dice. No dice flying off the table or getting lost. (It also has Rock/Paper/Scissors!!)

All of these apps are free and, so far, do not seem to have any advertising associated to them.

I would love to hear how other people are using an iPod Touch in the classroom.