Daily 5 with iPads

This year, I started using Daily 5 in my classroom. It has really improved my students' literacy and guaranteed reading time for all students. Before, I used to do the typical learning centers in which students were occupied with a writing, craft, or drawing task; very few days did I get to meet with all my students to give them reading time on a daily basis. With the daily 5, everybody has to read everyday. Furthermore by glancing at the students, I can tell which ones are reading independently with success and which ones need more instruction.

One of the components of Daily 5 is read to a buddy. I have not been brave enough to try this in my classroom. Instead, I designed a way that the students could read to their iPad as a component. I use an app called Tell a Story. The procedures for this activity are the following: first students pick a book, second students take a picture of the book, third, they import the picture of the cover to the app, then they hit the record button and read their book to the iPad. Using Tell a Story helps the students keep track of the book they have read, listen to the way they are reading (there is a playback feature) and see their reading improvement.

I love using iPads to ensure student success. If they are used for education purposes, they can make a difference in children's learning.

My favorite apps for kindergarten students

Here are some images of apps that I have downloaded to my student iPads.
When searching for them, sometimes their name isn't actually what it says under the icon so the search has to be a little broad. I am uploading this pictures because in my last blog I mentioned the 1st crossword app and story buddy lite.

I believe these apps are great for kids even for the home. Although the ones that require creativity require a lot of adult guidance in the beginning, then kids will take off with their imaginations and create their own digital books.

It's amazing to see how fast they learn to use the more complicated apps.

Apps my students like

This week we have been working hard to learn to use our iPads with our curriculum
I have found ways to incorporate the iPads to create books, work on word building and math skills.

Two apps I want to mention are
Story buddy lite
1st Word Builder


We have been using story buddy to make writers workshop books and math counting books
Yesterday, we used story buddy to make mitten counting pattern books. The lesson included the kids looking for mittens, taking pictures of each other wearing the mittens, importing them into story buddy then adding words and numbers. The librarian and our school technologists each took a group of students since it was the first time we used story buddy. Today, the kids didn't need a lot of help in their operations; they did need help coming up with ideas. Our assignment was to make a digital book about how to dress in winter. They had to collect mittens, hats, boots, coats, try them on, photograph each other wearing them and them make a digital book on how to dress. They loved it and all the students were participating and 100% engaged the whole time. For this project, they were working in buddies (groups of 2 or 3).


The 1st word builder app we used during a language arts lesson was a great review for students to master letter names. This app can be used in various languages. Today we used the Spanish version of it. The negative aspect of the app was that it crashed on the kids who were having difficulty finding where to place their letters.

My goal  for this week is have kids who are experts at making digital books!
I finally downloaded pages app and it is very similar to story buddy lite.
My kids will be learning while using this tool next week.