I've been in a crafty mood so I found some crafty center ideas this week.
Happy August!
This week's Found Friday was inspired by my Twitter friend, Kim Keith, who was asking for centers ideas for her new iPads. I'm fortunate enough to have 10 iPads in my library and I use them as centers as well as for projects. I have found using different apps as centers help the kids get comfortable using the iPads in a school setting (there are usually different rules than at home!) and they can become familiar with apps we will be using for projects.
Here are a few of my favorite centers apps:
BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr.
BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. have free apps. If you don't have a subscription they have a lot of free videos your students can watch. I have students fill out a paper sharing something they learned or wondered.
Word Mover
Word Mover is a magnet poetry app. Students can create found poetry using words from famous works like MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" or "America the Beautiful". This is a great Poetry Month app!
Kodable
Kodable is a programming app. My students LOVE it. It teaches the basics of programming like sequence/order of events, if/then statements, and loops (I've seen Mr. Lodge use these concepts when he's building his own apps and programs!). The Teacher Mode has ideas for further programming lessons, some on paper!
Drawing Pad
I love Drawing Pad. It's my go-to drawing app and has so many tools kids can use to create drawings.
I use this app to introduce iPads to our kindergarteners and use it as a center choice, usually with an assignment to try a specific tool or feature so students are ready to go when we use it for a project. When we learned all about penguins, the kindergarteners job was to draw a penguin. We practiced adding text during centers so they were ready to draw, add their name, and save when we did our insect project. We have also used it to make Creepy Carrots, a Reading Makes You Feel Good ebook, and many other projects!
ColAR
This app is so cool! I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before. They have special images you can print for free or purchase that come alive as 3D images in the app. I used it very early in the year as part of our Dot Day celebration and the kids went crazy for it.
Shelver
Shelver works well on our iPads so students use that as an iPad center choice as well.
I'll be back next Friday with some other tech centers!
