Integrating technology is essential in today’s classroom, but going through thousands of apps can be overwhelming. Here we’ve listed apps that promote reading, writing, and math skills. Here are 3 apps every teacher should know about:

Writing Prompts for Kids: Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Fables App

When you’re stumped for writing topics, this app is​ a quick way to come up with creative ​writing ​topics. Check out this blog to learn about paraphrasing. Teachers or students can simply choose a situation, character, setting, and object and the app​ ​automatically generates your writing prompt. Students can write their stories on paper or directly in the app and e-mail it to the teacher. Kids love including their favorite characters, like Aladdin or Goldilocks in their stories. This app also enhances writing and vocabulary skills by offering dynamic alternatives to overused words. Recommended for ages 6+. Available on iTunes for $1.99.

Class Responder App

Class Responder is a powerful student response system that enables busy teachers to create and assign student activities and view student responses in real time. Teachers can assign quizzes, polls, classwork, and homework all from a tablet, personal computer, or smartphone. Teachers can create their own lessons or assign pre-made lessons that meet state and national standards. Students read a passage and then answer questions. They can see results and grades on a student or class level. For grades 1-6. Class Responder includes free lessons. Teachers can buy additional activities and quizzes from a library of standard based apps. Available on iTunes and Google Play.

Ready Set Learn App

Ready Set Learn is the perfect app for teaching primary students beginning math and language arts skills. Each app includes grade-specific activities like sorting, matching, connecting–the-dots, identifying patterns, telling time, and more. Students can complete up to 35 levels of activities and teachers can track their progress. Teachers can also recommend this app to parents, since it’s a fun way to practice skills at home. Recommended for grades pre-k-3. Available on iTunes.

View more teacher apps here.

Number Boards are great tools to practice counting, look for number patterns, and teach number relationships. Here are some great ways to use Number Boards in and out of the classroom:

Familiarize Students with Number Boards

1) Have students look for “special numbers” on their boards, such as the days they were born, their ages, the number of people in their families, etc. Have students share their special numbers with partners. Have each partner find the other partner’s  numbers.

2) Call out a number on the board and have students find the “number neighbors” of each one that is called. Have them find the numbers above, below and to the number called.

3) Picture It! Call out the following numbers and have students shade them in on their on their boards. There will be a completed picture once all the numbers have been shaded. 23, 38, 69, 86, 62, 55, 27, 33, 87, 73, 37, 84, 34, 28, 78, 56, 24, 85.

Number Patterns Activities

4) Have students shade in all numbers that have a 2 in either the ones or tens place. Discuss any patterns and number relationships the students notice. Then, with a different color, have them shade in all the multiples of 2, and discuss differences in the patterns between the two categories. You can do this with other digits as well.

5) Have the students shade in the numbers 6, 15, 24, 33, 42, and 51. Notice how how the sum of the digits in each number is 6. Ask students  to try this with other digits and other diagonals they find on the number board.

6) Have students shade in the numbers 2, 13, 24, 35, 46, 57, 68, and 79. Notice that the sum of the digits are as follows: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. Have students try shading in another diagonal of odd digits to see if an odd pattern occurs.

Counting Activities

7) Use a blank 120 number board to create a simple shape (such as a heart or arrow) that you would like students to shade in on their own boards. Create number clues for each number you shaded, such as “3 more than 20” or “7 less than 58.” Either write down the clues for the students to follow, or read them aloud to the class as the students shade in each number.

Addition and Subtraction Activities

8) Write an addition or subtraction problem on the board, such as 23 + 45. Have students place a marker on 23, then have them count 4 rows down, reminding them that each row increased by ten. Remind them that each column increases by one, and have them count 5 spaces to the right. Demonstrate more examples for both addition and subtraction , and then have students solve more problems on their own, writing down their answers.

See More:
5 Best Practices for Teaching Math
Math Manipulative Games

The transition from summer vacation to back to school can be difficult for some students. Here are 5 ideas to help students feel welcome and comfortable as they go back to school.

1) Host Class Introductions

First things first, have  students introduce themselves. To help students feel more comfortable talking in front of the whole class, start with a one-on-one introduction with each student. Talk a little bit about yourself. Then, have each student talk a little bit about him/herself in front of the class, have a look at the economics summer programs for high school students.

2) Send a Welcome Postcard 

Send students a postcard 1-2 weeks before school starts.  They will love getting a surprise in the mail from their new teacher. Tell them how excited you are for him/her to be joining your classroom and that you have lots of fun activities planned for the new school year.

3) Fill Library Pockets with Classroom Goodies

Fill a Library Pocket full of classroom goodies like stamps, erasers, and Welcome to My Class Wristbands and place it on their desk. This will help them get excited about the new year.

4) Bring a Summer Souvenir. Ask students to bring a special item that sums up their summer. Have the student do a show and tell and talk about what makes the item a special summer souvenir to them.  This will serve as a great ice-breaker for students.

5) Make All About Me Posters

Give students a chance to describe themselves. Have each student fill out an All About Me Poster, complete with information about their family, and their interests. They can even draw in their answers.

Setting up a successful writing center for your students is easy. All you need is a little prep work, and your students will be motivated to improve their writing skills. We created a writing island and added all the resources students would need to practice their writing skills.

Create an “Other Ways to Say” bulletin board in your writing center to help students improve their vocabulary and understand synonyms that can be used when writing. First, write words on Library Pockets. We wrote words like “happy, good, and bad”. For each word written on a library pocket, write two synonyms on a mini accent. In this photo we used Chalkboard Bright Mini Accents, and glued them to Plastic Craft Sticks. Keep the synonym craft sticks in a decorative box in the writing center. Students can start with a synonym activity by placing the synonym craft sticks in the corresponding library pocket. From there, ask students to use Smart Start Writing Paper to write a story. In their story they must include synonyms reviewed in the activity. You can also have students choose a topic to write about using Writing Prompts. Students can choose writing prompts in six different categories: Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, Descriptive, Poetry, and Journal Writing.