Educational Apps for K - 2nd grade
English Language Arts Apps
A simple app that focuses on just one skill—spelling. SpellingCity has a variety of colorful and fun games that teach kids common spelling words. With over 35 games, SpellingCity will keep kids entertained and engaged for hours.
Though it doesn’t focus on any Common Core skills, Story Creator is a fun, creative app for elementary students. Kids create their own story books using photos from their device or the included illustrations. They can share their stories easily by emailing them from within the app.
Just 15 minutes a day with Homer has been shown to increase early reading scores by 74%. The app features over 200 vibrant, engaging songs and stories. Over 1000 lessons teach phonics, sight words, early reading, science, history, art, music, and more.
Learn to Read – Starfall- free
This app is based on the respected Starfall learn to read website and includes the same type of reading activities based on vowel sounds and phonics. The child can listen or read the short sentences, and then enjoy the interactive animations that depict the sentence’s action.
iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBooks Store, where you can download the latest bestselling books or your favorite classics – day or night. Browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap, and bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages.
Reading is probably one of the most important skills that children acquire. This app that has been developed by child psychologists and other specialists at The Open University enables young children to take part in fun games which can help develop interests and skills that will be relevant to them when they start to read.
Trace it, Try it – Thomas Wilson- $2.99
Work on writing alphabet letters with a playful round of trace it and try it. The program practices letter names, letter sounds and (of course!) letter writing at once. It’s a three in one!
Short Vowel Word Study- $3.99
Once kids tackle letter sounds, they’re ready to move on to reading short, three-letter words. This app is a motivating way to practice sounding and spelling CVC words.
Sentence Reading-CVC Words- free
This app uses 2 and 3 word sentences, which are punctuated correctly and always begin with a capital letter. The picture is hidden to encourage word reading instead of "picture reading." Most young readers upon seeing the picture will guess its meaning and not even look at the words. The picture is hidden so that the child will read the words first and then only look at the picture to check their work.
This app focuses on spelling and building 3-letter CVC words. In actuality word building increases reading skills.
Ollie’s Handwriting & Phonics- free
Practice reading sight words and writing alphabet letters with this two-in-one app developed by a teacher.
See and hear over 300 sight words flashcards
Epic!- free
Epic! is the leading digital library for kids, where kids can explore their interests and learn with instant, unlimited access to 35,000 high-quality ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes for kids 12 and under.
Math Apps
Math Apps- free
Math Clock helps students become fluent working with time. Money Pieces help students visualize and understand money values and relationships. Number Frames help students structure numbers to 5, 10, 20, and 100. Number Line helps students visualize number sequences and illustrate strategies for counting, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Number Pieces helps students develop a deeper understanding of place value while building their computation skills with multi-digit numbers. Students use Pattern Shapes to explore geometry and fractions, create their own designs, or filling in outlines.
For younger elementary students in grades K-2, Todo Math is a great way to practice math skills. With hundreds of games, Todo Math has enough activities to keep kids busy for weeks.
Being taken “on a journey through a universe of numbers”, users will learn core math concepts through puzzles while saving the world of Dozenopolis.
As you’d expect, Jungle Time teaches children how to tell time by using engaging jungles animals. When the learner gets the answer correct, the clock face responds with a roar or a smile. This app is a multi-lingual and highly interactive tool for teaching time in 12-hour and 24-hour formats.Jungle Time has earned recognition from Parenting Magazine, Apple, and the New York Times, and Common Sense Media has given it a 5-star rating.
Meet Sushi Monster! Scholastic’s new game to practice, reinforce, and extend math fact fluency is completely engaging and appropriately challenging. Strengthen reasoning strategies for whole number addition and multiplication by helping monsters make a target sum or product. Earn points with each correct answer… but watch out for distractions! To be successful, plan ahead and strategically select numbers from the sushi counter.
Social-Emotional Learning
Mitra is another app to help students track their emotions and values. Students record and rate their emotions and values each day, measuring how they feel and what’s important to them. This helps them measure changes in emotions and reflect on their feelings.
Stop, Breathe & Think- free
Fantastic for students with anxiety and stress disorders, this is a meditation app which encourages users to think about how they’re feeling, while also providing short mindfulness and meditation exercises tailored to their mood. It also allows students to track their progress with graphs that show trends in their emotional state.
Science/Technology Apps
BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week- free
Ideal for kids in Kindergarten through grade 3, the BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week app spans subjects within Science, Social Studies, Reading, Writing, Math, Health, Arts and Technology. The gentle, humorous, and relatable characters Annie and Moby serve as guides through each topic, empowering kids to form their own ideas. BrainPOP Jr. content is designed to cultivate critical thinking skills and encourage children to ask questions and make connections. The app is easily navigable by kids ages 5-9. (In app purchases)
While this app is presented as a game, it is actually a great way for children to look at patterns and sequences, and try to figure them out. The app generates different color combinations, and it is up to the user to decipher the pattern and enter the next color.
Cargo-Bot- free
This is another app that teaches basic coding skills. Also teachers kids to think logically.
This is a website that can be accessed on a mobile device. It includes addictive games and lessons get students motivated to learn to code.
Tynker- free
Tynker is a well-designed website that teaches foundational coding.
Scratch Jr.- free
Coding is the new literacy! With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer.
Art Apps
Doodle Buddy - Paint, Draw, Scribble, Sketch - free with ads
Doodle Buddy Gold is the most fun you can have with your finger! Finger paint with your favorite colors and drop in playful stamps. Connect with a friend to draw together over the Internet.
