Using Painting and Drawing Apps for more than pictures.

In a recent post I highlighted just a few of the many  Painting and Drawing Apps available on the App Store and presented my readers with some criteria for evaluating them.  This post looks at some of the ways these apps can be used across curriculum areas.

Mathematics

You may remember I noted that stamps/stickers can make an App more versatile, and that certainly is the case when it comes to Mathematics.  In a classroom, students commonly used counters, paddle pop sticks, blocks and other manipulatives to experiment with number.  Think of stamps as onscreen or virtual manipulatives.   If you don’t have stamps, you can use different colour and painting tools to create marks or shapes.

Fun Phonics Apps for Early Childhood

Tiki Bear Phonics

Children in Prep and year one will be busy learning their alphabet and their associated sounds as a basic reading skill.  Two fun Apps on my iPad might be just the thing to help reinforce the sounds.  Tiki Bear phonics has two apps that cover all the alphabet.  The free App covers the short vowel sounds while the second App covers the consonants.