All Grades
STEP–The STEP Literacy Assessment® is a diagnostic and monitoring tool for children’s early literacy development. STEP shows teachers what students know and what will get them to the next “step.” The attached link helps parents work with their child at their STEP level so that the student can achieve their goals to advance to the next STEP. STEP Parent Resource
Super Kids has been my go-to website for reinforcement dittos for years. Now they have a vocabulary app for grades 4-12 for $.99. The goal is to increase vocabulary on all grade levels.
Khan Academy Free – From algebra to basic arithmetic, YouTube videos that explain each topic.
Flashcardlet Free – Flashcardlet allows you to search for and study Quizlet.com flashcards. It also allows you to make personalized flashcards.
RFB&D audio $19.99 membership to Learning Ally Gain instant access to Learning Ally’s (formerly RFB&D) downloadable DAISY formatted books.
Elementary
UnderSea Adventures: Free – the $1.99 full version offers allows you to vary the levels. Learning Addition Visually – Answer questions to reveal a secret picture. Every correct answer is one step closer to seeing the picture.
iTouchandLearnNumbers $1.99 provides a perfect blend of curriculum based learning and animated game fun.
ABC Phonics Free – FLASHCARDS – SEE the spelling, HEAR the audio, and LEARN the word.
What are they thinking? $3.99 Choose to have the student listen to 180 entertaining “thoughts,” or have the student answer each “What are they thinking?” question. This App can track data for all correct and incorrect responses. It also collects data for one student at a time and allows you to view and email those results.
Elementary/Middle School
Shake a Phrase $1.99 A fun interactive app to learn the parts of speech with 1700+ age appropriate vocabulary words. Three modes- Shake It: creates a new random sentence every time you shake – great for discovering new words. Not sure what a word means? Just tap for definitions! Story Starter: shake up the beginning of a story and let your imagination take over. Quiz Me: test your skills with adjectives, verbs and nouns. Tap on the right words to get points.
Earth Science through Photographs $4.99 – geared for 8-11 year olds. The app includes earth science photographs containing three details with audio.
Living Safely $29.99 provides self-directed learning sessions for 27 important safety skills topics.
A Trip in the USA $.99 Using rhymes, this app tells the story of a trip to several US cities where you learn about the geography and history. Cities include New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Orlando, Seattle and Houston. One of the nicest things about this app is that you can personalize it with your child’s face – and gender – so the story becomes about them.
Middle School
Be Confident Who You Are By Electric Eggplant $3.99 Meet Mateo, Michelle and their friends—six teens trying to figure out what middle school’s all about. Follow their adventures and watch as they learn how to get along in middle school.
High School/Middle School
The Constitution Free – the Constitution as it was.
History: Maps of the World Free – A fun and educational collection of high-resolution historical maps.
Library of Congress Free – The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library and the largest body of knowledge under a single roof. Whether you’re onsite, at home, in a classroom or elsewhere, this app will give you a virtual tour that mirrors the Library of Congress.
Science 360 Free – fantastic visuals! The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science360 for iPad provides easy access to engaging science and engineering images and video from around the globe.
Musee du Louvre Free – the next best way to see the Louvre without going there.
Many parents have questions about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This website answers many questions. As a MN state public school we are obligated to teach MN state standards. MN has adopted the CCSS in ELA (English Language Arts) but MN has our own Math standards.
In addition, Cologne Academy is a Core Knowledge school. CA embeds these addition standards into our curriculum.
Skills (Social)
Social Skills Sampler HD Free – This company the Conover Company has a wide variety of “Life Skill” videos This particular one Is designed to teach and reinforce basic social skills critical for independent living.
EPIC WIN $2.99 It’s a streamlined to-do list, to quickly note down all your everyday tasks, but with a role-playing spin. So rather than just ticking off your chores and reminders, completing each one earns you XP to improve and develop your character.
IDIOM Dictionary $1.99 Can be used in all areas of curriculum but this concept is particularly difficult for children on the Spectrum.
Everyday Skills $39.99 provides self-directed learning sessions for 40 important skills necessary for living independently and accessing the community based on proven content developed by the Attainment Company.
iReward $3.99 When stars have been earned, your child can pick from the default list of suggested rewards, or you can setup your own custom rewards especially tailored for each of your children.
iPrompts XL $49.99 alllows you to create picture schedules, a countdown timer, choice prompts. It comes with an image library which includes hundreds of useful illustrations and digital pictures across many categories.
ABC Data 4.99 Created to assist professionals and students in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), ABC Data is an unobtrusive data collection tool for counting behaviors and recording session duration.
Practicing Pragmatics $5.99 – Student looks at an illustration and either reads the prompt or touches the screen to listen to the prompt. The student then gives a verbal response. After each answer, tap the green (correct) or red (incorrect) button to score the student’s verbal response.
Top 10 Sites for Educational Games
There’s no denying the appeal that online games have for kids. Despite the stigma games hold, many online educational games not only enhance the joy of learning, but also strengthen skill sets. The following are my favorite educational gaming sites on the web.
- Funbrain– One of the most popular educational gaming sites around. Not only does this site cover a variety of subjects, it also caters to K-8th graders, and has nice teacher resources as well.
- Game Classroom– Excellent, safe, teacher-approved, state-standard-aligned games for grades K-6. Also, lots of teacher resources,including videos, lesson plans, worksheets, and more.
- Gameaquarium– Great site for games for kids K-6 in all types of subjects. Videos, eBooks, and teacher resources can be found here as well.
- Braineos– Nice site where games are based on flash cards. A registered user can include their own study lists and flash cards in the games.
- Tucoola– Wonderful site for skill-building games for younger kids where parents can track their progress.
- Tutpup– Cool site for math and spelling games where kids can compete with other kids online. Best of all, this site is COPPA compliant.
- BrainNook– Innovative site that allows kids to play educational games for math and English in safe virtual worlds where they interact and compete with other kids. Teachers can sign up their classes via theteacher portal.
- Clever Island– Offers fun educational games for kids 3-8 in a variety of subjects such as math, reading, spelling and more.
- What2Learn– Excellent site for educational games where a teacher can track students progress through a paid account. Users can create custom-made games as well.
- Abcya– Great site for elementary students that covers a wide variety of subjects. Also has educational apps for mobile devices.