6 apps to engage Primary pupils

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Image credit: Popplet.

What are your favourite apps for getting pupils engaged creatively? We asked around...

1. Explain Everything

Described in 2015 by leading Primary teacher Amy Kingsley as “my signature app”, Explain Everything allows pupils to create interactive animations, videos and presentations for the whole class. They can even assess their own peers as the lesson runs. Teachers, meanwhile, can annotate pupil work with the likes of visual highlights and recorded vocal annotation. The app can be used with Google Apps for Education, iCloud, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive.

We explored the features of @explainevrythng in #TegidRPS pic.twitter.com/5eITngaPfM
— Richmond Park School (@RichmondParkCPS) October 17, 2017

Find out more about Explain Everything here.

2. ChatterPix

Part of the Khan Academy catalogue, Duck Duck Moose’s ChatterPix “can make anything talk”. Want to let your pupils have a good chat with Gandhi (who also happens to be wearing a fetching pair of sunglasses? This app makes this possible. An ideal way to engage and immerse, ChatterPix is a resource that can be used for real fun.

Inferring character traits through thoughts, words, feelings, and actions! #chatterpix #RedHawksSoar pic.twitter.com/xr9IX24e9k
— Kyndra Hartzler (@mrshartzler3) October 13, 2017

Find out more about ChatterPix here.

3. Seesaw

A favourite of kindergarten teacher Ashrita Johnson, Seesaw is all about sharing riches that come from the classroom. With pupils documenting what they’ve been doing that day, the app strengthens school community by bringing parents and guardians into their child’s learning. This is done via various features, such as photos, drawings, videos, written text and hyperlinks. Parents, guardians and teachers can then all view this growing portfolio from their own devices.

Digital storytelling @ASBIndia recorded and shared with parents using @Seesaw enables the Ss to make their stories come alive #edtech pic.twitter.com/MCpMeJTqcm
— Ashrita Johnson (@paisashrita) October 12, 2017

Find out more about Seesaw here.

4. Do Ink

As discussed by Dominic Traynor in a previous Innovate My School article, Do Ink bring “far flung corners of the world into your classroom at the touch of a button”. Using the iPad app, pupils can animate their own drawings or incorporate them into other scenes. Alternatively, with a green screen set up, teachers and pupils can leap into whole new environments, including photos taken by the class that day!

Thanks @DoInkTweets! Using green screen to put our Easter movie together. Some powerful scenes... #primaryrocks pic.twitter.com/g4WNPeDwYS
— Mike Watson (@WatsEd) March 16, 2016

Find out more about Do Ink here.

5. Popplet

A top-rated choice of Year 1 teacher Mr Pritchard, Popplet is a mind-mapping tool that helps learners to learn via visual methods. By organising facts, thoughts, and images as they go, pupils are able to make sense of a great deal of information. As New Jersey teacher Heidi Echternacht puts it: “Popplet is helping a new generation of digital natives to emerge with skills in organising information and thinking about how ideas are all connected.”