21+ Favorite Middle School Apps - Updated 2016

Screen Shot from my iPad in November 2013

This screen shot was taken from my iPad in back in 2013

Originally when I created this list of Middle School apps I was teaching fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade Resource Room in a small public school. This is the NEW REVIEW of 22 Plus - Favorite Middle School Apps - Updated 2016 Here is how the story began: We were a well-endowed district with all students grades 6 – 8 having their own iPads, and this was 3 years ago! I wanted to update the list and share some of the apps that work well for the students in the intermediate grades. Please keep in mind, this is not a complete list, just what seems to be still being used over and over again. Also, make note that I am a special education teacher and some of these apps may be intended for younger students. Remember that not all kids are on on the same page developmentally, let alone the same book - READ that blog here. In addition to changing up some links, I have added other apps that are also considered STAPLES for this age group. Enjoy and Please Share!

TeachersWithApps - 22 Favorite Middle School Apps:

1. News-O-Matic, Daily for Kids, by Press4Kids, is making a big splash in the device driven, digital news. This much-needed app was just released and we have to say, until now… there wasn’t an app for that. News vetted for [...]Read Post → 2. Math Drills, by Instant Interactive, regularly with our students and really like this app. It reminds us of the no-nonsense computer games that were used back in the day. As a teacher, you want content. Math [...]Read Post → 3. Stack the States, by Dan Russell-Pinson, is a fabulous educational app! We first noticed this terrific app, back in early October 2010 while introducing students to the iPad. After watching children of all different ages and abilities, [...]Read Post → 4. Haiku Deck – Presentation and Slideshow Maker with Beautiful Charts and Graphs, by Giant Thinkwell, is just what the title implies, and incredible in all possible ways! Haiku, a very apropos name, is a form of Japanese poetry that employs highly evocative allusions [...]Read Post → 5. Hopscotch: Coding for kids, a visual programming language is a precursor or introduction to coding. Hopscotch calls this coding for kids: an iPad programming language. In case you didn’t catch it already, read my recent blog which has been getting its fair share of attention: 15 Reasons Why We Should Be Teaching Our Kids To Code. “All [...]Read Post → 6. Seashores to Sea Floors, by the Mobile Education Store, is an extraordinary addition to the Crack the Books series, a succession of upper elementary ibooks that target 3rd to 6th grade science and social studies core curriculum concepts. Seashores [...]Read Post → 7. Blades – The Grassland Biome, by Mobile Education Store, is the second ibook in the biome science series to be released. This grasslands based part of the INCREDIBLE Crack The Books™ series of educational, interactive books. TWA recently wrote about Pines and Vines, the [...]Read Post → 8. Pines to Vines – The Forest Biome, the first in the series of Crack the Books by developer Kyle Tomson of Mobile Education Store, is a masterpiece about to revolutionize the world with its 21st century textbook model! This app [...]Read Post → 9. Ansel & Clair: Paul Revere’s Ride, originally by Cognitive Kid, and now managed by SylvanPay Network is one of those companies that will go down in history as being one of the first to develop outstanding learning content, where discovery [...] 10. Civil War by KIDS DISCOVER is a wonderful, thorough way to convey this life altering time period to students. The topic is covered with a gamut of different mediums that are geared to and perfectly written for middle school students to understand and [...]Read Post → 11. iTooch Middle School, by eduPad is not only a state of the art and completely comprehensive educational app, it is exciting, effective and enormously fun! iTooch Middle School has more than 10,000 exercises in ELA (reading, writing vocabulary, grammar) and [...]Read Post → Leading the educational and mobile apps from Elementary to Middle school, iTooch is now available on the Google Play Store. Educational apps eduPad is publishing a large list of educational and interactive apps for tablets and smartphones. Our apps are created by teachers [...]Read Post → 12. iDevBooks – Educational Math Apps, by Esa Helttula, are par excellence when it comes to educational tools! This suite of apps are a must-have for any school using mobile devices, as well as for parents who want to encourage mastery of math concepts for [...]Read Post → 13. Oh No Fractions – Curious Hat Lab by Curious Hat - Visually compare, add, subtract, multiply and divide two fractions with a unique and simple interface. Explore, play and test your fraction knowledge. Oh No Fractions! is built on the amazing feedback and response we had with the original [...]Read Post → 14. Sums Stacker, by Daren Carstens of Carstens Studios Inc, is an amazing app. It incorporates critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategic planning skills, all while you’re “playing” with math concepts with great gaming style! Carstens [...]Read Post → 15. State Bingo and Road Trip US, by Niyaa Apps, is totally educational, exceptionally engaging and aesthetically pleasing. It also completely encompasses Common Core Standards and differentiated modes of play. This app has so much to offer, learning-wise, and [...]Read Post → 16. Spinlight Studio has joined forces with Codeagami, but their wonderful apps live on, Geography Drive USA. No more boring maps and memorizing facts. Students will be delighted to learn about geography with this engaging and fun app! What a sensible way to learn this much-needed information. [...]Read Post → 17. Phonics Genius by Alligator Apps is truly brilliant. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t have students working on their decoding skills in this fun, friendly, and highly efficient manner. As a special education teacher, my caseload [...]Read Post → 18. e Skills Minimod Reading for Inferences, by e Skills Learning, can be used as a building block for students to gain the fundamentals of this imperative reading skill. To make an inference, one needs to “read between the lines” [...]Read Post → 19. Ansel and Clair: Little Green Island, by Cognitive Kid, makes you feel like every day should be Earth Day! We were lucky enough to get in on Little Green Island early on with beta testing and had an amazing experience with [...]Read Post → 20. Motion Math: Match is yet another genius of a game from the fabulous team at Motion Math! Match helps kids practice, develop, and maintain their mental math skills. When we heard the title we thought this might be [...]Read Post → 21. DragonBox Algebra 5+, by WeWantToKnow AS – I vividly remember the days long ago, when I was in middle school learning algebra. There was “y”, there was “x”, there was “x+y=5”, there was “1/x + 2/y = ⅓”, [...]Read Post → 9 & 19 were purchased by FingerPrint - I'm looking for links, Cognitive Kid is AWESOME!

We missed these STELLAR apps from the original list:

Middle School Confidential Series No CLUE how we missed this marvelous series of Graphic Novels for the Tween/Teen by Annie Fox
Bobo Explores Light by Game Collage, A real winner and definitely an oversight!
Color Uncovered & Sound Uncovered by Exploratorium, are gorgeous, state of the art, magazine-style apps with endless educational possibilities
Barefoot World Atlas by Barefoot Books has transformed its World Atlas into a phenomenal learning tool
Carsten Studios by Daren Carstens has been hard at work with updates and some SPECTACULAR new apps

These are new and ingenious additions to the App World:

Science Journal by Google Play is one of the latest and greatest apps out of the gate from Google Play and it is brilliant!
Busy Water by the infamous Edoki Academy
Amazing World Ocean:Interactive 3D Encyclopedia by Dimitar Itskov
Namoo by Crayonbox