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TOP PICKS | 10 TOOLS
10 Best Arts Tools for Middle School
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DIY.org – Creative Challenges
From cardboarding to cooking, this app helps kids find the fun in DIY
Bottom line: Fabulous way for kids to get skills and share their projects digitally.
Grades: 3–8
Price: Free to try 14-day free trial then $15-20 per month depending on family size.
Green Screen by Do Ink
Versatile, easy-to-use moviemaker yields great results
Bottom line: High-quality movie maker has numerous uses for students projects.
Grades: 3–8
Price: $2.99
Tayasui Sketches
Slick and satisfying illustration app on par with the competition
Bottom line: This tool, while a bit of an adjustment from pen and paper, gives students ample room to grow creatively.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Free, Paid The $5.99 Pro version adds new brushes and tools like cut and paste, smudge, wet watercolor, fill, and color mixing.
GarageBand
Amazingly powerful audio workstation unleashes creativity
Bottom line: There's exceptional functionality in this solid, all-inclusive audio workstation that's fantastic for high-quality, anytime, and anywhere audio recording and sharing.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Free 32 GB or larger iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 10 or later, or recently purchased Mac laptops/desktops, already have installed installed.
Canva
Create snazzy designs in seconds with flexible, cloud-based tool
Bottom line: A flexible, accessible way to get kids -- especially design novices -- creating digitally in your classroom if you have stable internet and time to get students set up to be successful.
Grades: 4–12
Price: Free
WURRLYedu
Sharp music program has popular music, standards-based curriculum
Bottom line: Since it features a standards-based curriculum and good skills-building for students, this is worth a look for teachers.
Grades: 5–12
Price: Free to try After a 30-day trial, there's a classroom plan for $39.99 per month for up to 30 students or $399 annually. School or district licenses available by quote.
Google Arts & Culture
Well-curated art history invites open-ended or directed exploration
Bottom line: An easily explored one-stop shop for a vast amount of compellingly curated and contextualized art and history resources, but it's lacking educator supports.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
Photoshop Express Photo Editor
Top-notch photo editor helps perfect pics for creative projects
Bottom line: This is a powerful, free creation tool from the industry leader in photo editing.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
Soundtrap
Powerful online audio production with built-in collaboration features
Bottom line: Soundtrap is a uniquely collaborative sound-production environment, but if you want the top-quality EDU version, you have to pay top dollar.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free, Free to try, Paid 30-day free trial. Afterward, it costs $249 per year for up to 50 students, which includes extra security and privacy for COPPA compliance and a teacher dashboard. Request a custom quote for more than 50 users. Personal subscriptions range from $0 to $17.99 per month.
GameMaker Studio 2
One of the best creation tools available for aspiring game developers
Bottom line: Provides teachers with the best choice for a full unit or class on game design, and gives students a tool to help them realize their game-making dreams.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Free to try, Paid A free version has limited features. Educational licenses range from $30 per seat per year for desktop creation to $130 per seat per year for UWP and mobile.
