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Best 1-to-1 iPad Apps for Learning

It can be tough to figure out which iPad apps to load onto tablets when your classroom is 1-to-1, or if you're using iPad carts. The last thing you want is to commit to an app and use it for a week or, even worse, a day. This hand-picked collection of classroom-ready iPad apps is a good place to start. Each is highly rated and tuned well to the needs of teachers and students from elementary school to middle and high school. There's a mixture of apps with tons of content that'll keep students engaged and learning, tools for teachers to assess and manage classes, and opportunities for students to think, create, and share.

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Classroom Management and Teaching Apps for iPads

TinyTap - Educational Games

Book-and-game builder empowers creativity, boasts vast content library

Bottom line: With some patience and planning, this game maker can be a classroom game changer.

Grades: Pre-K–5 Price: Free to try

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Classkick

Easy-to-use, real-time monitoring, feedback, and assessment for 1-to-1

Bottom line: It's a great option for teachers who want to go paperless, provide specific feedback, and encourage collaboration among students in 1-to-1 classrooms.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid The free version offers unlimited assignments and feedback options. After a free trial, the Pro version is $9.99 per month; users can access grade automation, chatting options, extra editing tools, and more. A school plan is also available via quote.

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Seesaw: The Learning Journal

Versatile digital portfolio appeals to teachers, students, and parents

Bottom line: A powerful multimedia learning and communication tool that demonstrates student progress over time.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Seesaw Plus is $120 per year, and gives teachers more privacy options and other features. Seesaw for Schools, which includes school-wide reporting, is priced per student.

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Nearpod

Interactive slideshow tool engages students, promotes collaboration

Bottom line: This effective tool leverages the capabilities of 1-to-1 environments and offers both teacher- and student-paced learning.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid The Silver edition is free for up to 30 students, the Gold edition is $120 per teacher per year for up to 50 students, and the Platinum edition is $349 per year for up to 75 students. In-app purchases are available for additional content, and schools and districts can receive volume discounts.

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Recap: Video Response and Reflection for Education

Multimedia reflection app puts a new spin on class discussion

Bottom line: By promoting regular self-reflection and inquiry through Recap, teachers can support more authentic learning and self-assessment among their students.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free

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Stop, Breathe & Think

Appealing app guides meditation, promotes compassion

Bottom line: An accessible, well-designed tool for making meditation a daily practice for both students and teachers.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid $9.99 to $70.99 for a yearly subscription; educators can qualify for a lifetime license for free.

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Educreations

Enliven lessons and presentations with easy-to-use whiteboard tool

Bottom line: An easy, functional way to create presentations on the fly.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free Basic version is free but only supports one project and 50 MB of storage. For $11.99 month-to-month ($8.25 per month if billed annually), teachers get unlimited drafts, 5 GB of storage, and more. School subscriptions cost $1,495 per year.

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Showbie

Flexible desktop, mobile assignment tool works best with pro features

Bottom line: A flexible way to collect student assignments and offer written and verbal feedback, especially with the premium features.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free to try The free Basic version has limits of 25MB per file, 10 assignments (which expire after one year), 1-minute voice note length, and 1-minute video clip length. The paid Pro version has a 500MB per file limit, unlimited assignments with no expiration, 30-minute voice note length, and 10-minute video clip length. It also adds a student portfolio, gradebook, class discussion, and parent support, among other special features.

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Notability

Flexible note-taking tool empowers learners of all abilities

Bottom line: An excellent tool that lets students make their notes thorough and useful in the way that best suits their learning styles and abilities.

Grades: 6–12 Price: $9.99

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Quizlet

App to find, create, use digital flashcards; website is better

Bottom line: A convenient way to find, create, and review digital flashcards, which have all the advantages and disadvantages of paper flashcards.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid For $1.99 per year, users can upgrade to Quizlet Go to remove ads and gain access to premium themes.

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Arts and Creativity Apps for iPads

Artsonia Kids Art Museum

Online art museum empowers students to exhibit, explain their work

Bottom line: A well-loved digital art museum that allows students to share work and reflect on their artistic process while helping teachers assess student understanding of artistic concepts.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free

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ScratchJr

Drag-and-drop programming is an effective intro for budding coders

Bottom line: With a little adult help, this is a rich platform for getting kids into programming and digital creation.

Grades: K–2 Price: Free

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Toontastic 3D

Flexible tool hands kids the reins for creative animated storytelling

Bottom line: Despite some lack of variety and simple drawing tools, Toontastic 3D remains a terrific, versatile storytelling tool.

Grades: K–5 Price: Free

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Wizard School

Curated videos and creative challenges ignite active learning

Bottom line: There's plenty of material to inspire kids to embark on learning adventures that get them to explore, create, and share safely on the screen and off.

Grades: 2–8 Price: Free

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Cozmo

A little robot with big personality brings code to life

Bottom line: From Cozmo's engaging personality to endless programming possibilities, this little robot will capture your heart and spark imagination.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid Requires Cozmo robot, sold separately for $179.99.

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DIY App - Creative Community for Kids

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 While currently free at the time of this review, this app will reportedly offer paid premium services and real embroidered patches for a fee in the future.

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Book Creator

Magically easy way to create and publish digital books and multimedia

Bottom line: This is a top-quality creation tool that lets students of many ages and abilities publish their own digital books.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Free version supports one library and 40 books. For $60 per year, this expands to three libraries with 60 books each. $120 per year supports 10 libraries with 100 books each.

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Educreations

Enliven lessons and presentations with easy-to-use whiteboard tool

Bottom line: An easy, functional way to create presentations on the fly.

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Paper by FiftyThree

Beautifully designed digital sketchbook for any age

Bottom line: The simplicity and effectiveness of the app make this a powerful sketch and note-taking tool for the iPad.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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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.

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Canva - Photo Editor & Design

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

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iMovie

Movie editor will satisfy beginner and intermediate creators

Bottom line: Despite some limitations with editing, it’s the perfect tool to get teachers and students started with digital video production.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free

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Adobe Photoshop Express

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

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Animoto: Slideshow Maker

Slick video slideshow tool lets kids tell stories and share them

Bottom line: Anything that happens during school can be turned into an engaging video slideshow.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free, Paid There's a free version. Basic plans ($4.99/month or $29.99/year) support slideshows of up to 10 minutes and longer video clips. Personal plans ($9.99/month or $59.99/year) include all the features of basic plus HD videos.

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ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies Apps for iPads

Khan Academy Kids

Creative, smart mix of pre-K to K activities is a breath of fresh air

Bottom line: It's tough to stand out in the crowded early learning space, but this collection does just that, offering a one-stop shop for creative learning of foundational skills.

Grades: Pre-K–K Price: Free

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DragonBox Numbers

Explore the concept of numbers through puzzles and fun gameplay

Bottom line: Though there are a few kinks, kids experience fun gameplay while internalizing fundamental number concepts.

Grades: Pre-K–1 Price: $7.99

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BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week

High-quality animated videos engage young kids in a variety of topics

Bottom line: Great videos, though kids' learning should be enhanced with interactive elements to encourage deeper, more active learning.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free to try

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LeVar Burton Kids Skybrary

Kids can "go anywhere, be anything" with vast book and video library

Bottom line: Wonderful and practical way to get kids excited about learning and reading -- the greatness of the classic TV series, updated for the 21st century.

Grades: K–4 Price: Free to try One month free trial, then $4.99/month or $39.99/year.

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Epic! - Unlimited Books for Kids

Free, expansive digital library unlocks treasure trove of books

Bottom line: This large collection of books and videos on a wide variety of topics is an easy -- and free -- enhancement to any classroom library.

Grades: K–6 Price: Free to try Free to elementary school teachers and school librarians in the U.S. and Canada.

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Google Earth

Cool geographical exploration tool has endless classroom applications

Bottom line: Google Earth is an engaging and completely open-ended app perfect for use across the educational spectrum.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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LightSail Education

Robust, full-featured reading app measures meaningful literacy gains

Bottom line: A powerful, well-designed literacy platform for developing engaged readers.

Grades: 1–12 Price: Free While schools will need to contact LightSail for pricing, their website states that packages start at $5,000 and $12 per student.

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News-O-Matic: School 2018-2019

Flexible, interactive daily stories for elementary school students

Bottom line: Engaging, high-quality news stories help students learn about the world.

Grades: 2–5 Price: $19.99 Volume educational discounts and licenses available.

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Grammaropolis

Animated parts-of-speech app enlivens grammar lessons

Bottom line: It's a cute concept that makes sense out of sometimes hard-to-understand grammar concepts.

Grades: 2–10 Price: Free, Paid Free version includes only nouns; other parts of speech purchased in-app.

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NASA

Visually super NASA-backed treasure trove may overwhelm

Bottom line: A visually stunning way to get kids interested in science and space exploration.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free

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Dictionary.

Vast word reference features tons of content and word games

Bottom line: Powerful tool crammed full of games, classic reference information, and flexible controls.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free Remove ads for $1.99 in-app purchase.

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Pages

Writing and publishing tool is an increasingly satisfying option

Bottom line: With useful new book creation features, Pages is a much-improved publishing tool for Apple-oriented classrooms.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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DragonBox Algebra 5+

Mesmerizing step-by-step puzzler sets the foundation for algebra

Bottom line: This innovative game-changer teaches algebra, changes the way kids learn it, and even changes how they feel about it.

Grades: 4–8 Price: $4.99 $4.99

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CueThink

Social approach to problem-solving promotes deep math learning

Bottom line: CueThink is an innovative, community-based platform that helps students plan, strategize, and collaborate.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free to try, Paid The CueThink Problem Bank includes free Problem of the Week (PoW) scenarios as well as access to full PoW content bundles for an additional fee.

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Lab4Physics

Bring physics to life using lab sensors built right into your smartphone

Bottom line: Use your smartphone to gather data and study speed, gravity, waves, and other physics concepts.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Premium costs $14.99 each year with a 45-day free trial.

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Cogent Education

Think like a scientist: Solve biology case studies

Bottom line: Practice problem-solving skills and learn biology through interactive case studies.

Grades: 9–12 Price: Free to try, Paid There's a free trial, and then class subscriptions range from $79.99 per year (3 cases) to $289.99 per year (15 cases). School-wide pricing is available.

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