Technology Thursday

Like my title? I keep saying that I'm not going to do a schedule but then I get ideas for one. So I'm loosely going to each week try have one post about technology, one about math, one about a craft and one about reading and then some wild card posts thrown in there. . The days that I posts these will probably vary. But maybe that will keep me blogging a little more regularly.
So I started this blog yesterday while my kids were napping and had plans on finishing it after school. But I've been fighting some kind of sinus infection and am pretty sure I ran a fever all day yesterday. So I tutored and then came home. I'm home today sick. I hate taking days off. To make it even worse there was no sub to be found. Thankfully my fellow kindergarten teachers were understanding and they told me to stay home even though it meant they were going to have to split my class.
Anyway, on the technology part of this post.
Back in February (maybe) I applied for a grant from our PTA. I really wanted to get an i pad for my classroom but the grants were for $500. And if I get an i pad I want all the covers and such to keep it protected from my kids. I got an i phone in January and haven't needed my i pod touch that I won this summer at a tech conference. I decided to write my grant for another i pod touch, a case and an i tunes gift card. My grant was approved and a couple of weeks ago I bought my i pod touch and everything to go with it. I decided to get the otter box cover for both the i pods. It was a good move even though it was kind of costly. I got them from Walmart. When I got home I realized that one of cases was for an older generation of i pod. They didn't have anymore in stock at Walmart so I looked on Amazon. They were cheaper there by almost $20.
I had been pinning different lists of apps to use in the classroom for a while now. I didn't want to overwhelm the kids with a lot of apps so I just started with 4 different ones. There is a Curious George one that is free that the kids love. It was one of the top rated apps on the itunes store. The one I really wanted to share with you is based on the Bob books. If you aren't familiar with these books, you can check them out here. They are good for early reading. They have simple text with words kids can sound out. The app is much like the books. They click on words of the text and they have to build the word, then the program sounds the words out for them. Check this link out to see the app.  It's $1.99 and I think it's worth it. While tutoring on Wednesday, I let one of the boys use this app while I read with the other one. One of my ELL students was so into this app. He was stretching out each sound as the app did.
I've been really impressed with how my students have responded to have the ipods. They haven't argued about them and they are actually remembering to turn them off. I have just let them explore with the games on there right now. I would like to eventually tell them what I want them playing but I think they need time to explore first. I hope to post about these once a week. Do you have ipods in your class? What kinds of activities do you do with them? What apps are your favorites?