Thisissand

Artists, creatives and teachers, check this out! Cool graphics and sound effects make you feel like you are really sprinkling a bit of sand onto your screen in this free app.  (Did anyone else ever do this craft when you were a kid??) Seriously, try this one out and satisfy your inner child! Thank you, Bridgette, for the suggestion!

I'm still trying to figure out how to use this in class, maybe with colors (I'm thinking kids would say light or dark, colors or compare color to an object (like, this green is the color of grass, this blue is the color of the sky)? Or get students to make a design and describe what it looks like? Do they like it?  What is their favorite part?  I wonder if you could add an element of numbers to it, like roll the dice (see my post on Make Dice Lite) and add the color for that number?  Any other ideas?  Add to comments below!

Chose your colors from the rainbow or upgrade for .99 to make a new color from anything your camera can catch!

Here are some samples from the app:

Good and Evil Twins with Split Pic

One of my students suggested this app...he uses it on his phone but there is an iPad version, or you can use the iPhone app on the iPad.  I imagine there are similar options in the android market.

Great free iPhone app allows you to create one photo with two by splitting the lens. While there are more applications, I'm sure, we are using this one today to create a graphic with good and evil twins.  

Students describe their twins using terminology like "travieso", "consentido", "bien educado", or "generosa".

This was the original, which he liked so much he posted to his Instagram account.  He later added his adjectives in Pic collage. 

Some students did theirs using the regular camera feature, then importing two photos into PicCollage, like this one...

(Yes, I realize there are some errors. This led to a productive review discussion about adjectives and gender.)

(Student photos used with permission)

  

iCitizen

Ok, so not a language app...but still amazing, this app will give you a list of all your elected officials at the federal and state levels-just type your zip code.  Then, it will give you all their contact information, their votes, a list of names and monetary contribution of all their campaign supporters, and information about bills they've sponsored. You can email them with one click! And that's just one tab! Further, you can follow issues (like 'Economy' or 'Education') and it will notify you of any related legislation.  Visually clean, super informative, and easy to use-this app rocks! (And makes it easy to be politically active/aware).  And did I mention, it's free!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icitizen/id725655449?mt=8

Visual Poetry

This free app is a wonderful tool for manipulating basic vocabulary. There are lots of choices for schema and colors--You can select a pre-formatted background or draw your own. You can enlarge certain words, drag them to the location of your choice and highlight with colors. 

My favorite way to use this is to make the background and shape represent the theme of your vocabulary. The activity lasts 10 minutes or so, then students can present their final product using the target language. The only drawback is that the app won't accommodate that many words so you need to limit to about 10.  

This is an example of one my students made... 

 

Cat Academy

Have you heard of the icanhazcheezburger cats? If so, and you think they're fun, this app is for you!  This app is $1.99 but worth it for the cuteness factor alone! Learn phrases and vocabulary with cat memes! I have downloaded for my students to do to reinforce our classroom learning. Students progress through recognition, listening and speaking activities to earn the badge for that level. Further levels recycle previous words/phrases. It's fun. And cute. What more could you want???

Duolingo

This is an extremely well produced app. Students can select Spanish or French and then they compete for mastery of each level. Levels are progressively harder. The possibility exists for a student to master a level without competing- effectively allowing them to "test out" of levels and move directly to challenging ones. It is set up as a game and students try to keep their hearts. Their progress is recorded and available to review. It is a very individual activity so I assign when students have a few minutes of down time at the end of a test or other activity. Students can toggle the language themselves so keep an eye out- I had one student who decided she'd rather do it in French, which is great but not in Spanish class. ;)

Learning Games

These apps are all by the same developer and have a similar look and feel.  They are listed as 99 cents each but you can get all of them for $1.99.  They are really basic, testing the sounds of the animals, for instance, but they are pretty intuitive and don't require a lot of knowledge of Spanish to use.  I like to have students complete these when they have a few minutes free while they are waiting for the class to finish a test or if they come early...  My favorite part is that each app has an interactive alphabet that you click on the letters and it gives you the sounds in Spanish, said by a native speaker (Castillian accent)-great for extra practice at the beginning of the year!

Ahorcado is a fun game for students to test their vocab knowledge.  Students select from word categories and can get hints.  The best part about this app is that if you pick the 2 player option, the players can choose their own words and it sets them up in a game of hangman! This app is free.