Maker Madness

Looking for ways to get creative in the classroom? Check out these apps/programs below that will get your students’ creative juices flowing !

 

You can create 3D projects with the 3Doodler by simply scribbling, tracing or waving a finger! This worlds first 3D pen can draw in the air or on surfaces and uses a variety of colors.

 

Bloxels is a “hands-on, brains-on” video game creator. Create your game with color coded cubes, scan and play. I love how this program combines hands on with screen time. Watch it in action, here.

 

Brick Flicks IE gives students the opportunity to use hand made sets and LEGO mini fixtures to create stop motion movies. They with use iMotion to take pictures, edit and publish their movies. This requires a lot of fine motor skills–so I would be sure to review what patience is before executing this activity! Check out a Brick Flicks example, here.

 

Build with Chrome is the largest LEGO world you have ever seen! LEGO and Google Chrome partnered up to create a place where anyone can create and build anything with virtual legos. This is one of my personal favorites and my students LOVE it! As a new teacher, I have not collected/can’t afford a large class set of legos–so this is an awesome virtual alternative.

 

Do Ink is very fun and easy to use. I use this in my first grade classroom to create amazing (and hilarious) green screen videos on our iPads. The app is $2.99 and worth it! I don’t know of any other ways to record green screen videos in a simpler way.

 

Little Bits are a system of electronic modules that easily snap together with magnets. All of the modules are color coded and make it very easy for kids of any age to use. The inventors of Little Bits strive to give every kid the opportunity to be an inventor of their own .

 

Makey Makey  is an invention kit for the 21st century. You can turn anything that is a conductor of electricity into a touch pad (including yourself!). The Makey Makey is a simple invention kit that can be used by beginnings OR experts!

 

Mogees turns physical objects into instruments! The device converts the vibrations our touch creates and turns it into sounds.

 

PicMonkey is a free online photo editor, collage creator or design program without any downloads necessary. There are hundreds of tools to use to support your creative side. The program offers even more functions through a paid membership (however, I think the free version does everything you would need!).

 

Have you ever wanted to design your very own video game? Pixel Press Floors is exactly what you need to experiment with. Draw your game on graph paper, scan and play! There is also an option to create the video game directly in your iPad. For a better idea, watch this video.

 

Quiver (formerly known as ColAr Mix) is an augmented reality app that allows pictures to be colored by students that come to life…literally! Want to take your writing workshop to the next level? Simply print the pictures provided by the website (plenty of free pictures and pictures you can purchase), let your students color, scan with the apps camera and ta-da! They now have a picture that comes to life before their eyes and an awesome story to write.

 

Show Me is a free app on an iPad that makes it very easy to create tutorials or teach a lesson for just about anything! Adding images, diagrams or instructional tools are amazing features of this app. You can choose make your projects private or public.

 

Sock Puppets is a free app that lets you create your own lip-synched videos with puppets, props, scenery and backgrounds! After recording your voice, easily publish your video to Facebook or Youtube. This is a great way to motivate students to create stories or present project information!

 

Squishy Circuits allows you to design tools and activities that allow kids of all ages to create circuits and explore electronics using play dough.

Tinkercad is a free, easy to use online app that anyone can use to create 3D models.