3 Favorite & Underappreciated Apps

I recently stumbled on an adorable blog called "Thirsty Firsties," and Kelly, the author, is hosting a linky party about iPad apps.

The rules are to share three apps - one free for classroom use, one paid for classroom use and one favorite app for personal use. She's also giving away an iTunes gift card as part of the linky, so be sure to check out her blog and join in the fun!

I've already shared many of the apps that I love and use in the classroom. See, for example, my list of favorite paid apps and my list of favorite free apps. So today, I'm branching out to share some of the apps that I've used and enjoyed this year that I haven't really talked about before.

Favorite Free App - Spelling City

Vocabulary Spelling City is a great app for teaching students vocabulary or spelling words. It has a variety of engaging games, and it can be used by students at all levels. The app itself is free and has a lot of functionality on its own. If you are a premium subscriber to Spelling City, however, it's a great complement to the activities you assign your students each week. I had my students doing activities on this app almost daily, and our differentiated weekly spelling tests were done entirely through this app (with the teacher premium subscription).

Favorite Paid App - Marble Math

Marble Math is a fun and challenging math game that addresses a broad range of math computation skills. I'll confess that I've even found myself playing it far longer than a typical "teacher test-drive" would require. The object is to navigate a marble through a maze by solving a variety of problems. It includes fractions, decimals, equations, and negative numbers, so this is probably best for grades 4 and higher. Of all of the apps on our iPads this year, this was the one that students seemed to gravitate toward most in their free time.

Favorite Personal App - Feedly

In the debate between Feedly and BlogLovin, I'm coming down on the side of Feedly for one major reason -- I LOVE the iPad app. It's really easy to flip through and navigate, it rotates, and it doesn't seem to crash as much as BlogLovin did. In fact, I've never had a single problem with it. I don't tend to comment on blogs as much from my iPad, so I can't speak to that aspect of comparing the two. Usually if I'm browsing blogs on my iPad, I'll mark the blogs that I want to comment on and comment through my computer later on. So for the sheer visual appeal of the app for reading blogs, I'm a big fan. This has become one of my favorite go-to apps on my iPad.

Now it's your turn. What are your three favorite apps? I'd love to hear about them, and be sure to link up with Kelly over at Thirsty Firsties if you get a chance. She's running the contest for the iTunes gift card through Monday.

And don't forget to link up with my Teacher Toolbox Trio celebration as well! I can't wait to discover more awesome classroom resources from TpT!