12. Using Your iPad in Sixth Grade
Sixth grade is full of interesting new things to learn and great new experiences. In this chapter, you’re introduced to some apps that might be useful to you in school or at home for your sixth-grade work in subjects like:
• Math
• Science
• Music
• Art
Even though you study many of the same subjects in sixth grade that you did in fifth, you’re going to be learning a lot of new and exciting things in your classes. Apps can help you in the classroom or when you’re doing your homework. The apps listed here aren’t the only ones you might want to try, and they might not line up with the exact things your school covers (don’t worry if they don’t; that’s normal and there are great apps for your school’s classes, too), but check them out for help in your studies.
English/Language Arts
As you enter sixth grade, what you learn in English/language arts gets even more interesting. There’s still vocabulary, but the words are more sophisticated and unusual. Grammar is still part of your work, but it leads to reading and writing more complex and interesting things—including reading with a deeper understanding than ever before.
Augment Your Terminology Using 6th Grade Vocabulary Prep
Cost: $2.99
You have to keep building your vocabulary. Every school year you encounter hundreds—maybe thousands—of new words, and you need to learn them all! The more of them you learn, the more you’ll know, the more mature you’ll sound when you speak or write, and the better prepared you’ll be for high school and college.
Just like with the versions of this app you used in earlier grades, this app helps you learn hundreds of new vocabulary words relevant to the schoolwork you do in sixth grade. Test your knowledge with word and definition quizzes. Show your teachers and parents how well you’re doing by emailing them your results.
Cite Your Sources with EasyBib for iPad
Cost: Free
Including other people’s writing in yours shows that you understand and can build on existing ideas; it’s a sign of getting better as a writer. As you start writing more complex papers that use other people’s ideas, you have to start learning how to reference the books, articles, and websites you mention in your writing. One way is to use a bibliography.
EasyBib for iPad helps you create bibliographies by taking a picture of a book’s barcode with your iPad’s camera or searching for the book’s name in the app. After you’ve created your bibliography, you can add it to your paper and give credit to the people whose ideas helped shape yours.
Meet a Small Mark with a Big Role in GrammarPrep: Using Commas
Cost: $3.99
Just because something’s small or easy to overlook doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Take an atom: It’s so small that you need a powerful microscope to see it, but it’s a building block of the world. Commas might look very small, but the role they play in English grammar and writing is huge.
Learn when to use commas, and when not to, in the tests and quizzes offered by GrammarPrep: Using Commas. It also offers videos and podcasts so you can watch the tutorials come to life. With information designed for use by college students, this app will be useful for years. (There are other apps in the GrammarPrep series, so if you find this one useful, check out the others.)
Train Your Fingers in TapTyping
Cost: $3.99 or free Lite version
Ever watched someone who doesn’t know how to type try to write on a keyboard? Seeing them search for each key and write so slowly can be frustrating—for them and for you. If you know how to type, you can use your computer or iPad to express yourself faster.
This app not only helps you learn how to type, but does so using special courses about U.S. history and using the book Alice in Wonderland—you end up learning two things at once! The free version of TapTyping comes with a few basic lessons, but you can buy more advanced topics—and most of the tests, really—in the app for $0.99–$3.99. It’s worth knowing, though, that this app only helps you learn to type on the iPad’s onscreen keyboard, not external ones.
Sink Language Errors with Zombie Grammar Force
Cost: $0.99
Grammar is about a lot more than where to put punctuation or how to make subjects and verbs agree. It’s also about understanding what the parts of speech are, what words are which parts of speech, and when to use them.
When it comes to this kind of learning, what else comes to mind? It must be zombie pirates and cannons (that’s what I thought of, at least). In Zombie Grammar Force, a ship full of zombie pirates is headed for your land and you have to defend yourself. Unfortunately, your cannon can’t sink their ship because clouds are in the way. Each time you answer a grammar question right, though, a cloud disappears. When they’re all gone, fire away and move on the next level.
Reviewing Parts of Speech
You can get a refresher on the parts of speech used in Zombie Grammar Force.
1. Tap the i button whenever you see it, and on the screen that appears, tap Next.
2. Tap the part of speech you want to learn more about.
3. Read the definition and example and then tap Back.
4. Choose another part of speech or tap Next. Tap Next again to go back to the game.
Math
Your math class this year builds on things you’ve done in the past—such as word problems and percentages—but also adds a few exciting new things. For instance, have you ever seen an equation that has a letter in it instead of just numbers (for instance, 3+X=7)? Those letters are called variables, and in many sixth-grade math classes, you learn how to solve problems that use them—and lots of other things, too. Even if those topics aren’t taught this year, there are still useful apps for you in this section.
Prepare for Your State Tests Using 6th Grade Math Testing Prep
Cost: $2.99
The standardized tests used to track your progress come around every year, so it’s only natural that apps that help you prepare for them show up in each chapter, right?
Use this app to prepare for the standardized tests you’re taking this school year to show that you’re learning what you’re supposed to. It’s the sixth-grade version of an app I recommended for fourth and fifth grades, too. The topics it covers include statistics, probability, percentages, and critical thinking.
Real-Life Math: Math Snacks HD
Cost: Free
Just like math can be serious or interesting or fun, it can also be really, really silly, as you’ll learn in Math Snacks HD.
Learn all kinds of math with this collection of fun, animated videos. Each video teaches you about different math principles using fun stories, including how ratios can ruin a date or sink Atlantis, and how proportions and units can be important to kings and queens (aka rulers). The Math Snacks website offers even more fun lessons and quizzes.
Find the Math in Stories with Math Word Problems Grade 6
Cost: $2.99
Math comes in many forms, and not all of them include plus or equal signs. Just as often, math comes hidden in words or stories. Understanding how to identify and solve word problems is crucial to being able to use math in your day-to-day life.
Word problems teach you two really important skills: whatever math is involved in each problem, and just as important, learning how to pick out what information is valuable from among lots of irrelevant data. This app is packed with word problems that not only help you learn ratios, functions, probability, geometry, and other math, but also help you figure out what details you’re presented with are worth paying attention to.
Do Better Math in Your Head in Mathemagics
Cost: $2.99
There are two ways to really prove that you know your stuff when it comes to math: solve problems really quickly and do it without using paper. The more math you can do in your head, the faster you can go and the more challenging and interesting problems you can tackle.
Mathemagic helps you get quick with your answers and teaches you to start doing complex math in your head. As you learn these tricks and take the quizzes in the app, you can share your scores and compete with your friends for the best one using Game Center.
Solve Problems with Logic Using MathLands
Cost: Free ($1.99 upgrade adds more features)
Problem solving means a lot more than just figuring out what X stands for in X+4=7. It means taking what you know about math and applying it to situations you encounter in real life, and it’s one of the most important skills you can develop.
In MathLands, you develop problem-solving skills that are based on logic and an understanding of numbers. But instead of doing this using boring problems, you’re faced with challenging games, comic-strip word problems, and exciting puzzles. Now, the next time you need to get four kids across a ravine using two parachutes, you’ll know what to do!
Science
The scientific events and theories you study in many sixth-grade science classrooms are really, really big. Whether it’s the sun or the stars, earthquakes or the movements of the Earth’s tectonic plates, thermal (heat) energy or ecosystems, you go deep into some of the most powerful and most exciting parts of science. If these topics aren’t taught at your school this year, check out some of the other chapters for apps that might match up with what you’re learning.
Get Close Without Getting Burned: 3D Sun
Cost: Free
Earth and the planets near it are all part of the same solar system, the name given to a group of planets that all orbit the same sun. At the center of this system is the Sun.
You probably know that the Sun is basically a gigantic ball of fire, so big and so hot that it has been burning for millions of years and can warm the Earth even though it’s almost 100 million miles away. But did you know that there’s actually a lot more than fire happening on the Sun? From solar flares to sunspots, this app can help you stay up to date about what’s happening on the sun with alerts and tons of amazing, beautiful photos from NASA.
Learn About Walking on the Moon from Buzz Aldrin Portal to Science and Space Exploration HD
Cost: $1.99
Who better to learn about space from than a person who’s actually been there? In this app, you can head back into space with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon.
It includes photos from every aspect of the U.S. space program throughout history, live NASA videos, news about space and space exploration, and Buzz Aldrin’s own writings about his experiences in space. You can’t do much better than learning about space from one of the few people in the world who has actually been there.
Discover the Stars Right Above You in Distant Suns 3
Cost: $9.99
When you’re interested in astronomy (the study of planets and stars), there are more stars and planets than anyone could learn about in an entire lifetime. In this app, you can go beyond just our solar system to explore more than 300,000 stars and suns throughout space.
Not only can Distant Suns 3 help you learn about all those stars by seeing telescope images of them, you can also read the stories behind the constellations. But the coolest feature of the app uses the iPad’s built-in Location Awareness to figure out where you are and show you the stars that are right above you in the sky so you can know what you’re seeing when you look up.
Shake Things Up with iQuakeMini
Cost: $0.99
Although major earthquakes cause tremendous damage and are big news, did you know that there are actually many earthquakes every day? You don’t have to be scared, though; most earthquakes are never felt by humans.
As you learn in this app, most earthquakes are very mild, or happen in unpopulated areas. But our scientific instruments record them and, if you have this app, you can find out about them. You can learn about where they happen, their magnitude, and much more. The free version of this app delivers the basics, but if you want to really learn about what’s shaking, buy the in-app upgrades.
Find Where the Nearest Volcano Is in Britannica Kids: Volcanoes
Cost: $4.99
Speaking of things that are hot and full of fire, this app from Encyclopaedia Britannica helps you learn all about volcanoes—and there’s a lot more to learn than you might expect.
Besides shooting molten flame into the air, did you know that some islands are formed by undersea volcanoes spewing molten rock up from the ocean floor? That rock cools in the water and hardens into land. Besides that kind of information, this app includes articles, tons of great photos, games, puzzles, and even a map that helps you locate active and dormant volcanoes around the world. Are there any near where you live?
Discovering Individual Volcanoes
To see which volcanoes are near you and learn about them:
1. Spin the wheel at the bottom until you reach Map.
2. In the map section, you can tap a volcano icon to see its name.
3. Tap the arrow in the pop-up to learn more.
4. On the page about the volcano, you see a photo and a small description. If the icons across the bottom are lit up, you can tap them for more information.
5. Tap the jigsaw piece to play the jigsaw puzzle game.
6. Tap the squares for the Magic Square game.
7. Tap the map to see the volcano on a map.
8. Tap the document to read about it.
History/Social Studies
You look far into the past and far outside the U.S. in many sixth-grade history/social studies classes. You might study ancient civilizations in Egypt and Rome, and learn about the importance of primary documents—parts of the historical record written by people living through the events. Even if these aren’t the topics your school covers in sixth grade, you might enjoy these educational apps.
From Gladiators to Emperors in Britannica Kids: Ancient Rome
Cost: $4.99
One of the ancient world’s great civilizations was Rome, which had an empire that spanned Europe at the same time that Egypt dominated Africa (more on Egypt in a few pages). Rome inherited some of the traditions and learning of the Greeks who preceded them, and in turn the U.S. has been influenced in many ways by Rome.
In this app, you learn all about gladiators and Roman mythology, Julius Caesar and Roman culture, and how the ideas and institutions of ancient Rome influence things like our government and laws. Just like with the Egypt app, the app includes articles, quizzes, photos, and maps.
Track Thousands of Years with Chinese History Timeline
Cost: Free
On the other side of the world, but at the same time that Egypt and Rome ruled Africa and Europe, China was a major power in Asia. It was one of the most advanced ancient civilizations, but it’s one that a lot of Americans don’t know much about.
In this app, you learn about the history of ancient China using a timeline featuring maps and links to relevant Wikipedia articles. You discover that ancient China was so advanced, it invented fireworks, paper, and gunpowder long before they existed in Europe. In some timeline views, you can also compare what was happening in ancient China to other parts of Asia at the same time.
Discover the Foundation of Our Country in Constitution and Federalist Papers
Cost: Free
Understanding where to find and how to use primary sources is a key part of learning history and how to think like a historian. Primary sources are not only important documents, but they often tell us a lot about the people who created them, what was important to them, how they thought, and what they were trying to do.
When it comes to primary sources, few documents are more important to United States history than these. The Constitution created the foundation for how we live today, more than 200 years after it was written, and the Federalist Papers urged adoption of the Constitution. Together, along with the articles included in this app, you start to understand why the Constitution was written the way it was and what it meant both then and now.
America’s Founding Document: Declaration for iPad
Cost: Free
When it comes to understanding the founding of the United States, there’s probably no better primary source document than the Declaration of Independence. Besides the Constitution, America’s most important document might be the Declaration of Independence, which the colonists used to announce that the 13 colonies would no longer be a part of England and would instead be their own country.
In Declaration for iPad, you can read the Declaration of Independence, see images of the original document, and read about the men who created it and, as a result, helped create America. There’s also a companion app, Constitution for iPad.
Thrilling Tales in the Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome—AudioBook
Cost: $2.99
To understand ancient Greece and Rome, you need to understand their belief systems and their religions. One of the best things about studying those civilizations is getting to learn about their fascinating, fearsome, and funny gods, myths, and legends.
From Hercules and his 12 heroic labors to the winged horse Pegasus, from Apollo (the god of hunting and archery) to Zeus (who threw lightning bolts at people who made him angry), Greek and Roman legends contain some of the most interesting, colorful characters in all of world mythology. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome not only helps you learn about them, but it includes classic art showing them and audio versions of their stories.
Find Fun in the Past with World History Games
Cost: Free
Some people think of history as a subject that’s all about reading dust-covered books or faded old maps. That’s part of it—and I say that’s part of what makes it a great subject; I love seeing and using those old documents—but it’s not all.
Learning about the ancient world is also a lot of fun with this app. It includes more than 100 different games—from arcade games to word jumbles to puzzles—on topics throughout world history. Test your knowledge of ancient Rome, Africa, or Asia, or tackle modern topics such as World War II and learn more by reading the included articles.
Much More Than Mummies—Britannica Kids: Ancient Egypt
Cost: $4.99
The ancient world was dominated in different places and at different times by a number of fascinating civilizations. One that still captivates average people and scholars alike today is ancient Egypt.
From the mysteries of the pyramids to the challenge of deciphering hieroglyphics to mummies’ curses, ancient Egypt is one of the most fascinating and important ancient civilizations. In this app, you learn all about the rulers, culture, nature, and religion of this nearly 3,000-year empire. The app includes articles, photos, games, puzzles, and maps designed specifically for 8 to 12 year olds.
Reading Articles About Egypt
To start learning about Egypt, tap the app on your home screen. Use the call-outs on the figure to navigate the main articles screen.
Music
A good musician is a lifelong student and always practices and tries to learn new things about music. An important part of having that knowledge is incorporating it in your playing. These apps are designed to help you take what you already know and put it to use. Use them to create, record, and share your own songs.
Learn at Your Speed with Amazing Slow Downer Lite
Cost: Free
One way to become a better musician is to learn how to play your favorite songs. You discover all kinds of theory, techniques, and styles by playing the music you like the best. If you’ve got a good ear for music, you might be able to figure out how to play songs by hearing them—if they would just slow down so you can work out certain sections, that is.
This app lives up to its name and helps you do just that. It takes any song on your iPad and slows it down to as much as one-quarter its original speed so you can work out each note and chord. And it does that without distorting the music so you can be sure you’re playing it right. The free version plays the first quarter of any song. To upgrade to a version that can play full songs, make the $14.99 in-app purchase.
Make Music and Podcasts in GarageBand
Cost: $4.99
Music apps on the iPad aren’t just about learning how to play. Sometimes, they’re also about giving you the tools to create amazing-sounding music.
Get an entire band and recording studio in your iPad with this app. GarageBand is a powerful tool for making and recording music, or making your own podcasts and sharing them on the Web. You can use the built-in instruments—from piano to guitar to drums and far beyond—to create songs and then add professional-sounding effects to them. If you already play certain instruments, you can even plug them into your iPad and have GarageBand record your playing. If you like to make music, you’ll love GarageBand—and will use it for years to come.
Improve Your Playing with Pianist Pro
Cost: $4.99
Piano practice can mean a lot of things—running through scales, going over hand positions, playing full songs—but whatever you include, practice is crucial if you want to improve.
This isn’t an app that teaches you how to play the piano, but if you already know how, or are learning, you’ll love practicing and creating new songs with it. Not only can you play Pianist Pro like a regular piano just by tapping on the iPad’s screen, it’s packed full of cool sound effects. Save the music you play on it as CD-quality songs and listen to it on virtually any device that plays digital audio.
Play the Classics in Virtual Sheet Music
Cost: Free
As you get better at your instrument, challenging yourself to learn more sophisticated music becomes important to your improvement. To do this, especially if you’re learning to read music as part of your lessons, you might want to play using sheet music.
In Virtual Sheet Music, you get the sheet music for more than 50 classic compositions by Beethoven and many others. Not only does the app offer sheet music, but its page-turning features are designed to let you use it while you play or practice. You can buy additional sheet music to add to your collection through the app’s built-in store (remember to get your parents’ permission, though).
Downloading and Playing Sheet Music
To get the sheet music for a classic song and learn how to play it, tap the app to open it and then follow these steps:
1. Tap Library.
2. In the drop-down menu, tap VSM Catalog.
3. You can choose to search for a song or composer, or browse by composer, instrument, price, or other categories. Tap your choice.
4. Swipe up and down to view the sheet music available in the category you chose.
5. Tap the sheet music you’re interested in.
6. To hear the song, tap Play. To download free sheet music, tap Download. To buy sheet music, tap Add to Cart. To download both at the same time, tap Download All Media.
7. When you’ve downloaded or purchased the sheet music, tap View to see it.
8. Tap the right arrow at the bottom of the page to begin.
9. Swipe right to left to move through the pages. At the last page, swipe left to right back to the beginning to go back to the page for the music.
Art
Just like with music apps, this year the apps you might want to use for art are more powerful and can help you create even-better-looking pictures. Because these apps are more powerful, they’re also harder to use. But stick with them and they’ll be important parts of your artistic palette for a long time.
Step Up to the Art Table in Drawing Pad
Cost: $1.99 (in-app purchases of coloring books for $0.99–$1.99)
One aspect of making art that many artists enjoy is surveying their tools. This app simulates the experience of sitting down at an art table with markers, brushes, and crayons scattered all over the place and creating something new and exciting on a blank piece of paper.
In Drawing Pad, you choose from a ton of different ways to draw and color, add stickers to your images, or even import photos taken with the iPad’s camera and draw on them. When you have a great drawing, you can save it to your iPad, share it using email and social media, or print it using AirPrint.
Create Dazzling Designs with Meritum Paint Pro
Cost: $1.99 or free Lite version
One of the things that’s pleasing about painting is how tactile it is, how you can feel the paint on your hands and control it with your fingers. When you’re painting on actual paper instead of on the iPad, you can dip as many fingers in the paint as you want and smear them all over your paper.
With Meritum Paint Pro, you can do the same thing when you paint on your iPad. Not only that, it lets you paint with up to five colors all at once for rainbow strokes. You can also pick groups of colors that look great together, and the app even lets you change how the lines you draw with your fingers look by tilting the iPad.
Professional-Level Art Tools Using SketchBook Pro for iPad
Cost: $4.99
The quality of the some art apps for the iPad is amazing. There are apps you’ll buy now that can work just as well for you in grade school and for professional artists. SketchBook Pro is one of them.
It is one of the most widely used art apps; it’s even used by professional artists. It comes with more than 60 prebuilt brushes, pencils, and pens that you can use to create sketches and drawings. Each one of these can be changed and tweaked to suit your vision. When you’re done, save your designs to your iPad or sync them to your computer (see the “Syncing Documents via iTunes” section in Chapter 7, “Using Your iPad for School,” to learn how to do this).
Choosing a Pencil, Brush, or Marker
To create a picture in SketchBook Pro, the first thing you need to do is select what you want to draw with—a pencil, pen, brush, or marker. To do that, open the app and tap the Brush icon, and then you can choose from the customizations shown in the figure.
When the preview shows a line thickness, shape, and color that you like, tap the background to start creating.
Foreign Language
As you progress in learning a foreign language, you continue learning vocabulary, but you also start reading more advanced writing and having more interesting conversations. Check out these apps for lessons on how to have these conversations in lots of different languages.
Spanish/French in a Month HD
Cost: $3.99 or free limited versions
If you’re trying to learn how to really speak a language like its native speakers do, especially if you have a trip coming up, you might need to take a different approach to learning it. Vocabulary lessons might not cut it; you might need to start trying to have conversations right away.
As the name of these apps lets you know, they’re designed to help you learn enough French or Spanish to have conversations in just a month. They take a different approach to learning a language than other apps—they help you learn to speak first and then have you learn the technical aspects of grammar and verb declensions and all the rest later.
Other apps in this series help you learn how to speak Hebrew, Italian, German, Korean, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. Each app focuses on just one language, so make sure to choose the one you’re interested in learning.
Learning Basic Vocabulary
To learn some basic Spanish vocabulary, get Spanish in a Month from the App Store and tap it to open it. Then follow these steps:
1. Tap Lessons.
2. Tap Lesson 1.
3. You see a list of all the words you’ll learn. Tap Go to begin the lessons.
4. The app shows you six pictures with the words for them in Spanish, and pronounces them for you. When all six have been shown, the app repeats one of the words. Tap the picture of that word. When you have matched all six, you move on to the next lesson.
