From initial charges that ‘it;s just an overgrown iPhone’ the iPad is now part of many teachers’ and schools’ essential kit.

But it’s fair to say that while Apple has created a beautiful, robust and powerful piece of kit finding the best apps on the App Store can be a challenging experience.

So I asked everyone on Twitter for some advice on what th best apps were out there, and @narthernlad came back with so many suggestions I’m going to split them over a couple of posts!

Here are some suggestions for literacy apps to try with your students. If you have any other suggestions for a great iPad literacy app, I’d love to hear them. Just add them in the comments below.

 

1) First Letters – Match the letters and listen to the song. Teaches the youngest children phonics

2) ABC Alphabet Phonics – A simple game where children locate the correct letter

3) Story Ideas – Can you guess what this one does? A slick new app.

4) Comic Touch – Make your photos go all cartoony warping images and adding speech bubbles

5) Toontastic - A great little app that allows children to create characters, settings and their own cartoons

6) Chicktionary - As the blurb says ‘Unscramble a roost of letters and create as many words as possible’.

7) Puppetpals HD - Create your own puppet shows with animation and audio in real time

8) Hangman - An oldie, but a goodie!

9) Word Search Kids – Again, no prizes for originality here, but still lots of fun

10) StoryKit - Create your own electronic storybook

11) Adventure Books – Trying to encourage your boys to read? Who could resist an exciting adventure?

12) Storyrobe - Create and share digital stories

13) Verses – Poetry, Poems and Poets – Fridge magnets with a 21st century twist!

14) Sparklefish - Another iPad version of an old favourite, complete a story in turns then see what you get.

15) Sock Puppets – Create and share your own lip synced videos

16) Alphabet Tracing – A fun series of animations to help children learn to form letters

17) Pocketphonics - A highly rated phonics app that covers letter sounds, letter writing and first words

18) Bluster - A vocabulary building game from McGraw-Hill

19) Learn to Spell – Reception – A nice looking app that does exactly what it says on the tin

20) Sentence Builder – Designed to help young children build gramatically correct sentences