Equivalence tiles app and Which one does not belong?

I stumbled across this free app the other day and downloaded it to check it out.  Although  it is designed to be used by elementary students , it could be used by middle school students who need some help with fractions, decimals and percents.  It has blocks from 1/2 to 1/12 with the equivalent percents and decimals located below each fraction tile.  The space available is the whole unit so if you want students to see 1/2 + 1/3 they can do it but if you want 3/4 + 1/3, you have a problem.  I like that you can use any of the three representations but again it is designed for younger students so it is not an app I would use in the high school.
During warm-ups, I sometimes use a problem called "Which one does not belong?".  I give a list of 4 choices such as xy, x^2z, x^2y, xy^2.  Students then have to justify their choice.  For instance, they might say x^2z because it is the only one with the variable z or xy because neither of the variables is squared.  This gives them a way to justify why they made the choice they did.  The state tests here often have questions which require students to justify their answers and this gives them a way to practice while developing higher order thinking skills.

update on two apps and a new one.

I spent some time going through the Boss T Maths I downloaded the other night.  It appears the one I found are just samplers rather than the full versions. The first one, Expanding and Factoring, shows you how to expand the distributive property or factor it from the expanded form to the original problem.  The examples are for a(b + c),  a(b-c),  (b+c)a and (b-c)a.  The app provides some vocabulary and a geometric representation.  Once you get to the practice problems, you can access the ones for the first examples but the others are locked and  you need to purchase the full priced app.  You can access the first practice problems for factoring ab + ac and evaluating ab + ac.  Again, if you want to any of the other problems you have to upgrade.  I was rather disappointed in that I was unaware of this being a lite version rather than the full version.
The special binomial products is set up in the same manner as the other.  You have to upgrade to access all parts of this app.  I think I could still use this effectively with my students for reteaching or guided practice using the examples.  Although I cannot access all of the practice problems, I can always create problems with the answers contained in a QR code so once my students have finished the problems, they can check their work.
I found a book making app Book Magic.  It allows kids to make their own books.  I can see this being used by elementary students to create books on shapes,  processes,  etc.  The app comes with basic shapes and it also allows the students to draw pictures, import photos or other material.  This is a bit too simple for older students. 

Quizzes and such

I spoke to the school board president this morning about math and the students and ways to help the students who are not college bound prepare for life after school.  Since I am piloting the iPad program for our school,  I told the president that it is a process of my learning how to use the iPad effectively during instruction while helping the kids learn to use it as a tool so that when they leave school, they can work in a technologically heavy world.  He understands that to really integrate the iPads it will take more than one year because I am learning as I go. 
Tomorrow I"ll show him some apps on my iPad for both elementary and high school so he has an idea of what can be accomplished especially with free apps for the  iPads and mini iPads.  The elementary school will be getting mini iPads and I will be overseeing that program. 
I think for the younger elementary I'll be recommending Doodle Buddy for math and reading, the math app from SAS which has a variety of units that are great for K to about 3.  I think the Doodle Buddy will be good for students learning letters, numbers, writing words, and sentences. 
For the high school, I found a test making site  with fewer bells and whistles to use on the ipads.  I can design my own questions, decide the type (multiple choice, fill in the blank, true or false) and then get information on how the students did.  I am trying a short 10 question true or false quiz for my 9th grade Algebra class as a way to see what they already know about scientific notation.  Once done, they will go to a website to read up on the topic and take another short quiz that will give them instant feedback.  I am going to try a fill in the blank exercise from the book with the questions spread around the room (perhaps done with QR codes) and they have to find the answer in the book. 
I'll let everyone know how that goes. 
The reason for the last activity is that my students do not want to read and they need to learn to read for comprehension. 

Two math and one language arts apps

I received a note from NTCM and there was an article on two apps created by the SAS mobile education.  Both apps are for elementary, one math for grades K to 5 to help with number sense.  It is Math Stretch and described as a suite of activities.  I sent the info to a coworker and hope to hear from them.  The other elementary one is Read Aloud that reads a story and the child can follow the story as it is read.  The description states that there are 3 mode, read to me, help me read and read by myself.  I plan to download both and check them out.  I'll report back in a few days with my impression.
On the page, there is the SAS flash cards for high school students.  I want to check this one out as it seems to allow you to add pictures, voice, etc.  I don't know if you need the internet to use the cards or if it stands alone.
So this is one I want to check out for use in my classroom.
Enough for the moment.