Fourth graders have a lot to learn as they fine-tune their skills in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. Sometimes, the trouble is that it’s hard to get them to do the necessary practicing. These apps add gaming touches to the skills work they need. Check them out!
Free Learning Games
Swift Playgrounds
Apple – Free
These built-in lessons teach all kids what they need to know to begin coding in Apple’s Swift language. Once they know, there will be no stopping them! The lessons introduce the concepts, then players can work their way through engaging puzzles to apply what they have learned. The cute characters and engaging puzzles will keep them coming back for more, and before you know it, your fourth graders will be zooming along learning important concepts about computer language and about logical thinking and more.
The app also includes a glossary of critical terms and the capability to step through the code line by line to troubleshoot. Code is sharable across a number of platforms and gives kids the groundwork to use the same coding language like the pros who develop apps for the App Store.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy – Free
Khan Academy shows exactly how powerful digital learning can be. Nearly anyone can learn nearly anything on this platform. Khan Academy offers content for learners of all ages, with a variety of types of lessons and practice activities. It’s great for review and great for working ahead to keep the magic in learning.
Khan Academy is based on an extensive website, but the app will help students learn on the go. Just do a quick search for the topic and level as needed, and have at. It truly does put an entire school full of teachers at your fingertips.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Color Uncovered
Exploratorium – Free
This interactive ebook will get kids interested and teach them nearly everything to know about color. It’s chock full of information, articles, videos, optical illusions, and more. What fourth grader won’t be intrigued by learning why friends shouldn’t let men buy bananas or find out how Monet is like a honeybee. Tackle impossible questions like “what color is a whisper?”
Best of all, the app includes capabilities to do your own color experiments, both digitally and out in the real world. The learning seems endless with this fascinating topic.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Artsonia
Artsonia – Free
After creating an account on the related website, teachers, parents, and children can upload digital photos of kids’ artwork for their network to see and comment on. It’s a great way to share artwork and to save a digital record of the masterpieces.
In addition, artwork loaded into the system allows kids to enter art contests. The app even includes a fundraising component that could support additional art class supplies.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Games for Logic & Coding
Hopscotch-Programming for Kids
Hopscotch Technologies – Free with in-app purchases
Hopscotch offers a nice mix of learning to code with taking off the brakes and letting fourth graders exercise their creativity. There are enough tutorials to get things started, and the app connects to a community where kids can see what others have created.
Kids will be most enthused about their newfound ability to actually code games. Turn them loose and see what they will come up with! The app offers a free 7-day trial, then monthly subscriptions cost $7.99 and an annual subscription is $79.99.
Thinkrolls: Space
Avokiddo – $3.99
Using logic and thinking skills that will eventually be needed for academic success and for coding, kids can help the oddball aliens achieve their goals. Fourth graders will have to think their way around, over, under, and through puzzles of increasing complexity and difficulty. They’ll also need to string together a series of actions to accomplish new goals.
The app features two difficulty levels and over 200 puzzles to puzzle through. There are 24 different aliens to unlock, so always something to look forward to. No internet connection is required, and each level has unlimited retries, so frustration will be minimized.
Games to Strengthen Academics
Marble Math
Artgig Studio – $3.99
Parents and teachers can customize this math app to include practice in basic computation and fact fluency, fractions, factoring, decimals, adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers, and more. It’s keyed for Common Core concepts and perfect to meet your fourth grader right where he or she is at and move them forward.
Move the marble through the maze and answer the math problems that are presented along the way. Kids can earn new marbles and other incentives as they go, and have fun as they play.
4th Grade Learning Games
RosiMosi LLC – Free with in-app purchases
This app includes 18 different learning games that cover most of the grade 4 curriculum. Kids can practice crucial math, reading, writing, and science lessons in this gamified space. Games that teach fractions, multiplication, phonics, reading, geometry, life science, and more are included.
The free version of the app offers 2 games for free so you can test things out. If you like what you see, you can purchase access to all of the games with a simple in-app purchase of $3.99.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Rainbow Sentences
Mobile Education Store LLC – $7.99
Fourth graders do more and more writing, and building solid sentences is foundational. Give your child the tools needed to knock the socks off of writing assignments with this fun app. It uses a color-coding technique to guide students from the short, choppy sentences of childhood to the flowing, interesting sentences of more mature writing.
The app includes 168 pictures to write sentences about and offers 6 levels of difficulty. The interface is an intuitive drag-and-drop system that anyone can master. Best of all, kids will want to keep playing to earn puzzle pieces. The puzzle pictures come to life when completed.
Manic Math
Bica Games – $1.04
Players match pairs of numbers and operations to target answers. Just how do you make 54? This app is perfect to help fourth graders fine-tune their computation skills and fluency with math facts. It will also get them thinking about inverse operations and many of the more challenging concepts in the area.
Individual users can focus on whichever operation(s) need attention, so the app is suitable for all levels. It also keeps records to help teachers or parents see which operations and combinations are strong and which still need work.
Games to Build Creativity
Word Creativity Kit – Creative Writing for Kids
Gebo Kano ehf – $4.99
Open a vast world of words with your fourth grade writer. This app will encourage each of them to think outside the box, to play with words and with visual design, and to let their imaginations fly. Users are presented with a list of random words, then they can add and change them, can manipulate the words’ colors, sizes, shapes, fonts, and positions. The tool really lends itself to visual creativity as well as creativity with words.
The app also gives Siri the ability to read the words chosen or included, so even struggling readers can enjoy it. It also offers the capability to change the inflections and tenses of the words so that everything ends up sounding exactly right.
Writing Prompts
21×20 Media, Inc. – $1.99 with in-app purchases
Help your fourth grader unleash his or her creative power and thwart writer’s block with this prompt generator. The app dishes up snippets of scenes, characters, descriptions, and more to start the story of all stories. There’s also a built-in database of over 600 prompts accessible offline. You can save your favorites, too.
This app allows users to switch to a different app (say, a text app or word processor), then return to exactly where they were in the prompt list. This is particularly helpful for kids who are having some trouble keeping their train of thought on track when writing. There are also four additional prompt packs available for ninety-nine cents each as in-app purchases.
Toca Band
Toca Boca AB – $3.99
Explore music with 16 cool characters, each with a different personality, sound, and rhythm. Kids will quickly discover that moving the band members around the stage changes the way that they play, so there are literally endless possibilities for making music. This app has no rules and no goal other than to have fun with sounds.
Parents and teachers will be very pleased with the child-friendly interface and the fact that there are no outside advertisements or in-app purchases. Kids can play as much as they like and will never encounter anything questionable.
Mixerpiece
Guiseppe Ragazzini – $2.99
Fourth grade artists can experiment with combining and repositioning elements from classic works of art to create something totally new and unique. There are over 200 pieces to work with. Tap and hold each piece to read details about the work of art where the piece came from, so there’s quite a bit to be learned about art and art history, too. And the app takes advantage of some of iOS’s unique features. For example, shaking your device will rearrange the parts into a brand new configuration.
Parents should be aware that the app does offer opportunities to post work in the online gallery for all to see, and the capability to send pictures as “postcards” to others via email.
Pixton Comic Maker
Pixton Comics Inc. – Free with optional purchases
Pixton is an outstanding comic/graphic creation system that encourages students to be creative with book reports, posters, presentations and more. It takes the need for art skill out of the equation by providing posable characters with a myriad of facial expressions, props, and backgrounds. Kids can add speech bubbles and text lines, too.
The app has the option to purchase additional sets of characters, props, and backgrounds for $10.99, or a subscription model where users can pay a monthly fee and download new sets each month. There is a website as well, and creations can be stored in an account, then accessed on multiple devices.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Minecraft
Mojang – $6.99 with in-app purchases
Minecraft is an open sandbox game that is hugely popular with kids in a wide age range. Players can move around their virtual world and create and build almost anything they can conceive. There are multiple modes of play, including a creative mode and a survival mode. There are even third-party lesson plans and other ways to incorporate it into classroom situations.
This game costs $6.99 to download and is quite complete in and of itself. The in-app purchases are primarily “skins” for $1.99. There is also an option to purchase the Realms monthly subscription for $7.99 that can be used by up to 10 people. Parents should be aware that there are ways for players to contact other players over the internet, though the game can function well without a data connection.
iOS App Store / Google Play Store
Games Just for Fun
Crazy Machines Golden Gears Lite
Encore – Free with in-app purchases
Fourth graders are masters of silliness, so they will love this Rube-Goldberg-type activity. The challenge is to create a machine to accomplish the given purpose. There are 60 parts to choose from and 8 free puzzles to start you out. The crazy devices will have kids rolling with laughter while they learn about physics.
The full version costs $2.99 and includes over 40 puzzles built-in as well as a “level editor” that allows users to create and share their own unique puzzles. There are also options to purchase smaller sections of the system for ninety-nine cents each.
Gesundheit!
Revolutionary Concepts – Ninety-nine cents with in-app purchases
This puzzle and maze game is tricky for any age group, but the gross-out factor will really appeal to fourth graders. The main character is a stinky, mucky pig, and one of the main features is snot. And would you believe pigs can fly? How can you lose?
Users can purchase keys to individual maps and the hidden bonus levels for ninety-nine cents each, or buy the whole bundle of keys for $1.99. This award-winner boasts 4.7 of 5 stars on the App Store, so definitely worth a look.
Land of Venn-Geometric Defense
iMagine Machine Israel LTD – $2.99
Evil Bookenriders, magic pools, ancient knowledge…fourth graders won’t even notice they are practicing geometry skills when they play this fascinating tower defense type game. Reviewers rank it right up there with Plants vs. Zombies for fun value.
Don’t tell them, but they will also be learning about quadrilaterals, rhombuses, and a host of other critical fourth grade geometry concepts while they play. They’ll be too busy to notice, but you will see a difference when those ideas come up in math class.
Mancala
Sergey Skosyrev – Free with in-app purchases
Now fourth graders can play a digital version of an ancient game. Mancala has been popular for hundreds of years with children and adults. This game is simple, yet requires a great deal of strategic thinking. The object of the game is to move the marbles around the board most quickly and clear your side.
This highly-rated game pits players against a computerized opponent. Additional features can be unlocked with an in-app purchase of $1.99.