by Leah Neiman
During the preteens and teens years, it’s important we show our kids how to use their smartphones as a tool for learning and productivity. While some parents might argue digital devices can be a big distraction, the flipside is this is the perfect time to introduce your child to great apps that will be useful study tools and help them gain strong skills.
Below, you will find 15 great apps for kids in Middle School. Many of these apps aren’t specific to middle school students only. Instead, they’re selected because they meet topics and skills needed for many students in this age range. Some of these apps teach kids how to manage their time and organize assignments. These are important skills for kids to develop. And, they’ll learn their smartphones are for more than just texting and social media!
#1 MY STUDY LIFE
Recommended Ages: 10+
Middle school is quite different from elementary school. Students in middle school typically have a different class and teacher each hour and are expected to have good time management and organization. My Study Life is an awesome app that works as a school planner. It allows you to keep track of all your assignments, class times, homework, etc! If you’ve overlooked an assignment, it will give you a reminder that it’s due soon, or that it’s past its due date. My Study Life has over a million downloads, and is a favorite among students!
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#2 MAGOOSH VOCABULARY BUILDER
Recommended Ages: 12+
This app works as an amazing vocabulary builder! In middle school, students are expected to rapidly grow their language development, and this app makes it fun! An expert tutor will choose words for you based on your current vocabulary level, and will give you examples of the word in a sentence, an auditory pronunciation, and will even track your progress. As you beat levels, it unlocks new words. The app also gives you free access to Magoosh’s other help quizzes for the GRE, SAT, ACT, and the TOEFL as well!
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#3 WORDS WITH FRIENDS
Recommended Ages: 8+
Words with Friends is a Scrabble-like game that will have middle school students building their vocabulary in no time! Add your friends and challenge them to games. As your vocabulary increases, your points will get higher! Much like Scrabble, you are given a certain number of letters that are randomized. From those letters, you must use your turn to place a word on the board, connected to the other words already on the board. There are double and triple letter and word spaces to increase your points as you go! Play as you have time, so you don’t need to just sit and play for long periods of time. Tons of fun, and it’s safe!
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing:
Yes
#4 GARDENANSWERS
Recommended Ages: 11-adult
GardenAnswers is perfect for those middle school plant projects. Most middle school students have to procure a leaf or flower collection, and this app is a perfect way to make that task a little easier! Take a picture of a plant, and it will give you all the information you need on it. Using the app will take the guess work out of those tough plants that can be hard to decipher. It’s quite comprehensive and thorough for a free app.
Note: The terms of service for GardenAnswers state users must be 13 years or older. The app is rated for 4+ in iOS and for Everyone in the Android store. The app does offer in-app purchases. Be sure your child knows your family policy on in-app purchases.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing:
Yes
#5 US CAPITOL GROUNDS
Recommended Ages: 8+
Many middle school students also take a trip to Washington D.C. at some point with their school. Make their trip a little more memorable, and a little more educational, with the US Capitol Grounds app. It’s an interactive app that will give you tons of information on all of the memorials and history of the US Capitol Grounds.
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing:
Yes
#6 ALARMY
Recommended Ages: 10+
Middle school is when most kids begin to learn to wake up on their own, and take responsibility for planning their day. Alarmy is one of the top alarm clock apps, and for a good reason! You can set it to require a certain picture to be taken before it turns off, or a math equation to be solved, or a password typed in. It also provides the weather for the day to help kids responsibly plan their day appropriately. Make getting up just a little more fun by allowing them to use an app!
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing:
Yes
#7 MADLIBS
Recommended Ages: 9-11
The MadLibs app is just like the traditional game, but on your Android or iOs device! It is fun, but also teaches kids important English foundations through funny stories and games. Teach them to quickly recognize and call out the difference between an adverb and an adjective, or a pronoun and a verb. There are a ton of free packs that come with the game, or you can purchase additional packs in-game.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#8 NOTE FIGHTER
Recommended Ages: 9-11
Note Fighter teaches you to play along to popular classical music pieces. It integrates learning to read music with visual recognition. Fight with each note and work through a traditional sheet of music, with a steampunk style twist! Each level will have you working on sight-reading notes, or keeping up with rhythm lines on famous songs from Beethoven, Mozart, and more. Some songs come with the game, for free, but there are in-app purchases for additional songs.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#9 STACK THE COUNTRIES
Recommended Ages: 9-11
Oftentimes middle school students need to learn the countries of the world. This can be a daunting task, because the world is a big place! Stack the Countries is a fun and interactive game that will teach you the countries in no time with a fun game! You will also learn the capitals and relative sizes of the countries as well!
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#10 QUIZUP
Recommended Ages: 12+
Have fun quizzing yourself, or playing against friends, with the QuizUp app. It covers everything from Disney trivia to geology and history! Show off what you know and learn new things with this fast-paced and exciting app! Rack up points and keep track of how many times you’ve beaten an opponent. Fun for play, and learning!
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#11 A+ WRITING PROMPTS
Recommended Ages: 10 & up
Your middle school student can gain an endless supply of writing inspiration with this handy app, which includes writing prompt generators perfect for student use. The generators use a variety of elements, including scenes, current events, words, sketches, colors, genres, and writing types, to help your young writer get over their writer’s block. All they need to do is shake their device or swipe the screen to get a new prompt. If they see one they like, your child can easily add it to a favorites list for use at a later time. This education app is jam-packed with creativity, including:
- Five prompt generators (scenes, sketches, texts, words, and news)
- More than 1,250 scene elements, 2,000 words, 460 sketches, 60 colors, and 80 genres
- 600 text prompts using an assortment of phrases, quotes, writing exercises, and story starters
- Multitasking support that allows them to easily shift between apps while working
In App Purchases: No
Supports Family Sharing:
Yes
#12 FLOCABULARY
Recommended Ages: 8 & up
With more than 900 educational videos teaching a variety of subjects, your students will have a blast learning everything from language arts to current events. This fun app uses storytelling and popular music styles to help your middle school student strengthen their vocabulary and expand upon the subjects they’re learning in school. Subjects included in the app are language arts, math, science, social studies, life skills, vocabulary, news and current events. The app is loaded with educational features, including:
- Hundreds of educational videos and lessons
- A glossary to help your child build their vocabulary by researching key terms
- A challenge activity associated with each video, where the student must match definitions to the correct word
- Lyrics activities for each educational video
New users can try the app for free for one week and will be charged a monthly fee for access to the app after the trial period is up.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#13 GEOMETRY PAD
Recommended Ages: 8 & up
With Geometry Pad, students can create geometric shapes, then explore their properties and calculate their metrics. Each shape created has a set of properties (color, width, background, etc.) that can easily be customized to suit your student’s needs. Your middle school student can expand upon their geometry studies through the use of this app’s wide selection of tools, such as:
- Tools to create medians, altitudes, and bisectors in a triangle
- Tools to create special triangles and quadrilaterals
- Two ways to create an ellipse
- A compass tool to plot arcs
- A pencil tool for freehand drawing
- Text annotations and labels
- Transformation tools (rotation, reflection, enlargement, and translation)
The app has the ability to create and measure a variety of shapes and other geometric properties, like points, angles, lines, rays, segments, perpendicular bisectors, tangents, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, arcs, sectors, circles, ellipse, parabolas, and hyperbolas.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#14 SCRIBBLENAUTS REMIX
Recommended Ages: 10 & up
Your kids will have a blast helping Max solve word problems while also expanding their vocabulary in this popular educational app. The best part about this unique problem-solving game is that it allows your middle schooler to use their imagination to invent some truly amazing creations – from a shy, robotic monkey to a pink flying car. Casual players can create imaginative answers to each of Maxwell’s riddles with extensive replay options and unlimited solutions to each question, creating hundreds of different possible outcomes. The more intense gamer may want to traverse through the levels, which grow harder and more specific as the game progresses. Either way, your student will probably have so much creative fun, they won’t even know they’re learning new words along the way!
Features:
- 50 gameplay levels, with the ability to purchase 90 extra levels through the app store
- Playable avatars
- Sharable pictures, so your child can help their friends solve the game’s puzzles
- Scribble Speak, which allows your child to create objects using their voice
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
#15 BOX ISLAND
Recommended Ages: 9 & up
Take your middle school student on an exciting adventure, while also learning to code in this fun game that asks them to apply the basic rules of coding (algorithmic thinking, pattern recognition, sequencing, loops, conditionals, and debugging) to traverse through the challenging game. Featuring amazing 3D graphics and 100 levels, Box Island uses an exciting story to keep kids engaged as they learn to code. The first 10 levels of this fun coding game are free and additional levels can be purchased through the app. The app also features a coding tutorial specifically designed for the Hour of Code campaign, which is suitable for children as young as 6.
In App Purchases: Yes
Supports Family Sharing: Yes
Leah Nieman has been speaking to parents and teens about technology, social media, and parenting for the past 10 years. She’s a popular speaker who offers sessions, advice, and resources so parents can raise kids with a healthy perspective of technology and social media. You can find her eBooks Connected: Apps All Parents Should Know, Quick Guide to Parental Controls for Kindle, and Connected: A Parent’s Guide to Snapchat, as well as tips on technology and social media at leahnieman.com.
