In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Hopscotch lets you enjoy the process of building games while learning the fundamentals of coding!

“Coding” may sound a bit dry and daunting to some newcomers, but those are the last things that come to mind while using Hopscotch. The app lets you have as much fun making games as playing them, and with its colorful, friendly interface and stacks of help and tutorials, kids (and grown-ups!) can build all kinds of apps—while learning the fundamentals of programming.”

Platform: iOS
Grades:Upper Elementary – Middle School
Cost: Free, has in-app purchases

Their website allows you to see and play games created by other users, which is pretty cool. They also have an Educator page which includes free lesson plans.

Fractus Learning has this article about the app that includes some specific ways to incorporate it into your teaching, and also links to further activities for educators to use.  This article from Teacher Cast gives several tips for teaching with the Hopscotch app.

Watch this very quick trailer to see some of the fun games you can play and create with the app: