Exposing young students to technology is not without controversy. Many teachers believe students should first develop their fine-motor skills on pen and paper before they jump onto computers. Others feel that students already have too much exposure to technology and “screen time” today.

Therefore, it’s important to make sure any tech time we bring into the classroom has both validity and educational value. And of course, it’s important that any educational app is also fun, engaging and age-appropriate. From my experience as a tech coach and as the mother of an 8-year-old boy, here are my recommendations for the best educational game apps for elementary school students.

For very young students who are learning to write, iWriteWords is a well-designed app that leads young nonreaders through the process of letter-making. It’s simple to use — just follow the dots (and animals) and children can learn to write the letters of the alphabet.

Like most apps for kids, it’s bright, clear and colorful, but unlike most apps, it does not have annoying sound effects, which makes it a good fit for the classroom. Because students are forming their own letters, it does work their hand-eye coordination, and if a stylus is used, fine-motor skills can also be employed. iWriteWords has a free version, but the complete app costs $2.99.

Stack the States and Stack the Countries are two apps to help students learn geography, but elements of geometry and physics also come into play. Students are asked a geographical fact about either a state or country (depending on the game). The more correct answers, the more places they collect on their screens, but they have to find a way to stack them so they won’t fall over.

Considering the different sizes of states and countries and the irregular borders most of them have, this is not an easy feat. The questions range from demographics to shape and population and more. These are fun and engaging games that teach students about different places in our world. Each app costs $1.99.

Sparklefish will remind you of Mad Libs, and that’s a good thing. In this fill-in-the-blanks story game, the player is prompted to suggest a bunch of nouns, adjectives or adverbs without knowing how the words will be used in a story. However, instead of typing the parts of speech, students speak the words, and Sparklefish records the audio, crafting an entire story for them to play back.

In addition to learning parts of speech, students can also practice their diction and pronunciation. Sparklefish comes with four free stories; additional packs of five stories cost $1.99, and all stories are $3.99.

At the height of the Angry Birds craze, one app knocked it off the most-downloaded list: Dragon Box. This app is designed to teach children about algebra concepts using gaming. The app has several worlds and levels, and players earn stars for completing tasks quickly and correctly. There is very little in the way of instruction, and players have to figure out what to do by way of cues and critical-thinking skills — but the beauty of it is that the child is learning the concepts needed to solve algebraic equations. Dragon Box costs $5.99.

Want to learn more about educational apps? I highly recommend the website www.iear.org. Started by educators, there are now hundreds of app reviews, which you can easily search by topic, subject or grade level.

Sandy Scragg is an English teacher and instructional technology specialist at Emma Lazarus HS in Manhattan.