Hold the home button as suggested, until the apps appear, don't just tap it once.

When I hit the home button, all the icons come up. I was told that I have to go to manage apps, then go to running apps, and click on the ones i don't want and then hit stop. Seems like a pain, since I'm not sure which apps are ok to close.

Hi sandy. Hold the home button and the list of open apps will come up. You will then have the option to close them by swiping each one to the left.