Most schools assign summer reading. But summer math practice? Not so much.
With school just around the corner, our kids could all use an arithmetic refresher course. A little bit of late summer math prep can make the first math class of the year seem way less frustrating. Of course, you don’t have to sit down with a book of worksheets and a pile of pencils. There are plenty of math apps that offer solid practice, managing to transform math from an intimidating school subject into the basis for fun new challenges. Even apps without numbers help kids prepare for math, so long as they inspire problem solving, spatial reasoning, and logical thinking.
Below, find ten of our favorite Parents’ Choice Award winning math apps, sorted from the most basic to the most challenging, which will lead to classroom success and, hopefully, a lasting love of math. For more, visit our previous list of smart math apps.
Numbers with Nemo
This beautiful app is ideal for beginning learners who are building familiarity with numbers, including basic counting and number writing skills. It plays a bit like an eBook, in that the familiar characters from the story talk to the player with on-screen text highlighting to help early readers), and then encourages counting to different numbers by tapping on items on screen. The user can say the number (recording voice for playback) and practice writing as well. Players can do one-to-one comparisons (dragging a drink to each fish, so that 6 fish characters get 6 cups of punch), order numbers from 1-9, and start building familiarity with what each numeral means. (full review)
Motion Math Hungry Guppy
Motion Math’s Hungry Guppy is a fine app for young kids starting to establish an understanding of numbers. It offers multiple representations of numbers (numerals and dots, for example), and provides a challenge that our five-year-old tester felt was ‘just hard enough’. (full review)
Motion Math Wings
In Motion Math’s Wings, you tip the iPhone or iPad to gently guide a flying bird towards the number that is the greatest. In the beginning, your bird must choose between 5 blocks or 25 blocks, for example. As it gets more difficult, the player must visually determine which is largest from different sets, comparing for example sets (two sets of four versus 2×8). In doing this, your child learns how to think of numbers in sets, and “see” numbers, rather than just the numeral representing the number. (full review)
Marble Math Junior
Marble Math Junior is a fun game for children to practice sequencing, addition, and counting. Children guide a marble through mazes filled with numbers and obstacles. The challenge is either to collect numbers that equal a given sum, to collect all examples of a given shape, to collect numbers from smallest to largest, or to collect them from largest to smallest. (full review)
Montessori Geometry
Les Trois Elles’ Montessori Geometry features an electronic version of Montessori’s Geometric Cabinet, which is a series of puzzles each focused on a particular shape or type of shape (e.g. circles, squares, and curvilinear shapes). Once children have an understanding of the two-dimensional shapes, they can begin working with their respective three-dimensional forms, the Geometric Solids. Before you know it, children will be amazing you with shape names such as trapezoid, parallelogram, and isosceles triangle. (full review)
Bloxy HD
Bloxy HD is a digital recreation of real world play with a certain type of plastic building block. Players enter an environment with unlimited bricks of all the basic styles and colors (and even a moderate range of textures), and there they can build to their hearts’ content. (full review)
Math Doodles
Daren Carstens, the Math Doodles designer/developer, narrates a brief introduction to this app. He tells users that when he was in school, math just looked like squiggles to him, and during math class, he’d just doodle. When he grew up, and realized that there actually was a place for doodles in math, the subject became fun, and he never looked back. Once the mini-intro is complete, users are transported into playful, interactive math lessons. (read more)
3rd Grade Math: Splash Worksheets Games
3rd Grade Math: Splash Math offers convenient math practice in an easy-to-use app. The app uses a traditional worksheet format which, while not unique, will be easy for parents to match up to their child’s homework for targeted skill practice. Parents can choose which skills they would like their children to practice from a settings menu, and they can select the difficulty level for questions in each category. Skills range from place value and addition through geometry and probability. At the bottom of the screen, there is a handy “scratch pad” feature, where children can work out problems before choosing an answer, just as they can when completing actual pen and paper worksheets. (full review)
Move the Turtle: Programming for Kids
Move the Turtle by Geek Kids is a modern version of Logo with updated graphics and a turtle that actually looks like a turtle-the line drawings left behind are the tracings of his tail. The language is greatly simplified, with menu-driven, customizable commands and limited storage for data, but as it allows sections of code to be saved and repeated (through global variables, procedures, loops, and conditionals, for those familiar with programming) it still can result in fairly complex illustrations. The game offers a series of tutorial challenges, beginning with simple actions to move the turtle and draw a line (in one of four colors) and building up to creating procedures for mathematical factorials and using library functions to draw flowers. (full review)
5th Grade Math: Splash Math Worksheets Game
Math applications seldom go beyond basic arithmetic, and those that do tend to have a single focus (e.g., fractions) that makes the application of limited appeal. 5th Grade Math: Splash Math goes much further, offering advanced arithmetic, fractions, algebraic expressions, volume, metric conversions, and geometry. Problems range from fairly basic to very challenging. The app offers sets of 20 problems at a time, rewarding players for successful completion of problems with fun games. Splash Math keeps statistics on individual users and can email the parent to allow easy tracking of a child’s progress. (full review)
The post Play with Your Math: Math Apps for Back to School Math Practice appeared first on Read More. Play More. Learn More. Brought to you by Parents' Choice Foundation.
