Mathematics

Over the last ten months since I launched iPadApps4School.com I have reviewed a lot of mathematics apps that are appropriate for elementary school students. These are the ten that have been the most popular over the last ten months (based on total clicks and shares through social media).

Sushi Monster is a free iPad game produced by Scholastic. The purpose of Sushi Monster is to provide a fun environment for students to practice their addition and multiplication skills. This is the premise of Sushi Monster; students feed their Sushi Monsters by correctly choosing two numbers that when added or multiplied result in the number that the monster wants to eat. When the monster has been fully fed students move on to feeding a new monster.

Fizzy’s Lunch Lab Fresh Pick is a free iPad app from PBS Kids. The app is based on the popular PBS web seriesFizzy’s Lunch Lab. The purpose of the app is to challenge students’ math and problem solving skills. The app contains eight challenges for students to try. Students can go through the challenges in any order that they like. The eight challenges for students are Buying Groceries, Grocery Mapping, Neighborhood Mapping, Pantry Hunt, Fizzy’s Invention, Customer Change, Find Freddy, and Food Matcher.

Math vs. Zombies is a free iPad game with a spooky theme. The game is has three virtual worlds each containing ten levels of basic math problems. The object of the game is to correctly solve as many math problems as possible before the zombies catch you. The math of the game is basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If you’re comfortable having your students play math games that have a zombie theme Math vs. Zombies offers engaging practice activities. Tap to Learn, the producers of Math vs. Zombies, offers a few non-zombie math games if you’re looking for something else to try on your iPad.

Matchmatics is an iPad app that presents mathematics puzzles in the form of matchsticks laid out on a canvas. The challenge of Matchmatics is to move one matchstick to make an incorrect equation correct. Points are awarded based on how quickly you can correct the equation. The puzzles get progressively more difficult as you work through the app. Matchmatics has a timed mode and an un-timed mode. The full version of the app costs $0.99 USD. The free version of the app contains ten problems that you can try before upgrading to the full version.

10monkeys is an iPad app that elementary school students will enjoy using to practice their multiplication skills. The premise of the game is that students have to free the monkeys by correctly answering multiplication questions as quickly as possible. Students earn points for accuracy and speed. As students progress through the game they progress through the multiplication tables of two through ten. The last level mixes up problems from all of the previous levels. 10monkeys provides multiplication tables as references for students to use when they get stuck on a level. 10monkeys doesn’t offer anything that many other multiplication game apps offers, but it is a lot of fun to play. Give it a try, I think your students will like it.

4 Dice is an iPad app designed to help students learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. In 4 Dice students are shown a fraction and they have to drag four dice into position to complete the arithmetic that will result in the fraction that they were shown. It’s kind of like the Jeopardy concept applied to fractions mathematics. There are five modes in 4 Dice. There are the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division modes as well as a challenge mode that randomized the problems. At any point in a series of problems students can pause and use the whiteboard to work out possible solutions to a problem. 4 Dice is currently priced at $1.99

The 5 Dice app presents students with a number that they have to write an equation for using all of the dice presented to them. When students think that they have created an equation that will result in the number given to them, they click “shoot” to hit the target number. If students have written a correct equation, 5 Dice will show them other equations that will also work. If they have not written a correct equation they will be prompted to try again. 5 Dice is currently free.

Marble Math is a fun mathematics game for kids to play on their iPads. The game has students practice basic multiplication problems through a maze layout. Students are given multiplication problems to solve by rolling their marbles through mazes that contain the correct answers. Students have to avoid the incorrect answers while moving their marbles toward the correct answers. Some of the mazes contain additional obstacles to avoid while searching for the correct answer. Students earn points for each maze they solve. When they reach 2,000 points (ten-fifteen correctly solved mazes) students earn a new marble. Marble Math is available in three versions. Marble Math Lite only offers multiplication problems. Marble Math Junior offers addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication problems. Marble Math includes fraction problems, decimals, and negative integers.

Todo K-2 Math is a free iPad app for young mathematics students. The app offers timed mathematics practice problems for K-2 students. When a student opens the app they select a grade level and an allotment of practice time. The practice time allotment choices are six, eight, and ten minutes. Each allotment of time is broken into smaller chunks for students. In the Todo K-2 Math practice activities students respond to prompts by either dragging numbers from the number chart to the answer space. Alternatively, students can write numbers into the answer space. If numbers are not written correctly, Todo K-2 Math will not let students submit their answers.

Math Champ is a neat system of two apps working together to deliver math challenges to your students’ iPads. The Math Champ Host app is the app that you use to create classes and select questions to use in the quizzes that your students take on their iPads. With the host app you control when quizzes become active. The host app also lets you see how students are doing on the quizzes. The Math Champ Client app is the app that students use to take the quizzes that you are pushing out to them. Students can compete to see who will become the “math champ” in your classroom that day.