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Maths Apps for Younger Children
Quick Maths Jnr mixes many skills in one app. I had included Quick Maths in my previous post. In Quick Maths Jr you have to subitise, count by 1 (forwards and backward), complete simple addition and subtraction tasks and practice your formation of numerals. Basic tools such as number lines, ten fames, regular and irregular dot patterns are used in playful ways and the games change around quickly to hold your interest and you collect items to dress your avatar in as you complete the games. You can also have more than one player profile which is useful if your iPad is shared.
Counting Caterpillars is a beautifully made app that allows young children to practice their counting in three different ways - by 1s to 100, by skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s while the third level mixes these together. The premise of the game is a simple one - children need to catch aphids to feed to the hungry caterpillar. I like this game as it doesn't just focus on the numbers to 20 allowing valuable practice to 100.
Subitise Tree allows practice at being able to see a number of items at a glance. Children aged three begin to subitise as many as three items - 'I see three cookies on the plate' so by school age should be able to see as many as five or six items without having to count them. While I found the voice over in this app slightly annoying, the kids loved it. I do, however, love the choice of objects you get to play with ranging from hands, counters, dice, dominoes, ten frames and several other commonly used math tools.
Tap The Frog is a popular app with plenty of mini games to entertain. Some of them are also great practice for beginning math concepts like subitising, more/less and counting to 10. You try to beat the clock each time which helps improve processing speed in some children.
Fingertips is one of the Natural Maths app which is similar to the board game connect four. Simple sums drop down from the top of the screen and you have to answer them correctly for the block to change colour to red. Connect three red blocks in a row to win. A fun app for practicing addition, subtraction and multiplication with three different levels to match the user. You can increase the difficulty to make it more challenging.
Motion Math Zoom is based around a number line which can be used to support learning numerals between 1-20 with younger children but can be used to place numbers up to 1000
as well as negative numbers and decimals to the thousandth. I love how the developer has used different animals and insects to frame the number line so you can zoom in and out to locate both smaller and larger numbers along the number line.
In Operation Math, children can complete a series of challenges as a spy that has to crack a number of sums to complete the mission in time. You can select the type of sum from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or combinations of these. This app provides great fluency practice but my wish would be that children could choose their agent. Currently, they only have a white male as their choice of character.
Everyday Mathematics Equivalent Fractions uses a card game similar to solitaire to reinforce equivalent fractions. Players must try and match the fractions on two cards showing any fraction from halves to twelfths. The game ends when all the cards are matched or no more pairs can be made. You can not change the difficulty of the game to select only certain fractions to pair so this app could be frustrating for younger players.
Mr Thorne's Addition SpaceStation is aimed at children as young as five but with it's three different difficulty levels, can be used up to 10-11 years old. It has 42 different mental maths tests practising addition and counting on which begin with simple concepts like 1 more but include adding doubles, near doubles, fractions, decimals and worded problems. My older two have enjoyed the variety of the tasks while being able to collect their own space stations along the way.
Attributes by Math Doodles is the newest offering from Carstens Studio. The app has seven different puzzles which require children to sort items by various attributes - same shape, same colour. You can shift the difficulty of the puzzles or enter the marathon challenge of 70 different puzzles.
Tap The Frog is a popular app with plenty of mini games to entertain. Some of them are also great practice for beginning math concepts like subitising, more/less and counting to 10. You try to beat the clock each time which helps improve processing speed in some children.
Multi-Aged Maths Apps
Scratch Jr we love! It's a great introduction to coding and I have used it in maths and geography lessons this year at school with my class. It's like programming a Beebot if you've had a chance to play with one of those but without the hefty price tag or batteries required. You have to build a line of code to make a character move around the screen. You can use the app's backgrounds or use a photo of your own. It's been great for working on prepositions, location in math and maps in geography. A must have app!
Another must have app for Australians would have to be Aussie Kids Count Coins. Featuring Australian coins (used with permission of the Royal Australian Mint), the app has six different games showing how money can be used - buying items, making change in a shop, counting out pocket money, comparing amounts and adding up amounts mentally while you serve customers at a lemonade stand (7 cups of orange juice at $0.80 each) which had my 9 year old stopping to think of her timetables. You can change the settings to play with either coins or notes for older learners too.
Sushi Monster is a multi levelled game that allows children to practice their number bonds and reasoning as you need to plan ahead to ensure you have correct dishes left to choose from your sushi bar. Colourful fun.
Shape Lab allows students to play with shapes - drawing them and manipulating them on screen. It does take a bit of practice but you can slide, flip and rotate shapes. Snap them together to make new shapes or split them to find their line of symmetry. You can also take and use photos to find shapes in the environment which has been a crowd pleaser at school.
Fingertips is one of the Natural Maths app which is similar to the board game connect four. Simple sums drop down from the top of the screen and you have to answer them correctly for the block to change colour to red. Connect three red blocks in a row to win. A fun app for practicing addition, subtraction and multiplication with three different levels to match the user. You can increase the difficulty to make it more challenging.
Motion Math Zoom is based around a number line which can be used to support learning numerals between 1-20 with younger children but can be used to place numbers up to 1000
as well as negative numbers and decimals to the thousandth. I love how the developer has used different animals and insects to frame the number line so you can zoom in and out to locate both smaller and larger numbers along the number line.
In Operation Math, children can complete a series of challenges as a spy that has to crack a number of sums to complete the mission in time. You can select the type of sum from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or combinations of these. This app provides great fluency practice but my wish would be that children could choose their agent. Currently, they only have a white male as their choice of character.
Maths Apps for Older Children
Time is difficult to grasp for many children so I was certainly pleased to find Quick Clocks.
It allows children to practice telling time on both Analogue and Digital Clocks which you can set to 12 hour or 24 hour time. You can adjust the difficultly level to use whole, half and quarter hours. Older children can find the difference between two clocks and compare/convert digital and analogue time. Quick Fractions is also by the same developer.
Everyday Mathematics Equivalent Fractions uses a card game similar to solitaire to reinforce equivalent fractions. Players must try and match the fractions on two cards showing any fraction from halves to twelfths. The game ends when all the cards are matched or no more pairs can be made. You can not change the difficulty of the game to select only certain fractions to pair so this app could be frustrating for younger players.
Mr Thorne's Addition SpaceStation is aimed at children as young as five but with it's three different difficulty levels, can be used up to 10-11 years old. It has 42 different mental maths tests practising addition and counting on which begin with simple concepts like 1 more but include adding doubles, near doubles, fractions, decimals and worded problems. My older two have enjoyed the variety of the tasks while being able to collect their own space stations along the way.
Attributes by Math Doodles is the newest offering from Carstens Studio. The app has seven different puzzles which require children to sort items by various attributes - same shape, same colour. You can shift the difficulty of the puzzles or enter the marathon challenge of 70 different puzzles.
Doodle Numbers we've just started to look at. It's aimed at children in year 2-5 and you get to try a range of different questions (number operations (whole, fractions, decimals) measurement, angles, shapes, money, perimeter and more as part of the assessment stage. It reminds me a little of Mathletics which is a subscription program which the full verison of Doodle Maths is too. You can subscribe by month or pay a once off fee. Doodle Maths then promises to select the work most appropriate to the child after the assessment stage to target their strengths and weaknesses.