Building My Bank of Math Apps

It's June... what can I say we are all tired, bored and ready for a break but we still have 12 days of school left! So I have been on a quest for some new math apps.  Apps to revive their interest and hopefully inspire them to use over the summer to reinforce the concepts they have learned.


The first new one I found is:  The Counting Game

This app lets you count in a variety of ways, anything from 1 - 10!  It times you and lets you select how you want to practice counting from the menu.  It is a 99 cent app and will be great in my grade one classroom.


The next one I found is:  Jungle Math Bingo



This app lets you choose from any of the 4 operations and has 3 difficulty levels for each.  My kids love math bingo from ABCya so I thought a different twist on an old favorite might be interesting.  If I was only going to buy one, it would be math bingo as it has more games within the app, but like I said I was looking to spark interest and survive 12 days!  Both of these bingo apps are 99 cents!


Finally in my quest for a measurement app: 3 Snakes (thanks Cynthia) and Measurement HD



3 Snakes uses grade one vocabulary such as longer/shorter/longest while asking you questions about the snakes.  You have to use the arrows to change the sizes of the snakes to create what the game asks.  I am sure there is some strategy/skill involved in changing the size of the snakes (I have not yet figured that out), but the kids enjoy the challenge and I like the vocabulary building element of it!  This app is also 99 cents.


Measurement HD teaches 5 measurement concepts:  

• time - setting a clock to the time the app tells you something is happening
• volume - measuring liquids into containers
• weight - using a scale to find what is heavier/lighter
• length - comparing 2 objects looking for long/short
• months - calendar activities to learn the months of the year

This app is $1.99 and I can hardly wait to introduce it to my kiddos!   

Normally I love to introduce free apps since 3/4 of my class have their own idevice.  They often take my app recommendations home and install them on their own devices.  But for $5 dollars, I just introduced you to 4 great math apps sure to inspire your budding mathematicians!  Enjoy!

 

Arithmetic Invaders

We have been using a pod of ipads for 20 minutes a day during math class for a few weeks now.  Each student has a day of the week that is their iPad day.  During this time they can play ANY game in my math folder I have created.  After 2 weeks it seemed to me that all the kids were choosing the same apps all the time.  They were great apps, but I had so many apps that no one was exploring.

One day we hooked the iPad up to the lcd and decided to try out 5 new apps together.  Our great find was Arithmetic Invaders!  It is a counting game arcade style.   As you progress through the levels the counting switches to counting backwards, then to addition and eventually multiplication!  The kids LOVED it!



And it's FREE!
 

Trialing a "Pod" for Math Centers

I  have the opportunity to have 4 ipads in my classroom for 1 hour during my math time in the morning, so this week I have been trying to find ways to use the pod as a part of our daily plan.

So far here is how it works:
Each day 4 students get to be the ipad math students of the day.  They get a "free pass" from doing their math journal and instead get to choose a math game to play from the math folder. All of the games I have strategically placed in there so it really does not matter which they choose (this is a little tricky since 2 of the 4 ipads are not set up the same as the other 2, that's what happens when you borrow!)  The kids LOVE it!  Also,  at the end of our math lesson, some of the fast finishers get to spend time in the math folder.  So in that hour at least 8 kids have successfully used the pod.

Today we explored a "new to us" app.  A colleague of mine said it was her class favorite (thanks Cynthia) and guess what, it was installed on our ipads already:) (One of the many that have been loaded but I have had NO time to explore)!  It's called Hungry Fish!


I introduced it on the lcd projector with my new classroom hdmi adapter!  The little fish has a number on his stomach (which you can set), he then needs to eat bubbles that equal his number.  You need to join bubbles to make the number before the fish gets too skinny and dies.  The more you feed him, the more he grows and the more points you get.  The game has addition, subtraction and negative options!  They were clapping and cheering and extremely excited to write the new app in their agendas, so I guess it was a success!

What other math apps do we use?  Well they have always loved Monkey Math School Sunshine (but it's too easy for this time in grade one).  They also love Math Bingo.  Candy Count has great vocabulary such as greatest and fewest.  Patterns is challenging and meets the curriculum outcomes for grade one.  I use skip counting on the lcd to practice oral counting of sets and many kids love to play during their ipad time.  Finally my son (who is in grade two) LOVES the other monkey math app that introduces multiplication.  We have not used it in grade one this year but it is loaded on my ipad.

How do you use ipads during math and what math apps are your kiddos loving?

 

Monkey math

Monkey Math is a big hit in grade one right now.  It is fairly simple math, definitely review but the grade ones LOVE it and it is extremely appropriate for my daughter in kindergarten and the special needs student on a modified program in our class.

Monkey Math covers almost all areas of the curriculum.  There is a reward tank.  You earn fish and items for your tank with each correct answer.

  
      
The app is recommended for kids aged 3-6.... well worth the 99 cents!

Another great Monkey app I just discovered is Monkey preschool Lunchbox.  It is the same little monkey teaching about letters, numbers, colors, matching, patterns and counting.  This app is recommended for kids age 2 -5, but if they love the Monkey Math little monkey then this guy will capture their attention too!

    

This is our in class exploration tomorrow!