Teaching Table - a math app

Teaching Table ($2.99) is a math app that allows you to create custom lessons using a variety of manipulatives. It was designed by a real classroom teacher working with a couple of developers because she was disappointed in the apps that she had found to use with her students. She wanted a single app that would be versatile and that she could use throughout the school year.

The app contains a very thorough tutorial in how to create lessons, and a series of sample lessons.

Although I think kids will find the app fun to use, it is not a game. It does not contain any advertising.

One very cool feature is that once you have created a lesson, you can share it with anyone else who has the app. You can either email it directly to your colleagues or students, or you can share it through the 'store' in the app. I haven't tried this feature out yet, but if it is easy to use it will definitely make the app even more valuable.

There is a Lite version available for free which allows you to create and interact with custom lessons. The lessons you create in the Lite version cannot be saved or shared, but you can open lessons shared with you by others. To unlock all features, you can purchase the Teaching Table in app upgrade at any time. Even if you can only afford one copy for your classroom, I think it's worth it!

Here is the promo video from the developer:


Disclosure - I received a free copy of this app for evaluation purposes. 

Math apps from iDevBooks

Earlier this year, I downloaded a couple of math apps from iDevBooks for my own kids to use on my iPod. The Long Multiplication and Long Division apps, walk students through each step in a problem, reminding them of what they need to do at each point. They would be ideal to use after a teacher has already introduced these kinds of problems so that students who need some extra guidance can have it without monopolizing the teacher.

They were relatively expensive as far as apps go - $3.99 each (or $1.99 with volume purchase pricing) so I was hesitant when I was recommending  them to a colleague recently who teaches 3rd and 4th grade math. Her reaction was immediate though - "Oh, we NEED these apps!" Right now they are on sale - $1.99, or $0.99 with a volume purchase - but I don't know if/when they will go back  to the higher price.

The apps are very straightforward - the developer himself says that they were deliberately designed without bells and whistles, but with significant attention to how they actually help kids learn. So many learning apps seem to have been designed by someone with no knowledge of good teaching practice, it is a delight to find some that have! Some of the notable features of these apps:

• wrong answers are not penalized
• there are no timers, counters or a sense of rush
• distractions are kept to a minimum
• they can be used by multiple students using the same iDevice because they do not track scores

They are not 'games', but they do give the kids the practice and support they need to strengthen their math skills. So far, I only have the long multiplication and long division apps, but Esa Heltulla, the developer, has created 18 different math apps.

•  Long Division
•  Partial Quotients Division
•  Column Division
•  Fraction Math
•  Long Multiplication
•  Lattice Multiplication
•  Partial products Multiplication
•  Grid Multiplication
•  Column Addition
•  Partial Sums Addition
•  Opposite-change Addition
•  Everyday Column-Addition
•  Trade First Subtraction
•  Partial Differences Subtraction
• Same-change Subtraction
• Left-to-right Subtraction

Coming soon  from the same developer- an iPad app that can be used to interact with and visualize the multiplication tables.

Math apps

I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of the math apps I've found that I think are worth using with students in grades K-5 (ages 5-11). There is a brief description of each app and I am slowly adding the Common Core standards that I think each one addresses. Bear in mind that I'm a language teacher, not a math teacher so please let me know if you find any errors! 

Rocket Math

I'm way behind on posting about the apps I've found, but talking with colleagues at the end of the school year got me inspired again to post about two math apps we were looking at together, both called Rocket Math. They both give kids practice in routine math helping build the automaticity they need with basic math facts.

One is Rocket Math from the developer Dan Russell-Pinson for $0.99. (There is a free version you can try out.) Personally, I didn't particularly like this one very much at first, but a first grade teacher told me that she's been using it with her class and they all love it. You have to complete multiple choice math problems to earn 'money'. You can choose which operation to work on and the level of difficulty. You use your money to build a rocket, which you then attempt to fly into space on a mission that is also math related. Although the math missions start at an easy level (tap all the even numbers) they cover a wide range of topics. There are 56 different missions. The most advanced ones ask students to do things like identify numbers that are divisible by 3, the equations that have a remainder of 1, or the square root of a given number.  This app allows you to save up to 5 profiles for different students. The profile saves the rockets the student has built, along with the info about the maximum height it reached and the maximum score the student achieved on a mission with that rocket. 

The other app with essentially the same name is Rocket Math HD.  Students can work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at three different levels. The first level involves adding single digit numbers, the second is double digit numbers, and the third includes triple digit numbers. Students have to solve four problems correctly and then they can go ahead and try to launch their rocket. The visuals for this reward are great - though I would watch for kids who may choose to get answers wrong in order to see their rocket crash! There is a scratch pad next to the problems so that students don't have to do the math in their head - unlike the other Rocket Math game, this one is not multiple choice. At the simpler level, students could create their own manipulatives to help them with the problems, and at the higher levels they can write out the problems to help them with the necessary regrouping. I'm not a math teacher but the 3rd/4th grade math teacher I was talking to really liked this app. It's not perfect, but the developers have updates planned and it's currently free. Currently (version 1.2) the high score function does not appear to be working, and the settings button does not work.

Neither app has any advertising, neither requires you to be connected to the Internet to play. Both apps have sound effects (which many students like.) Neither has any way for a teacher to check and see what a student has been working on. Students could appear to be working hard but consistently picking the easiest level to work on and not challenging themselves. Still, with free versions of both available right now they're both worth grabbing.

Numbl (and Zen of Ten) - simple math practice

Numbl lets kids practice their addition facts. A number is displayed at the top of the screen and students have to touch numbers in the grid below that together will add up to that number. That's it. No subtraction, division or multiplication. Just addition. The totals the students have to reach can be as high as in the 20s, requiring adding more than two numbers to reach the correct total. There is no way to set the difficulty level of the game to avoid this.

To keep it motivating, Numbl times you and if you achieve a fast time, you can enter your name on the high score list. There are two lists - one for "This iPhone" and the other is a worldwide list (requires an internet connection.) The times on the worldwide high score list are just over 2 seconds - insanely fast, but at least kids can still be challenged locally! There are no personal high scores saved, but if the ipod/iPads are shared between classes, the high score list gives students a way of challenging  kids in other classes.

The game can also be played as a 2-player game, (although then no high scores are saved.) For a class with just a few iPods/iPads this means twice as many kids can be using them at once. Even with only two iPods/iPads, you could have 4 kids use them to play Numbl as a center activity.

Numbl is available in both iPod and iPad versions. At the time of posting, it costs $0.99.




If adding 3 numbers to reach a total in the 20's is too difficult for your students, try Zen of Ten instead. It is similar to Numbl, but the goal is to choose numbers that together total 10. 

Mathtappers

Mathtappers has a series of FREE  (and ad-free!) apps for working on basic math concepts - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as fractions and telling time. Designed by math educators from the University of Victoria in Canada, each app includes a page of advice to the grownups on who this app is most appropriate for (i.e. what the skills the student already needs to have mastered) and how to introduce it to the kids. They have a webpage that also has some helpful information on it. The designers have used tools that teachers often use in the classroom to help children visualize relationships between numbers (e.g., ten-frames & hundred-frames) and master their fact families (practicing groups of facts together). As they say on their website,

"Even a single shared iPod Touch can be enough to make this type of tool useful in the classroom."

Beautifully done! There are many math apps that are little more than flashcards to be used for memorizing facts, or 'drill and kill' activities. Although those have their place, it is important to have apps like these that promote real understanding of the math too!

MathTappers: Estimate Fractions - designed to help learners to build their intuitive understanding of fractions by helping them to relate fractions (both symbols and pictures) to the nearest half (e.g., 0, ½ 1, 1½, 2, etc.) and then to extend their understanding by challenging them to use fraction estimates in addition and subtraction problems. 

MathTappers: ClockMaster - A variety of options available for helping kids learn to tell the time using both analog and digital clocks.

MathTappers: Find Sums - designed to help learners to make sense of addition (and subtraction as a related operation), and then to support them in developing accuracy and improving their speed.

MathTappers: Multiples - designed first to help learners to make sense of multiplication and division with whole numbers, and then to support them in developing fluency while maintaining accuracy.

Math with coins

Obviously, if you are teaching kids to count money and make change you can use real money or the plastic coins that are readily available. Just like so many other activities that can be done on the computer, there are 'real-world' equivalents that are just as good or better.  However, having a digital version can provide a convenient way of motivating kids to do extra practice. For parents, some of these activities can provide a convenient way of practicing working with coins or practicing math skills while waiting at the doctor's or for an older sibling to get done at sports practice.

Crazy Coins (free)
For each of the 28 levels (0 - 27), you have 60 seconds to try to answer as many questions as you can. For each question, you are given an amount in cents and you're to figure out how many of each coin you need to form that amount. The principle is good - but a huge disadvantage to this piece of software is that it does not show the coins. It is not as intuitive as Coins Genius (listed below). It is a free download, but the other software listed in this post are far more useful.

Sticker Shop (Free)
Kids choose a sticker to 'buy' and then have to flick/drag the appropriate coins to the counter to 'pay' for it. The coin pictures are clear and appropriately proportioned, but only show the heads of the coins. If a student checks out without paying the correct amount, they have to start all over again with a new sticker rather than simply correcting the amount of money they've put on the counter. Not bad for free software.

Coins Genius ($0.99)
This is a 60 second game in which randomly chosen coin combinations (5, 6, or 7 coins) are displayed. The child must add up the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters quickly and accurately and select the correct amount. Points are given for each correct answer and penalties are given for incorrect answers. The Top 5 highest scores go on a Leader Board to help track progress and motivate.

Coin Math  ($1.99) is designed for both iPhone and iPad. It covers the following skills

- Learn what a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coins looks like, front and back.
- Learn about U.S. State Quarters.
- Learn how to match coins.
- Learn how to add coins.
- Learn how to add different coins.
- Learn how to pay for items.
- Learn how to make change.

The counting, shopping, and making change activities can be completed at two different levels.  Some activities require the user to be able to read, others do not. Occasionally the activities are not realistic - in the simple make change activity for example, the student might be asked to make change for a $1 item assuming the customer paid $2.

Jungle Coins (iPad only, $2.99)
Sadly, as well as being the most expensive app listed in this post, this app is available for the iPad only. It offers a variety of activities and levels of play, and even allows the user to choose which of several different country's coins they would like to use. 

• Identify and compare coins.
• Count coin value
• Reinforce coin skills by calculating correct change.
• Track progress with your score.
• Multiple levels of difficulty. Start as a beginner with Level 1 - it only presents low denominations for easier coin math. Work your way up to an expert level with all coin denominations.
• Learn gives you an interactive tutorial on understanding each coin. It explains who is on each coin, and lets you flip coins to see both sides.
• Jungle Coins makes it easy to switch to other coin sets instantly and challenge you with unfamiliar coins.