Lessons for Math
Elementary School ~ Grades 2-4
TimesTable
This app includes flashcards which would help students to learn their multiplication initially and then to get faster with their math thoughts. There is also an apple orchard that visually demonstrates skip-counting and a variety of timed and scored drills for multiple players. The multiple players allows the students to collaborate with other students as well as to work at their own individual level if need be. This is a multi-functional tool as the students have to input their answers, so as the teacher, you can see if the student understands how to write the numbered answers or look at their handwriting on the written questions. The last element I would see as very useful would be the ability to print out multiplication tables worksheets so the students can see the multiplication patterns as well as answers. This app is found here.
Intro to Math
This is the bare bones of math that would most likely be used in an elementary or earlier class. This app is intended to teach students how to read and write numbers 0-9, sequence numbers, to tell odds from evens, to solving problems. I think this is a great way to help students understand 'math thinking' by beginning to think about solving problems. Each lesson is guided and includes challenging activities. The guided interactive activities would be great for teachers to look at new ways of introducing different topics and provide different activities for each step. This app then goes further to introduce students to number symbols and their units and different sequences, order and spatial relationships of numbers. There is even an interactive activity called 'Red Rods' in which the student come to understand length by arranging the rods from longest to shortest. As a teacher, you could do this activity in the classroom by providing different lengths of popsicle sticks the students could arrange. The students can then be challenged the when they understand to include different shapes and ask them to again put them in a certain length arrangement. The app can be found here.
Motion Math
This app is for learning fractions. The players move fractions to their correct places on the number line in order to put it into its rightful place. this app is designed to teach students how to understand the value of fractions, how to estimate where they would fall on a number line and how to evaluate different fractions in multiple forms. I would use this app to teach the students how to use fractions as well as how to use the same denominator in order to evaluate the different fractions. I would then use the first app TimesTable to make the flashcards with a variety of fractions on them in order to increase the knowledge of common fractions. The app can be found here.
Math Drills
This mathematical app teaching the students basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It has a variety of levels so that you could do this with very basic numbers for Grade 1 or 2 and then the more challenging numbers for Grade 3 and above. This could take the place of some assignments such as MadMinutes as this app has personalized scores which would reduce a large amount of barriers to different skill levels. This would also reduce stress that these type of assignments could cause to some students as there are different settings such as time limits or a students can work at its own pace and it records how fast the student went. As a teacher this could be easily incorporated into a lesson as the scores and test histories are also recorded (yes this is one less thing to mark !) I could also use the basic task like division for example to teach the older grades that they can use math to figure out the value of basic fractions. For example 1/2 = 0.5. This could be used as a starting point to introduce the use of basic calculators or percentages all building off these basic math drills. This app can be found here.
Telling Time
This type of app uses a bit of different math to figure out how to teach time. Telling time is to be introduced in Grade 1 or 2 but with this app you can break down the lessons into tell the full, half and quarter hour. The app includes an iPad version where the students can touch the correct time as well as move the hands which are different sizes to get them used to the minute hand and hour hand. Also, the teacher can add their voice to tell the time they want the student to find or tell the student which time they are to make on the clock by moving the hands. If the student incorrectly answers the command it doesn't interfere with game play, they can try again right after. This keeps from discouraging the students that need a little extra practice. As a teacher I could incorporate this by just using it as game trying to introduce this to young students and maybe just introduce the whole hour or half hour. I would then challenge the older students to use the quarter and possible introduce them to the 24 hour clock. This fun app can be found here.
Kids Money
This app puts all the basic skills from the math apps above and puts them to use. One game includes putting in how much money you need to buy a toy for example. The student then has up to 3 scenarios to try and get up to you total purchase price. Some input examples include money from allowance, job, helping you neighbour or gift money. This would teach the students addition by adding all the money scenarios together and see how much money they have right now. They could subtract this from the total to see how much more money they need to get the toy. This is what I would use this app for with the younger children but for the older children you could challenge them more. Saying that if you get allowance 4 times a week for a month the student could use their multiplication in order to figure how much money this would result in after the month. The student could then figure out if their total was a certain amount, how much money they need to make each month through division in order to get to their total. The older students I would also introduce the change that would be given back if they happened to go over their total and how to count back their change. In a teachers class I sat in on, she made a mock store for the students with fake money. The fake money was earned by handing in their agenda to be checked, meeting their reading times that month and little classroom things like that. At the end of every month she had a small basket of little toys and trinkets that the students could 'buy' with their money. This taught the students that if there was something they wanted they could save their money from a few months and get a bigger prize or they could get a prize each month. I think this is a great way to educate students about the worth of money as well as the math of money. The app is available here.