These free apps offer fun ways for elementary/primary grade students to practice their math fundamentals.

We checked out a bunch of free math games for the iPad that can help younger students reinforce their math basics, focusing only on those rated 4 stars or better. There are quite a few of these.

As of this morning, there were 92 apps that come up by searching the App Store for “math games” that are free and have ratings of 4 or higher. We ranked them by popularity and then tried a bunch of the popular ones, looking for apps that provide good functionality for free (as opposed to the many ‘free’ apps that are really just teases to buy a full version). Here are five that we liked (some of these do have fuller versions or companion apps that you have to pay for, but the free versions here offer useful gaming without requiring registration or fees).

My Math App Flashcards (link here): This is a great application, providing flash card style testing for multiplication, subtraction, multiplication, and division, with “Starter” and “Advanced” verisons for each function, making it useful across a wide range of grade levels.

Math Puppy (link here): This app has 2 games and a calculator. Math Bingo is a simple bingo style game (complete a row of correct answers and win) and Math Challenge prompts the user through consecutive sets of questions, up multiple levels, with difficulty increasing along the way.

Multiplying Acorns (link here): This is a cute, straightforward game in which you select two digits to multiply together, and then have to select the correct answer from several choices. The multiplication is represented pictorially in the form of acorns, to provide visual learning support. You can select a maximum high number for use in the game (up to 9), to make it more age/grade appropriate.

Motion Math: Hungry Fish (link here): This was fun – you drag bubbles onto each other to add up to a desired total and then the fish eats them! A simple straightforward game that young kids will enjoy. The more advanced version (which you have to pay for) provides subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Factor Samurai (link here): This is better geared towards higher grades than the apps above, as it requires awareness of prime factors, but it was so much fun to play I wanted to include it. There are three levels, and the lowest level is worth trying for students learning multiples of 2 or 3. As numbers fly on to the screen, you tap on those that are not prime, to break them into factors. If a number breaks into a factor that can be broken down further, click on it to break it down again. Give it a try (older students or adults, try the “Apprentice” or “Master” levels!).

Since these are free, and require no registration or special set up, these apps are quick and easy to download and take for a test run (and then simply delete if you find that one is not to your liking). If you have young students that you would like to try these apps, download a few and take ‘em for a spin!

Do you have some favorite free math apps you can share with us? Please comment and tell us about them!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Using The iPad As A Digital Whiteboard (Plus 4 Cool Free Apps To Try It Out)
Five Fun Free iPad Apps for Elementary School Teachers And Students
The year of the iPad in Education: they’re being distributed in more schools every day.

These free applications provide a wide variety of engaging learning opportunities for young students (and you can’t beat the price).

The Apple iPad is becoming more popular in our schools every day (just check out this EmergingEdTech video to appreciate how quickly the iPad is gaining hold in our schools). It’s really a great tool for the younger student, with its ease of use and touch screen functionality. In addition to the thousands of education related apps out there for a price, there are a lot of applications available for free.

I spent a few hours this weekend downloading and trying out apps and ultimately selected these five to share here. These apps do not require any registrations, and are quick and easy to download and check out. Two of these are freebies that hope to encourage you to purchase a higher end version, but what they offer for free works great, and the other three are entirely free with no other expectations. Enjoy!

Preschool Memory Match
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/preschool-memory-match/id368542467?mt=8
This is your standard memory match game (flip tiles two at a time, looking for matches), and it comes in 4 levels of complexity from Easy to “Super Duper Hard”. The game uses mostly pictures of animals and provides and displays and pronounces their names, which provides additional learning opportunities.

Times Table Quiz
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/times-tables-quiz!-multiplication/id441001315?mt=8
This is a rudimentary, but very useful app that tests students skills with math times tables. The app presents random multiplication questions from the spectrum of times tables from 2×2 to 12 x 12, providing 4 possible answers in multiple choice format, and you keep going to see how many you can get right in a row. When you guess an incorrect answer, it stops and tells you the correct answer and you start over. This is geared towards later grades, as it does not allow for setting the level of the times tables – it just mixes the full range.

Trainyard EX
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trainyard-express/id348724199?mt=8
This application is great for the younger grades, as it guides the student slowly through a smooth learning curve with an increasingly complex task of designing a path for one or more trains to get point A to point B. As you progress through successive successful completions of the game it gets more complicated, working it’s way up to some pretty involved challenges!

BrainPop’s Featured Movie
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainpop-featured-movie/id364894352?mt=8
BrainPop is a powerful application, with a wide range of functionality in its relatively inexpensive paid versions, but they provide the Featured Movie feature on their iPad app for free, and elementary school teachers might find it worth using. Students can watch a different animated movie each day, then test their knowledge with an interactive quiz. The movies are well done short animated clips on a wide variety of subjects, providing a fun, engaging way to learn.

Amazing Shape Puzzle Lite Version
http://itunes.apple.com/app/amazing-shape-puzzle-lite/id469339346?mt=8
This app has three free puzzles that can be fun and educational for younger elementary school students.  The app works in English, Spanish, French, and German and provides Word Learning opportunities in addition to developing concentration, memory, and cognitive skills. 

 If you know of other great free iPad apps for the elementary grades, please comment and tell us about them!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
10 Excellent iPad Applications for Teachers
Do You Know About The Many Free Resources For Education Available from Apple?
Using The iPad As A Digital Whiteboard (Plus 4 Cool Free Apps To Try It Out)

As summer kicked off in the last few years, I’ve been sharing tips and tools to help young students hone schools skills while having some fun. We learned about these 10 games in 2009, and these tips for keeping math skills in shape over the summer break in 2010.

It’s time to add some fun new ideas for the summer of 2011!

Here’s a set of free online game sites for young kids, that can be fun and educational. Most of these sites offer games that are appropriate for K through 6, with a few offering some games applicable to students in grades 7 and higher (Thanks to my son Dylan for his help putting this list together.)

Knowledge Adventure (http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/)
“Knowledge Adventure has been making educational games for kids for over two decades. Working with child experts, developmental psychologists and educators, it produces games loved by parents and children alike. The fun educational games created by Knowledge Adventure have won many awards, including the iParenting Media Award, the Toy Man Award of Excellence and the National Parenting Seal of Approval, to name a few. Here is Knowledge Adventure’s collection of one hundred fun, free online educational games for kids.”

Learning Games For Kids (http://www.learninggamesforkids.com) 
“Educational games are a great tool for building foundation math and language skills that today’s elementary school curriculum requires. These online learning games and songs for kids are fun, teach important skills for preschool and elementary school kids and they’re free. Want educational games that help build skills in math, language, science, social studies, and more? You’ve come to the right place!”

Multiplication.com (http://multiplication.com)
“This site contains the techniques, tips, and secrets used by master teachers!”

Play Kids Games (http://www.playkidsgames.com)
“Play Kids Games provides free online kids games that are both fun and educational. Aimed at ages pre-K through middle school, Play Kids Games offers kids a safe environment to discover their abilities and learn new skills with interactive and fun computer games.”

Hooda Math (http://hoodamath.com/games)
This site contains math games organized into three sections: Geometry Games, Arithmetic Games, and Logic Games. The Hooda site also contains a variety of additional resources for math teachers and students.

4Kids.org (http://www.4kids.org/games)
“Take a break from your homework and kick back with these fun games from Arcademic Skill Builders! Click a game button below to play.” Site contains many games, grouped into these categories: Language Arts, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication & Division, Fractions and Ratio Games, Angels & Coordinates, and ‘Fun Stuff’.

Math Playground (http://www.mathplayground.com)
“Welcome to Math Playground, an action-packed site for elementary and middle school students. Practice your math skills, play a logic game and have some fun!”

If you want to share some sites you like that aren’t in this list (or on the earlier posts), please comment and tell us about them. Thanks!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, , you might want to check these out):
10 Free Educational Game Sites
12 Great Resources To Help Keep Student’s Math Skills Sharp Over The Summer
PowerPoint Jeopardy in the Classroom
Fun tool for the classroom – simple Crossword Puzzle maker!

Innovative and inexpensive application also has an English As A Second Language mode.

6th grade teacher Buzz Garwood has been a friend of EmergingEdTech almost since it’s inception, and he’s developed an innovative iPad App for education that I wanted to share with my readers. Stick Pick is the first app of its kind to allow teachers to tie leveled question stems to the cognitive or linguistic needs of each individual learner.

How It Works
It starts with a teacher naming an on-screen soup can (i.e. the class) and filling it with popsicle sticks that represent the students. Teachers then choose a category of question stems that they wish to target for each learner: either “higher order thinking”, based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, or “English as a Second Language” skills. The degree of difficulty for each learner can be set individually.

Once a class is set up, teachers draw a student’s stick from the soup can with either a “swipe,” “tap,” or a “shake.” and a customized set of appropriate question stems appear on the screen. Teachers can then scroll through these question stems until they find one they would like to form into a complete question. After a student answers a question, teachers will either mark the student’s stick as “used”, which sends it to a “used” soup can, or reset the stick, which places it back in the “new” can.

Assessment
This is accomplished by touching the “assess” icon and then tapping the corresponding “correct,” “incorrect,” or “opinion” button. Teachers can then rate each student’s answer by selecting 0-5 on a Critical Thinking rubric (for the higher order thinking question stems) or an Elaboration rubric (for the English as a Second Language question stems). Student data is automatically saved within the app and can be conveniently e-mailed to the student’s parents or the principal by pressing “Send.”

Features
Stick Pick’s features include:

• Three modes: Bloom’s; Bloom’s Revised; and ESL (English as a Second Language)
• Question stems match the needs of each learner
• Over 140 cognitive and linguistic question stems
• Swipe up, tap, or shake device to call on a student
• Option to “peek” into a can and deliberately pick a student by name
• Over 140 cognitive and linguistic question stems
• Track each student’s answers (correct, incorrect, or opinion)
• Rate each student’s response on a 0-5 point Critical Thinking or Elaboration rubric
• Each student’s answer and response is logged and averaged
• Capability of storing up to 12 classes, with up to 50 students per class
• Easily “copy” an entire class (with or without scores)
• Works in both Left and Right Hand mode

Where To Get It
Stick Pick is available here (in the iTune Store) for just $2.99 per license.

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
10 Excellent iPad Applications for Teachers
Virtual Labs – Award Winning Virtual Dissection Apps
Someday students will carry a tablet computer instead of books (it’s just a matter of time)

These online resources provide plenty of great ways for students to stay on top of their math skills, or to build on them, over the summer.

This is the kind of thing I really love about the Internet - easy to access and use sites and tools, many of which are free, focused on a specific need. The need in this case is the desire to keep student math skills from deteriorating over the summer months. These resources can also be leveraged to enable students to build on their skills sets and get ahead of the curve for the material they’ll be tackling in the fall.

Free Online Educational Game Sites
Most kids love playing online games – what a great way to entice your children to work on their math skills while having some fun! There are so many game sites on the ‘Net, and many of them are free. In this post last year, I provided links and information about 10 of these free site. Here’s a few games sites that have math-specific sections (each of these sites also has games covering different academic areas as well):

• Funbrain’s Math Arcade (Grades K through 8): This popular site from Pearson Education features 25 different math games, customized to your skills level (grade).
• FunSchool Kaboose Math Games (Pre-K through Grade 6): 33 Math Games here. Click on over and check out Action Fraction, Farm Addition, Fishing for Numbers, Monster Numbers, and more.
• Sheppard Software’s Math Games (Grades K through 8): A couple dozen games here, grouped into 8 sections including: Basic Operations, Fractions, Telling Time, and Pre-Algebra.

Free Online Video Tutoring
There seem to be countless free video tutorials on the Internet, for just about any subject you can think of – a quick Google Search will generate a slew of results to investigate. I hope I’ve saved you some time by providing these three sites that are all about education and are loaded with math tutorials:

• Free math tutorials from Brightstorm.com: Hundreds of well produced videos, delivered with a highly functional interface. Categories include: Algebra, Algebra 2, Calculus, Geometry, Pre-Calc, and Trigonometry.
• The Khan Academy (1000+ free tutorial videos): Salman Khan has earned engineering, computer science, and math degrees, and he could be pulling in a sweet salary from gainful employment in the corporate world, but instead he quit his day job in Sept 2009 to record educational videos for his self-started Kahn Academy. His non-profit organization has a mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere (I wrote this post in march about Mr. Khan’s impressive work). To view tutorial math videos, just scroll down the home page for a subject of interest – these include very advanced topics such as Linear Algebra and Differential Equations.
• WatchKnow’s Math Videos: There’s over 2500 math tutorial videos on this site, grouped into hundreds of subcategories, ranging from ”For Youngest Learners” to Calculus (86 Calculus videos). Learn more about Watchknow.org in this post, or just click through and check it out for yourself.

Online Math Help & Tutoring Resources
I wrote an article listing 15 Online Math Help and Tutoring Resources in December of 2009, including 9 paid resources and 6 free ones. If you’re willing to invest a little money in staying sharp this summer, click over to the article and check out the great sites listed there. For free help, here’s some of the free resources cited in the article:

• CliffNotes.com: The Cliff Notes web site provides free study help in many math areas, including advanced topics.
• Coolmath.com: This colorful site provides lessons for arithmetic, pre-algebra, and algebra.
• Math.com: There really is a Math.com? Yes, there is. This site provides some free practice and review resources. They have a lot of ads, but that’s often the “price” of free.
• Onlinemathlearning.com: This site provides helpful explanations and illustrations of math concepts in a wide range of math subjects. Some of their help pages include instructional videos.
• Webmath.com: This site allows you to enter equations and have it solve them and show you the solution! The automated problem solver may include some irrelevant information, but the sophistication of the site, at no charge, is pretty cool. The site covers a wide range of math subjects. I used it with some of my son’s 7th grade algebra homework, and it was spot on.

A great way to have some fun and reinforce learning in the classroom (or at home).

Over the long holiday weekend, I made it a point to have some fun with my kids, and the idea came to me to search online to see if I could find a Jeopardy game that would allow me to create my own categories and questions. I found the documents below on the James Madison University web site (thanks JMU!), which let me easily create a Jeopardy game using PowerPoint.

It took a little time to come up with 50 answers and enter them in the templates, but the result (playing the game!) was a lot of fun. It’s easy to envision this being useful and fun in a classroom setting, for students old enough to be comfortable with the “answer and question” format (probably grades 4 – 12+). 

Some considerations to keep in mind would include:

• Be a little creative about breaking out of the three-player structure, to let everyone enjoy the fun, or create small groups to create and play their own games.
• Plan how you will simulate the “buzzer” - that is, how you will decide which player gets to respond to each clue first (we went with the first to put up their hand after the question was asked, but there was a fair amount of squabbling over who was first each time, and whether someone put up their hand before the question was finished, etc.).
• Presenting this through a projector would be nice, or on an Interactive Whiteboard.
• Be sure to have a Final Jeopardy question prepared (there is no template for this).

The web page with the templates and simple instructions is here: http://www.jmu.edu/madison/teacher/jeopardy/jeopardy.htm. PowerPoint Templates are provided for the ‘regular’ Jeopardy round and for the ‘double Jeopardy’ round, along with some supportive documents.

[ED NOTE: As of Aug 2011, the above template link isn't working any longer, so I dug up a few others:

Go ahead – take a couple minutes to give it a look, and consider trying it in your classroom, it could be fun!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
7 Free Online Educational Game Sites (Help Kids Keep School Skills Sharp During Summer)
10 Free Educational Game Sites

These free sites provide students an opportunity to learn in a fun, interactive environment.

I searched out and visited a bunch of sites with free educational games and selected the ten I thought were most useful and appropriate to education. In addition to a brief overview of each site, I have also attempted to define the grade range that each site is applicable to. I made my own judgement for most sites since it often wasn’t indicated (feel free to weigh in if you think I’m off target on any of these).

Most of the sites listed here are geared towards K-12 (with many leaning towards K-6 or so), but some do have fun games that will challenge the Higher Ed student and adults as well. Take one for a spin today!

Funbrain (Grades K through 8): This popular site from Pearson Education features ‘Arcades’ specific to Math and Reading, along with the ‘Classic Funbrain’ games such as Math Baseball and Grammer Gorillas. Funbrain also has resources specifically for teachers, organized on this Teacher’s home page.  

Discovery.com’s Games (Grades 3 and up): Dozens of activities, organized into 4 categories: Games, Quizzes, Puzzles, and Interactives. This is a high quality site, and it was recommended by several instructors in my children’s classes. I enjoyed trying out some of these games, and the site is part of the overall Discovery.com site, which is rich with informative and fun content.

Sheppard Software (All Ages): This site provides a wealth of free games, puzzles, quizzes, and more. An impressive, rich resource of fun educational games and activities. No registration required. I have to say that I personally enjoyed this site quite a bit, partaking in quizzes, completing puzzles, and checking out the many resources there. 

FunSchool (pre-K through Grade 6): If you go to the Parents & Teachers section on this site, the games are grouped by Preschool, Kindergarten & 1st Grade, 2nd & 3rd, and 4th and 5th. The site offers more than 300 interactive games and activities that are fun and easy to use. Activities include matching numbers and shapes for preschoolers and geography, math and history for third through sixth graders.

National Geographic Channel’s Games Site (Grades 3 and up): This site features a variety of games and interactives and leans towards various science and history based adventures and activities, rather than the traditional subjects-specific types of games on many other sites. There’s a lot of cool stuff here, like Fossil Hunts, Journey to the Edge, Rhino Rescue, Monster Fish of the Congo, Earth in Balance, and How Taboo are You?

PrimaryGames (Grades K through 6): Lots of fun games here, covering common subjects like Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and more.

Educational Games on NobelPrize.org (Grades 6 and up + Higher Ed): As stated on the site, “These games and simulations, based on Nobel Prize-awarded achievements, will teach and inspire you while you’re having FUN!” This is one of the more high end sites in terms of the level of content. Challenging fun for middle school students, high schoolers, college students, and adults.

Prongo (pre-K through middle school): The games here are divided by age level (3-6, 6-9, 9-12). This is a fun site with a dozen or more games in each category.

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Childtopia (pre-K to 6): This site has versions in 5 languages, and 9 categories of activities, including Games, Learn to Draw, Listen and Reading Comprehension, Learn to Draw the Numbers, and so on. It appears to be predominantly Spanish based on the ads that surround the playing area. There is a premium version that eliminates ads and provides a full screen interface for just $12/year.

Karooba (Grades 3 and up) : Karooba is a “social and gaming site that is focused on education”, featuring canned and custom developed Quizzes, Trivia and more. You really have to register to get the most out of it.

I hope readers find some of these sites useful, and have a little fun checking them out!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
PowerPoint Jeopardy in the Classroom
Fun tool for the classroom – simple Crossword Puzzle maker!
The Khan Academy (offering 1100+ free tutorial videos)
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This week’s mid week post is a little lighthearted – this is a fun little tool I came across (thanks to Buzz Garwood and his blog at thisweekinedtech.blogspot.com). This tool will allow you to create a simple crossword puzzle by plugging in a bunch of words and clues. The result isn’t exactly NY Times worthy, but it works, and you might find this to be a fun tool to create a topic-specific crossword for your students, or to let them create one.

Create your own simple Crossword Puzzle at: http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/

I’m sure this isn’t the only such tool on the Internet – comments about others you may have used are welcome. Thanks!