Five Terrific Apps to Support Number Sense, Grades K-4
Author: Rick Phelan & Kelly Matteri
Published: 10.02.14
Number sense is key to the development of mathematical skills in the early grades. It encompasses the ability to count accurately and competently, to start counting from a specific number, and to count backwards. Number sense also involves the ability to see relationships between numbers, take numbers apart, and put them back together again.
Students apply number sense, along with addition and subtraction, to describe quantities and relationships. To complement traditional counting and sorting activities, teachers can employ technology to help guide and support development of these areas. This blog post highlights five terrific apps that can promote number sense among students in grades K-4.
Bugs & Buttons by Little Bit Studio
iOS and Android | $2.99 | Link
Bugs & Buttons is an engaging learning app aimed at Pre-K and Kindergarten children. Learners can select from 18 different activities. Some of the activities involve realistic-looking bugs, while others involve interesting and beautiful buttons. Number sense is encouraged through actions that require sequencing. Other activities encourage development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. When mistakes are made, friendly narration alerts players and encourages corrections.
Zoom by Motion Math
iOS only | $2.99 | Link
Zoom is a fun and engaging resource that develops number sense, concepts of place value, and understanding of base 10 number systems. It features interactive number lines that students manipulate to locate given numbers. The intuitive pinch gesture on iOS devices allows students to navigate among concrete animal representations that signify abstract numbers (e.g., dinosaurs represent thousands, rhinoceros represent hundreds, dogs represent tens, and frogs represent ones). The student “pinches in” to narrow the number line or “pinches out” to enlarge the number line. Hints and scaffolding help students who are struggling. Twenty-four levels are offered to include tens, hundreds, thousands, negatives, decimals, and timed trials. Students learn to locate integers, negatives, and fractions on the number line and build automaticity in comparing numbers.
Slice Fractions by Ulub
iOS and Android | $2.99 | Link
This app focuses on fractions and presents the math concept in a series of slicing puzzles that are similar to two other popular apps, Cut the Rope and Fruit Ninja. The goal of Slice Fractions is to break up chunks of ice and lava to clear a path for a wooly mammoth walking in the forest. Slicing up the chunks is not as easy as it first appears. The student must use hanging blocks suspended on ropes to blow up ice and lava on the ground. The challenge is to figure out which ropes to cut so that the blocks fall and demolish the obstacles in the mammoth’s path. The puzzles start off easy and gradually increase in difficulty. Children receive input from the Wooly Mammoth’s expressions as choices are made and the game progresses.
Questimate! by Motion Math
iOS only | Free | Link
Questimate! helps students develop curiosity about magnitudes and comparisons. It has hundreds of questions that encourage thinking questions such as:
- How many giraffes would be as tall as Mt. Everest?
- How fast is the world’s fastest train?
- How many jelly beans would fill up a soccer ball?
Students make estimates, then receive feedback on their responses. They learn to make “ballpark” numerical estimates quickly and with reasonable accuracy. Questimate! also empowers students to formulate interesting questions (even if they don’t know the answer), then progress toward understanding. This app is a great tool to help support development of number sense, mathematical reasoning, and viable arguments.
Lightbot
iOS and Android | $2.99 | Link
There are a growing number of apps that teach children how to program or “code.” Coding can be an effective way to support key mathematical practices from the Common Core State Standards, including number sense, reasoning, attention to detail, and perseverance. Lightbot helps young students learn to code with programming puzzle games. Players guide their Lightbot with commands that light up tiles and solve levels. Players gain practical understanding of basic control-flow concepts, such as procedures, loops, and conditional commands. Forty different levels of activity are provided.
Kristi Draluck, a kindergarten teacher at Prestwood Elementary School, makes the following observations about coding with young students:
“Students can grasp concepts easily and quickly. There is no language barrier. They work independently and collaboratively. They learn by doing, by trial and error, and through hands-on experiences. It ties into the Common Core State Standards ideology beautifully. They love completing a level and solving the problem or writing a program! There is great pride taken in their accomplishments. It develops self-esteem. Coding develops patience, perseverance, and commitment.”
All these apps can work well in different teaching situations. Teachers can use them as part of formal lessons with one device projected on a screen and shared with a whole class. Small group and individualized activities also work when a greater numbers of devices are available
Blog: Technology for Learners
