Best Math Apps of the Week

Wouldn’t it be great to have a few good math apps in our iPad bag of tricks? Here are three that fit the bill:

Math Symbols Free
How do we teach the symbols and integrate them into the four operations of math? Try Symbols, appropriate for ages 8-10. The app is a multiple choice quiz incorporating identification of symbols and math operation questions. If the answer is correct, the word "correct" flashes; if the answer is incorrect, the correct answer is given. This app can be used as a morning "do now," for either the whole class or individuals. Aligns with this Common Core Standard:

Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.
Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.
Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.

Interactive Telling Time-lite Free, full version $2.99
Do you teach 2nd or 3rd grade? Are you trying to find a telling time app to meet these Common Core Standards:

Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.
Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes.
Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.

Try Interactive Telling Time. The free edition offers the following:

  • Learn to set the time via Interactive clocks with movable hour and minute hand! Learn the concept of day and night.
  • Learn how to use AM/PM, 12-hour and 24-hour clock notation.
  • Stop The Clock, an educational game.
  • A score board to keep track of kid’s progress
  • Virtual Aquarium

The full version offers:

  • Learn to read a clock/to tell time.
  • Learn conversion between analog clock and digital clock
  • Quiz Mode
  • Tutorials for young learners
  • Clock puzzle to help kids learn the positions and use of all clock components such as digits, hour hand and minute hand.
  • Languages recorded by native speakers (English, Español, français, Deutsch, 日本語, 简体中文, 繁體中文)

Kidcalc-7-in-one $.99
How can you beat 7 math apps in one? This app is for the iPhone or the iPad and offers these features:

  • Writing numbers
  • Number recognition by sight and sound
  • Quantity recognition with icons
  • Counting forwards and backwards, with voice-overs, by increments of 1, 2, 3, on up to increments of 100
  • Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with operands up to 1000
  • Reading numbers spelled out, up to one thousand

Students with IEPs will benefit with goals such as: identify numerals, read and write whole numbers,solve addition facts, solve one digit subtraction problems. This app also aligns with the following Common Core Standards:

Relate counting to addition and subtraction
Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.