Let me start off by saying I love educational video games. I truly believe they are a great way to reinforce and practice skills. That being said, they have to be used right. If you have an average third grader playing an addition game of adding ones, they are not going to be getting anything out of it but the play. The content needs to topics they need to practice on. It should not be too easy for them or so hard it is frustrating.
Math facts are an excellent topic for video games. Math facts need to be memorized. It can be done with much more enjoyment with games. I have a few sites I have tried with my students.
The program we have been using for years is Math Facts in a Flash. With all the other free options out there, I think I will change. Math Facts in a Flash gives students a set of problems. When they are done, they are shown the amount correct, ones missed, and the time they took. If they answered them all correctly in under two minutes they move on to the next level. It is very dry and doesn’t motivate most of the students. So, I was searching for math fact practice games that are motivating and help students memorize their facts.
Looking over the blogs from my PLN I got some excellent ideas. Tomas gave me the idea for XtraMath.com. This looks like a great alternative to Math Facts in a Flash. It is motivating with not a lot of playing. It would be good for our class math fact practice time.
I also wanted some games that were more fun for other times. Multiplication.com fit the bill for this. This site has many different games that practice multiplication facts. The one that the students like most is called “Snowy’s Friend.” The first think I liked about this game is you can pick which facts you want to work on. You can work on just one, like all the x7 facts, or you can choose more than one. I like this because I have my kids learn the facts by taking on one number at a time. They know which one they are on and can work on that one on this game.
In this game, the player is a snowman that is going along having to jump over things to get to the end. Every few seconds a multiplication fact pops up and they must type in the answer in order to continue. If they get it wrong, it stays up until the correct answer is put in.
The kids really seemed to like this game. They are fully engaged. There has been measurable progress in learning math facts with those that are playing this game. It is apparent on the pencil and paper timings we do in class.
The other game I tried out in my class was suggested by my PLN as well. It is found on Knowledgeadventure.com. The game is called Math Lines. The learning goal of this game is to learn the addition facts that have a sum of ten. There is a line of balls that winds across the screen. There is a cannon in the middle that has a number as a canon ball. You shoot the number that would make ten with the number in the canon.
So far, I had one student work on this. It was a little too easy for her. She liked it for a few minutes, but then wanted to do something else. I have different students that this would be more beneficial for. I just had time to have students that were done with other assignments to try out some games. This is a motivational strategy I use quite often. However, I am feeling the need to provide game time for those students who don’t finish early. They may be the ones who would benefit the most.
In this game, the player is a snowman that is going along having to jump over things to get to the end. Every few seconds a multiplication fact pops up and they must type in the answer in order to continue. If they get it wrong, it stays up until the correct answer is put in.
The kids really seemed to like this game. They are fully engaged. There has been measurable progress in learning math facts with those that are playing this game. It is apparent on the pencil and paper timings we do in class.
The other game I tried out in my class was suggested by my PLN as well. It is found on Knowledgeadventure.com. The game is called Math Lines. The learning goal of this game is to learn the addition facts that have a sum of ten. There is a line of balls that winds across the screen. There is a cannon in the middle that has a number as a canon ball. You shoot the number that would make ten with the number in the canon.
So far, I had one student work on this. It was a little too easy for her. She liked it for a few minutes, but then wanted to do something else. I have different students that this would be more beneficial for. I just had time to have students that were done with other assignments to try out some games. This is a motivational strategy I use quite often. However, I am feeling the need to provide game time for those students who don’t finish early. They may be the ones who would benefit the most.
The leveling concept (being able to self advance through levels and adding new challenges) is key to avoiding boredom. Your post is a reminder to me that I need to go back and start looking at the various choices out there for math games.
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