Motion Math Hungry Fish

$6.99, iPad, iPhone, Android

Teaches: math facts

CTR Rating: 86%

CTR Review

Ideal for helping a child conceptualize addition, subtraction, multiplication and division math facts, but anchored down by a business model that depends on in-app sales, Motion Math Hungry Fish lets children practice skills like "instant addition" in a fun, highly compelling undersea setting. We reviewed the free portion of the app -- the first of six levels. The center of the show is a fish who eats number bubbles (e.g., addends). You help, by dragging the correct bubbles to the fish as quickly as possible. This might involve combining bubbles such as 3 and 4, to make 7. The better you do, the harder the problems and the more points you earn. These points turn into magic pearls that can be used to customize your fish, with different colors or fins (a nice touch). There are six sets of problems, but only the first can be played with the free version; the other five are available as in-app sales. Weaknesses include an inability to toggle off the sound from any screen. We also noticed novices (e.g., first time users) tend to try to feed the bubbles to the fish, which won't work, so there's a small learning curve. All in all, this is an excellent addition to any early elementary math program, as long as you are aware of the in-app sales features.