Montessori Math City
© 2014 Edoki Academy
Ideal for helping an older preschooler or kindergarten-age child better understand base-ten numbers, this tenth app by French-based Les Trois Elles Interactive continues the tradition of giving children the tools they need to build their understanding of the way numbers work. There are two modes of play, both inspired directly by traditional Montessori materials, although any teacher that has worked with unit blocks, Cuisenaire rods or a curriculum like "Math Their Way" (Pearson) will recognize the approach. What's different with this app is a tutor is built into the materials, giving children instant feedback, and automatically adjusting the challenge. Google Golden Beads lets children first complete a units board, one bead at a time, up to 1000. Number Blocks gives children a challenge to build a target number, by dragging the correct ones, tens, hundreds or thousands blocks into place. Correct answers are rewarded with more buildings that you can drag and drop onto your city. Progress is bookmarked automatically, so you can come back to this later, and profiles can be saved for multiple children, increasing the usefulness for classrooms. Need to know... there's not much of a game element to this app, other than collecting elements for your city, and the intrinsic challenge of seeing the larger blocks. If you're looking for a game, look for a different app. Children should have the prerequisite ability to count to ten before using this app. Features let you turn the music and the timer on or off. Available in 15 languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Turkish & Russian. Note that Edoki was formerly called Les Trois Elles Interactive.
$3.99, iPad, iPhone
Teaches: early math, counting, base 10, unit blocks
CTR Rating: 92%