Great Math Apps for iOS

These math games win our admiration for their solid skill-building potential paired with creativity that makes learning fun!

For Using Coins

Coin Math
Free for a limited time for iPad and iPhone; ages 5 to 12

Younger children will benefit from the early levels of the game, which allows them to practice identifying various coins by name and value. As they gain skill, older players can practice paying for items and making change, all using coins. A piggy bank feature even helps kids investigate the concept of saving money while they’re “shopping.”


Two Player Games

Equator
$4.99 for iPad; 5th grade to 8th grade

This app allows children who are close in age to help each other learn. It’s a fantastically imaginative game that pits the North Pole against the South Pole. The screen is divided into two hemispheres oriented so that players can easily read their own half of the iPad as they add and subtract simultaneously. The goal is to arrive at the same total using different numbers. With every successful equation, the globe spins, changing day into night and night into day. The seasons also change. Players must be prepared to weather storms of multiplication and division, and ripening bananas in spring act as parenthesis, requiring players to take order of operations into account.


Everyday Mathematics: Multiplication Baseball
$1.99 for iPad and iPhone; ages 3 to 10

In this new spin on the old ball game, players pass the device back and forth to take turns “batting” by answering multiplication problems. The higher the answers, the farther the batter runs around the bases. After three wrong answers, the player strikes out and must hand the phone over to his/her opponent.


Other Great Games

Math Ninja HD
$1.99 for iPad and iPhone; ages 3 to 10

For the student with a quirky sense of humor, Math Ninja is an addictive way to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Correct answers will earn skilled ninjas more weapons for their arsenals, like ninja stars and smoke bombs. The weapons can then be fired at the evil Tomato-san, a devious looking tomato, and his robot cronies shaped like wheeled cats and dogs. The graphics are bright and cartoonish, and although students will enjoy aiming poison darts at their adversaries, there is no blood, tomato juice, or oil shed during combat.


Splash Math
$9.99 for iPad and iPhone; 1st grade to 5th grade

This app has the same kind of quizzing and games as many other apps, but, impressively, all Splash Math apps are tailored to teach the skills designated by the Common Core State Standards for public education. Different apps are available for each grade from one to five, and students will enjoy the bright graphics and imaginative motivators (like the addition of different sea critters to their personal aquariums) as they practice a wide variety of important, grade-level skills.