Number Sense

Number Sense is a math app designed for Kindergarteners and based on the National and California Math Standards for that grade. The app contains five games and that’s a good deal for the $.99 price tag. I’ll give you a quick rundown of what I thought about each game.

Booster Balls – In this game you’re trying to catch colored balls as they fall from the sky. As you catch them the app counts them out loud and when you’re all done you feed them to a monster. In order to catch the balls you tilt the iPhone from side to side. This moves a basket and you need to position it underneath the falling balls. I found the response time between when I tilted the phone and when the basket moved to be slow. Not my favorite game in the app.

Do the Dotty – This is a connect the dots game. You need to tap the numbers on the screen in order from lowest to highest. As you tap a line appears connecting the dots and creating a picture. When the picture is complete you can change it’s color and save it. I liked that the connect the dots didn’t all start with the number one, they began with higher numbers and different ones each time.

Numberella – This game features a donkey in a cape and some rain clouds. The clouds have different numbers on them and the game asks you to tap on the smallest number or the largest one. When you tap on the correct number the cloud rains on the donkey and you earn a trophy. If you get it wrong the cloud zaps the donkey with lightening. I like the idea of giving children practice comparing smallest and largest numbers but I really didn’t understand what the donkey and the rainclouds had to do with anything. This one didn’t appeal to me at all.

Fishoonka – In Fishoonka you are shown two schools of fish, each group a different color. You’ll be asked to make the sets equal or to make one greater than or less than the other. Next you’ll drag fish from one group to the other and they’ll change to the appropriate color. You’ll do this until you’ve made the groups the correct size. This was my favorite game in the app.

Toot Toot Train – In this game you need to get the correct number of train cars hooked up to the engine. You tap on a car and tilt the iPhone to move the cars. Tilt toward the engine to hook on the cars. Tilt away from it to unhook them.

Out of the five games I liked Fishoonka and Do the Dotty the best. All of the games taught important skills but I found some of the games more appealing than others. Overall though the graphics in Number Sense are nice and the app ran without any hitches.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Emantras, Inc.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.