Tablet Games

Games for mobile devices

I love games. It’s no secret. I also love education. So when the two are combined, it’s magical!

Here are some games that I personally use with many of my students. I am in no way affiliated with any of these companies, nor am I receiving any kind of compensation for these reviews. I just like to share a good thing when I find one. You’re welcome.

 Stack the States – Dan Russell-Pinson – This is a super fun game that I play, personally, when I’m not even tutoring students! The basic idea of the game is to answer questions about the states, and when you get the questions correct, you get the place the state on a platform and try to stack each additional state on top until you reach the goal line. I really love the physics in this game, in that the states will teeter on top of one another, and if they are weighted too much on one side or the other, they can even pull other stacked states down with them if they fall. The states are also proportional in size to each other. There are other bonus games as well, which are all fun. Great way to learn about the states!

Intellijoy – These people make some great games for my early readers. I use all of the games they have available. My favorite, by far, is “Kids Learn to Read” (it’s the one with Tommy the Turtle!) However, they’ve recently had an update – The good news: There are 3 new, fun games to play! The bad news: The 6 different games are leveled, and you have to play and complete all 6 in order to help Tommy ‘build’ things in his garage (bike, roller blades, skateboard, etc.). This means that if I have an early reader, they do great on the first couple of games, but then the later games are too hard and they can never completely ‘build’ whatever it is that Tommy needs help with. Likewise, my older students think the lower levels are boring and are just going through the motions to complete the building project.

First Grade Learning – This one has a misleading name. In my own opinion, these are not skills taught in 1st grade, more like advanced 2nd or 3rd. It has both math and language/reading games that include fractions, and the difference between adjectives, nouns and verbs. Still a fun game, but my 2nd and 3rd graders always give me a funny look when they see the title, and think I’m giving them a 1st grade game to play. This developer also makes other educational games, but I have not used them yet. They look interesting though.

BrainPOP – ‘Cause the more you know, the more you know! Who doesn’t love Moby and Tim? BrainPOP has several different selections so that you can find the right fit for your learner. Regular flavor BrainPOP is for older, 4th or 5th graders up to even high school, depending on the subject. BrainPOP Jr. is, you guessed it, for a younger audience. They also have BrainPOP ESL for English Language Learners, and BrainPOP Película Del Día – The Spanish version of  BrainPOP. There is a daily movie for free, then comprehension questions about the subject. It’s pretty neat! They also have some fun games on their PC site, which you can read my review of over at my PC Games page.

 Learning Gems – My Piggy Bank – This one is a great way to learn all about money, coin’s and bill’s names, values, and counting coins and bills to fill the piggy bank. The sound effects are a bit weird – I’m not really sure if I love them or hate them. If you tap on the pig’s snout enough times it will sneeze and splatter green ‘snot’ all over the screen. A lot of my students L-O-V-E this feature, but then it means I have to keep reminding them to actually play the game and stop making the pig sneeze!

 Interactive Telling Time HD – GiggleUp Kids Apps And Educational Games – Great game for learning how to tell time, and how to set a clock to a particular time! I’m begging them for an elapsed time version or added feature. This game even teaches am and pm with the use of a window so you can see the sun and moon ‘waking up’ and ‘going to bed’. It’s very cute. It also gives instant feed back, and little achievements. When you earn enough stars you get to pick an item to put in the aquarium, then you can feed the little fishies swimming around. It’s very well done.

 PopMath Lite – Laurent Denoue – This is a basic operations drill game for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You can choose individual operations, or all 4 mixed together. You start at level 1 and as the levels increase, the problems get harder. Easy, simple game that can really help master memorizing those math facts.

 Deep Sea Duel – National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – In this game, you battle it out with Octa and try to reach a pre-determined number by adding numbered cards. It’s a great game for developing logical thinking in that you have to plan out your moves. There are only so many cards available to use, and you and Octa are both pulling from the same set. So if there’s a card you want to use, you have to get it fast before he does!

 Kids Math – Mobiloids– this is another drill game to learn and practice math facts. It is timed, so that poses more of a challenge. I do like the score board so you can always try to beat your last score.

 Pick a Path –National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – this is a math based logic puzzle. You are given a maze that has several ways of reaching the end. The trick is to pick the path that will give you a number closest to your target number. Each move has an operation and number associated with it. Again, you have to plan out your moves and think ahead, flexing those mental math muscles!

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