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Description: Marble Math Junior has the player practice mental math as they navigate a marble through a series of mazes. Common Core aligned questions on the mazes could be about number sense, place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, money, fractions, and completing equations. The students achieve the tasks, collect the numbers, and move up the levels.
Cost: $3.99

Application/Use in the Classroom: Since you can select which level to play, this could be used as a rotation in the math classroom where students can practice their number sense and number and operation skills. A co-teacher could monitor and record their progress through the game. Students could also reflect on their knowledge and performance after playing the game.

Strengths: The game is engaging and motivating. Students get to select a marble and how they would like to manipulate their marble. There's also bonuses they try to get and obstacles to avoid in the mazes. Another strength is that you can tap the directions to have them read to you. You can also click on Show Me to have the app show you how to solve the problem for that maze question. Students can also click Try Again and only lose one marble per maze if they get something incorrect and so there are many opportunities for practice and second chance learning and earning. There is also a teacher guide that lists the concepts covered in level 1, 2, and 3. The teacher is able to select and deselect skills in order to customize each level.

Weaknesses: There is another app for older grades. For third graders, I wish there was more levels for them to progress through. If I used it in the classroom, I might have to eventually transfer to the marble math for the older grades. I would say this is a weakness because both apps cost money.

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Description: Third Grade Splash Math provides Common Core aligned math problems to the players. It allows for self-paced and adaptive practice time. It also provides explanations of incorrect answers, a scratchpad for work, rewards, and it monitors student data. It uses images of manipulatives when asking questions and sorts the questions by topic. Students strive to answer questions correctly to earn coins and also earn stars for the levels.
Cost: Free

Application/Use in the Classroom: This app was filled with great components! Because the questions were grouped by categories and there is a data report feature, I thought this app could be incorporated as a follow-up after collaborative lessons and/or small-group instruction or practice.  This would be a great way for students to show what they know about a topic on their own.  It provides feedback, so it could help provide motivation and reduce misconceptions.  If this was completed as a self-paced follow-up or closing activity, the teacher could analyze their observations and report data to inform next day instructional strategies and instructional groupings.

Strengths: There are many positive aspects about this application! Some of the strengths of the app are that the questions are grouped by topic, the app provides correct answers when you get them incorrect, it provides positive feedback, it includes a sketchpad and manipulative visuals. In addition, it provides data reports on overall performance, time spent, and performance topics. It also allows students to collect coins for their "aquarium". Another strengths is that the manipulatives such as base ten blocks are the same manipulatives used in class to teach the concepts.

Weaknesses: I think it limits the user to ten questions per day per topic unless you pay for a different package. Because of this and the upgrades available, it could end up being a little pricey.

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Description: Khan Academy allows players to view videos and complete exercises. There are different grade levels for math, science, and even high school and college resources. I selected third grade math. The Common Core aligned categories it provided included addition & subtraction, multiplication & division, fractions, measurement & geometry, and place value & rounding. Once you select an area above, you can select different videos that model different concepts.  Some videos introduce topics, some break down a strategy, and some dissect word problems.
Cost: Free

Application/Use in the Classroom: This Khan Academy app could be used in the classroom in a couple different ways.  Absent students could view videos on a topic that you covered on a previous day, students who need reteaching could view the videos, and students who need enrichment could progress through the standard and select more challenging videos.  You could have the students watch the video as a small practice or reteaching group and pause the video for discussion. You could have students watch the videos on their own so they can pause, replay, and speed up as needed and then after the video allow an opportunity to apply the concept to a collaborative authentic learning experience.  These videos could also be used in a flipped classroom and watched at home so that class time is spent applying concepts and deepening understanding.

Strengths: The app is aligned to Common Core standards and there are a variety of videos for each standard and indicators.  Students can pause the videos if they chose to work through problems, they can speed up the vidoe, or replay the videos.

Weaknesses: The app description in the i-Tunes store states that the program gives feedback on exercises and allows for students to use a scratchpad for scrap paper.  I didn't see these features for third grade, however the videos were very thorough.

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Description: Math Limbo was created by the author Greg Tang. The goal consists of a board of pins with numbers on them and two dice. The goal of the game is to empty the board of pins by decomposing the number rolled by the pair of dice. The player rolls the pair of dice (50+40), adds or subtracts the dice numbers(50+40=90), selects 1 or 2 pins that equal the final number (90 or 70+20, etc). The goal is to empty the triangular board of numbers. The game provides flexibility with the range of numbers and operations.
Cost: Free

Application/Use in the Classroom: This could be applied to instruction to help students decompose one and two digit numbers. Students could access the app or the math limbo game on Greg Tang's website prior to a Number Talk discussion. This would give them practice with mentally breaking apart numbers. The teacher could monitor student participation on app, take anecdotal notes, and then compare notes to student ideas during Number Talk discussions. The mental math and decomposing of numbers can be connected to almost any other math concept, so students could also go on Math Limbo as a class rotation in the classroom to improve their number sense.

Strengths:  The game allows the player to practice mentally decomposing numbers.  It provides a practice and a challenge feature. To prevent from random clicking, the game adds  number when an incorrect answer is selected.  The game includes levels and the player needs to decompose all the solutions and get rid of all pins in order to move to the next level.

Weaknesses:  The app lags a little bit, so it might work out better to play the game on Greg Tang's website.  It does not provide strategies or tips, however it does add on more numbers when the player gets an incorrect answer.