Operation Math Code Squad

Math Fact Fluency is one piece of data that my school collects on all students. To improve your math fact fluency you have to have good number sense, develop strategies that lead to mental math, and practice, practice, practice.  This helps students with higher order math skills down the line.

Operation Math Code Squad ($2.99) is a great app for practicing math facts.  Up to four students can play at the same time. You can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  There is a easy, medium, and difficult level for each game.  While there are similar apps out there that are for free, I hands down prefer Code Squad.

I have my first graders do addition and subtraction on the easy level.  There are five rounds and each round there are more math problems to solve within a minute. The game starts out pretty easy for students in the beginning rounds, but is definitely challenging once you get to Stage 4 and 5.  Students have to work to together to answer all the problems to complete the mission.  

To hold kids accountable and not guess, which makes it far superior to those free apps, students are "disconnected" whenever they enter five wrong answers.  They can rejoin the game in the following round.  It really builds good teamwork because I constantly hear "good job guys" whenever they are passing each Stage.  


At the end of the game, whether they complete all stages or Dr. Odd won during one of them, each individual player can see how they did in each round and the total number of questions they answered correctly.  


You can view it on the iTunes App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/operation-math-code-squad/id555750694?mt=8

Operation Math Code Squad's website is http://www.spinlight.com/apps/codesquad.html

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