Maths App for Primary Classroom: Rocket Math

If you want to hook children into practicing their maths skills then Rocket Math is the way to go!  If you're a teacher wanting to use this app in the classroom you're best to purchase the full version.  Rocket Math works on both the iPad and iPod.

This app allows players to save their game history and rocket/s.  You can save up to five players per iPod/iPad.  From experience children can get quite protective over the rockets they've modified and custom built.  If you have access to a number of iPods/iPads then you may want to set up some rules and expectations, like no deleting other classmates rockets or playing their game.

Players can be edited and deleted by pressing the blue 'i' icon at the bottom right of the screen, this gets you into the settings for this app (a good thing to do once the year is over).

At the setup stage of Rocket Math children get to choose an avatar and start with $100 to build a basic rocket. They're then ready to start missions or jazz up their rocket by earning money.  To do this they can complete a variety of equations for money: addition, subtraction, division or multiplication.  Under each of these categories children can select easy, medium and hard.  The equations are displayed horizontally.

Rocket Math is not just about building rockets...the variety is simply brilliant, children can select from the following missions: Numbers, Counting, Time, US Money, Shapes/Patterns, Add/Subtract, Multiply/Divide and Challenge.

Lets take one of these mission headings 'Counting.' If you click on 'Counting,' you can select from options like, counting forwards/back by one, counting forwards/back from 5's, count back from 10's starting at 300.  I tried the latter one...I launched my rocket, gee I had to be quick to touch the correct number counting back from 300!

A screenshot of counting forwards in 1's to 30.

This game is so appealing, as children love being rewarded with medals or money to vamp up their rocket/s.  This app would cater for a variety of maths levels, makes maths fun and is definitely value for money.  My class love it!