One of the most basic and important foundational skills in mathematics is the ability to perform mental calculations. “Mathloons” is a game that helps students to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division with whole numbers and fractions up to 100, in a fun and engaging way. They are also concurrently improving middle-line crossing skills.
Students must identify the right balloon that represents the correct answer to a math calculation problem while keeping their hands steady for few seconds so that the balloon pumps up and to moves to the results’ spot. Feedback is given for the correct or wrong answers.
The teacher/therapist can choose the level of difficulty for the math calculations that the student will be asked to perform, thus offering math problems related to simple or more complex math strategies according to their individual level. Also, the teacher/therapist can choose the range of the numbers that will appear.
Are you ready to pump up balloons?
Disable background music
Disable/enable sound effects
I CAN understand that there are sounds when I pick a correct or a wrong balloon
Time to remain stable to select a balloon
Reduce the time if the child shows arm stability & good eye-hand coordination
I CAN hold my right hand still for 3 seconds.
Disable this to allow students to think without time constraints.
Adjust the timer from 10 – 40 seconds to help students in time management
I CAN pick a correct balloon within the time limit.
I CAN finish the task on time.
Disable this to continue playing without losing lives when making mistakes
I CAN learn that if I get an answer wrong, my game lives will be decreased.
Move the equal sign to the left or right of the question
I CAN understand the maintenance of equality, that is not affected by the movement of the equality sign.
Set how many questions you want the students to practice
I CAN answer 5 questions about subtraction.
I CAN stay focused for 10 questions.
Set the number type you want the students to practice
I CAN perform mental math on fractions.
Select type of math operation for the problems that students will be asked to solve: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
I CAN perform mental math on addition.
This option makes it harder perform mental operations using various strategies (such as addition with regrouping).
I CAN perform addition operations using the enumeration strategy.
Adjust the range to match the student’s abilities.
I CAN add two one-digit numbers together.
This option shows the numbers in quantities facilitating the operation of addition.
I CAN perform addition operations counting quantities.
Pie chart data
· Time spent on each Mathloons game is shown on the top right corner
· 10 – 0 – 0: 10 correct, 0 wrong, and 0 unanswered
The selected settings show whether the task is more or less challenging for the student
Table data
· Lists all the questions that the student answered in the session
· Teacher can look for a pattern that indicates misconceptions
· Helps teachers identify common mistakes towards a particular concept