Math Strategies Primary

I played Math Strategies Primary trying to see it through the eyes of a grade one student. The squirrel who led me through the activities was cute and very animated; his voice was engaging and not as annoying as the monotone animations in some of the other games I explored.

I was provided with immediate feedback when I completed tasks; I was either praised or encouraged to try again. When I was unable to figure out the correct answer after a few attempts the squirrel provided me with a clue to guide me to the correct answer; this would certainly be beneficial for students who struggle with math.

Some of the games had me choosing between multiple written answers e.g. All the same, Only two the same, All different, the words were read aloud to me when I placed the cursor on top of them - this was another plus of the program. I think if I was in grade one I would find the activities to be fun and somewhat challenging. I like the fact that there is an option of skipping the demonstrations so that if I was visiting the game for a second or third time I could go ahead and play without spending time watching the demos.

From an educators perspective I see this game as being beneficial to students. There are a plethora of well developed activities within this game incorporating a variety of useful strategies including the ten frames, number lines and computer graphic manipulatives. I certainly wouldn't use this program as a substitution for classroom instruction but I think it could be used by students during free time to build on skills being taught in the classroom. There are expectations from number sense and numeration strand in the Ontario math curriculum that are met through the various activities found on Math Strategies Primary.

I was unable to locate an online review for Math Strategies Primary.