http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/motion-math-hungry-fish/id483049169?mt=8
Cost: Free
Hungry Fish allows the user to practice decomposition skills required for fluency with addition and subtraction. The fish has a target number that needs to be formed by adding bubbles together. Students can slide bubbles together to instantly add them. The target numbers get more difficult as students progress. Teachers or students can also adjust the difficulty level to allow for differentiation. This would make a great anticipatory set or closure.
Teachers could use this idea for in class practice by creating a handout to accompany the app. Teachers could take several screen shots at different levels to provide practice at appropriate levels for each student. The images could then be opened in an app such as neu.Annotate. The teacher could add directions at the top and have students write the number sentences that would match the bubbles they would put together to create the target number. Each student could share one of their number sentences on the board if desired.
I like this application. I only tried the free version, so I was unable to do any other thing besides addition. I did like that the level of hardness could be adjusted. During the game, I found myself sometimes wanting to press the pause button, because the numbers kept coming out! Regardless, the game was really fun, and I felt "hooked" to almost buy the full version with the promise of fun little side things like designing your fish. I can see this being applicable in the classroom, or even for home exercise. I would not make it the foundation of a lesson, but it could really help review.
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