Activity
Accessible digital math games: Math Melodies
18 accessible math games with varying levels? Which games will your student play?
Update: Math Melodies temporarily disappeared from the App Store. The app was reinstated 11/12/24 and is once again available in the App Store! FYI: Math Melodies is no longer available for Android.
Accessible digital math is a hot topic! There are many mainstream math resources that are accessible for students, especially in higher grades. Desmos is a popular graphing tool that is embedded into high stakes assessments. Math editors are now common features built into applications such as Microsoft Word and JAWS. These are great tools for students with good tech skills! What about accessible math games for young students – age-appropriate games that can be used to build not only math skills but solid math-related tech skills?
Math Melodies app
Designed by a team in Italy, Math Melodies is an interactive FREE app with progressive skills designed for preschool – 5th grade students who are blind or low vision. This best-kept secret has been around for years with 18 types of games and each game has multiple levels.
When the app opens, there are two choices: Story or Exercises. If you want to jump directly to the math games and choose which game and level, select Exercises.
Story: The story was created to be entertaining for students with visual impairments. Throughout the story are pauses where random math exercises must be completed to move to the next section of the story. The math exercises vary in skill level.
Exercises: The math games are organized by grade levels, 1st – 5th grade, with the option of All games. Note: Many of the easiest games are appropriate for preschool or kindergarten students. Select a grade level. The available games for that grade are listed in alphabetical order; they are NOT listed by easy to hardest skill. Be sure to scroll down thru the list within the app to see the entire list.
Interested in knowing what games are available? Here is a quick reference list of all the Math Melodies math games by title, grade level, and different levels of the game.
Math Melodies: Math games
18 types of games (labeled 1st thru 5th; although some of the simple ones are kindergarten possibly preschool level)
Concepts
- Counting 1st: (counting animals in 1 or 2 rows)
- Counting 2nd: (counting 3 rows)
- Insert or Delete 1st: (add or delete animals in 2 or 3 rows to get specific number)
- Compared Counting 1st: 2 rows (more cats than dogs?)
- Compared counting 2nd (3×4 grid more/less/equal)
- Sequences 1st: (patterns of animals in a row)
- Sequences 2nd (progressive patterns)
- Absolute Positions 1st: (3×3 or 4×4 table with one item in table)
Image 1: Relative Positions
- Relative Positions 1st: (table with two items; compare locations by spatial directions using the terms up/down/right/left)
- Relative Positions 2nd: (3×3, 4×4 table; includes compare diagonally such as right and up)
- Sum in a Table 1st: (1×1 table)
- Sum in a Table 2nd: (2×2 table)
- Multiplication in a table 2nd (2×2 table)
- Multiplication in a table 3rd (2×2 or 3×3)
- Sum in a table (addition 3×3)
Image 2: In and Out Table: 1 column of 3 numbers; add 2 to each number. Answer choices are across the bottom of the screen.
- In and Out Table 1st (Adding or subtracting numbers in 1 column table)
- In and Out Table 2nd (adding or subtracting 3×3 table; multiplication 1 column table)In and out table 3rd (1 column by 3)
- In and Out Table 4th: (addition or multiplication tables are 1×3, 3×3, etc.)
- Compare Numbers 4th: (insert correct operations (> < = ) between decimals
- Compare Fractions 5th: (insert correction operations > < =) between fractions
Math problems
Image 3: Vertical Addition with 3 rows of 2-digit numbers with carrying
- Addition 1st: (Vertical Addition in a column 1 or 2-digit numbers – find sum)
- Addition 2nd: (2-digit with carrying or 3 rows of 2-digit numbers with carrying)
- Addition 3rd (3-digit with carrying or 4 rows of 3-digit numbers with carry)
- Addition 4th: (4-digit with carrying by 3 rows or 4-digits with carrying by 4 rows)
- Complete in a column 1st: (addition – missing number in equation)
- Complete in a column 2nd: (subtraction or addition – missing number in the equation)
- Complete in a columns 3rd: (subtraction or division- missing number in equation)
- Complete in a column 4th: (multiplication 1- or 2-digit-numbers – missing number in equation)
- Subtraction 1st: (Vertical Subtraction 1 or 2-digit number)
- Subtraction 2nd 2-digit numbers with borrowing)
- Subtraction 3rd: (3-digit subtracted by 3-digits with borrowing)
- Subtraction 5th: 5-digit number subtracted by 5-digit number with borrowing)
- Multiplication 2nd: (2-digit x 1 digit with carrying)
- Multiplication 3rd: (3-digit number by 1 with carrying)
- Multiplication 4th: (2-digit number x 2=digit number with carrying)
- Multiplication 5th: (4-digit multiplied by 1- or 2-digit with carrying)
- Fraction 4th: Fill the table with equivalent fraction of animals/items (show the fraction with pictures in a grid)
- Complementary fractions 4th: (add what fraction to make 1; 2-digit fractions and 3-digit fractions)
- Operation with Fractions 5th: (adding or subtracting 2 fractions with different denominators)
- Long division 4th: (long division – without and with remainders; 1- and 2-digit answers)
Download the Math Melodies: Math Games list here.
Tech skills
It is critical to teach tech skills along with the math skills! Math tends to be very visual in nature, especially in higher grades. With touch screen devices, young students can build strong spatial awareness, mental mapping and other skills that will lay the foundation for strong math skills in higher grades. These tech skills can be taught while playing the Math Melodies game, even if the student might be able to complete the game without learning the tech skill. For example, in the Add or Delete game, the student can use a right swipe through the squares in the grid to count the number of wolves. However, right/left swiping does not reinforce building a mental map of the grid or the where the wolves are located in that grid. If the student initially plays the game by dragging a finger in a straight line across each row in the grid, the student can learn to develop a mental map.
Image 4: Add or Delete 2×4 grid with 2 wolves with directions, “Add or delete to get 3 wolves.”
Why is dragging in a straight line important? The student can complete the Add or Delete game using a right or left swipe. Dragging in a straight line across a row (or column) lays the foundation for dragging through a table (Absolute Positions game or Sum in a Table game) and leads to navigating vertical addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems.
Beside the basic tech skills, such creating the required gesture and the ability to navigate the screen, there are a number of important tech concepts that should be incorporated into the game play.
- Explore the screen using a drag gesture to build a mental map
- Ability to drag in a straight line across a row or down a column
- Listening for the screen reader announcement to develop a mental map before exploring the screen. Example: Listen to the announcement, “There is a table of 2 rows and 4 columns” and creating a mental image of rectangle that is longer than taller.)
- Build a mental map of the grid, table, or layout of each game
- Build spatial awareness of where items are located in relationship to each other
- Build a mental map of the general screen layout of Math Melodies games, including that the Tool Bar is a column down the right side. If number answer choices are in a game, those numbers will appear at the bottom of the screen starting with the number 1.
When teaching these tech concepts to young students, it is helpful to create a tactile graphic or a tactile overlay for the game. (An overlay is a tactile graphic that is the same-sized tactile graphic that is laid on top of the device’s screen, allowing the student to touch a raised line image while hearing the screen reader and interacting with the game.) An overlay may be simple (such as just the outline of the grid) or may include additional information (such as the animals in the grid). Once the student understands the concept or skill (such as dragging in a straight line), the tactile graphics should be removed – these tactile graphics should not be used as a crutch!
Resources
- Math Melodies in the App Store
- (Math Melodies is no longer available in Google Play)
P2T posts about Math Melodies
- Math Melodies App for Young Students
- Pre-requisite tech skills
- Videos: Counting, Compare Counting, Insert and Delete, Sequence, and Absolute Position
- Tactile graphics
- Tactile to Digital Part 2: Math Melodies (series on tactile graphics)
- Progression of tactile skills (real object > models of real objects > tactile graphics representing real objects > symbols representing real objects)
- Available graphics for Math Melodies
- Tactile to Digital Part 4: Positions in a Table
- Video: Absolute Positions – demonstrating tactile overlay
- Discusses how to navigate a digital table with a tactile overlay, rows, columns
- Tactile to Digital Part 5: Addition and Subtraction
- Spatial layouts for adding and subtracting with carrying and grouping
- Spatial layout, listening, drag, tactile overlays
- Video: Addition and subtraction
- Math Melodies App Part 1: Addition
- Tech skills and concepts for horizontal addition equations
- Videos: Basic addition, Addition with Carrying
By Diane Brauner
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