Review by Mieke VanderBorght, Common Sense Education | Updated December 2014
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Gracie & Friends City Skate

Get it now
  • Download from App Store

Clever game targets quantity, number names, and number symbols

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Math
Skills
N/A
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
Pre-K–K
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (2 Reviews)
Price:  Free
Platforms:  iPad

Take a look inside

5 images
Tap the green button to begin a skating adventure; grown-ups can enter the parents and educators section to read about the research behind the app's development.
Only make Gracie jump when you see a group with the target number of objects, in this case, four.
Sometimes when kids make a mistake, they get a quick reminder of what the target number looks like.
Make more mistakes and kids get a mini review session; here kids explore the quantity four in two different arrangements.
There are 20 levels in all.

Pros: There are truly wonderful learning supports for kids who need extra help.

Cons: Kids may get confused when the game lets some mistakes slide by.

Bottom Line: With a sharp focus and step-by-step tutorials, kids get great subitizing practice, but City Skate is a slightly weaker entry in the free Gracie activity series.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Take advantage of the full free package of apps and off-screen learning activities supports for the preschool classroom! In 2015, there should be a manual that teachers can download, but for now, everything is available piece by piece from the website. Combine screen time with meaningful offline activities, even outside designated math lessons. Point out groups of anything -– toys, shoes, pencils, etc. –- and ask how many there are. Then rearrange the objects and ask again. Have kids practice making quick number judgments to match quantities, such as choosing the right number of napkins to pass out to their table at snack time.

Teachers should be aware that though progression is personalized, there is no way to create personalized accounts. Each kid will need to finish all 20 levels before passing the device on to a classmate. Watch kids as they play to gauge who's breezing through and who might need extra help beyond the screen. 

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Standards:

Kids help Gracie gather supplies for a party as she skates through the neighborhood. In each level, Gracie collects groups of a target number of supplies, from one to five. Kids must subitize -- or make quick judgments about quantity -- to collect only, for example, groups of three oranges. Tap the screen once for a small jump and twice for a super-high jump as kids guide Gracie in collecting the right groups. But hold back on jumping when Gracie rolls by groups with the wrong number of objects. When kids make mistakes, there's a leveled progression of extra guidance that culminates in a mini bonus lesson on counting and on how quantity stays the same even though objects may be arranged differently.

City Skate is part of a heavily research-informed and -supported series of apps and offline materials that have a narrow but crystal-clear learning goal: help kids get really comfortable with numbers one through five, in all forms. Kids get lots of practice making on-the-fly judgments about how many objects there are in groups and feeling at ease with quantities, number names, and number symbols. There is a particular emphasis here on how quantity is constant regardless of how objects are arranged. The best features are the levels that increase in difficulty as kids learn and the stepped scaffolding that clearly and patiently helps kids who are struggling.

City Skate is a nice part of the package, but it's not the most successful as a stand-alone game. Game design feels more repetitive and less inspired than in the developer's other games, and feedback can be confusing; for example, Gracie slides by groups of the target quantity without triggering extra tutorials. The double jump may also prove difficult for younger kids. And, as with other apps in the series, while the learning path adapts to individual kids, there's no option for creating multiple user accounts, which may make classroom use a tad tricky.  

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Young kids should get a kick out of making Gracie jump, especially when she has to fly through the sky with a super-high power jump. Jumping through 20 levels gets repetitive, though increasing difficulty does bring a little spice.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Kids identify quantity, up to five objects, without counting. They also experiment with comparing and recognizing numbers both by numeral and quantity of objects, regardless of how objects are arranged. Inconsistent feedback may confuse kids.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Superb scaffolding and supports provide spot-on help when needed. Kids can see which level they've reached to check their progress. An accompanying website provides off-screen activity ideas to enhance learning.

Common Sense Reviewer
Mieke VanderBorght Researcher
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Counting And Cardinality

  • K.CC.7

    Compare two numbers between 1 and 10 presented as written numerals.

  • K.CC.4

    Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

  • K.CC.4.a

    When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.

  • K.CC.4.b

    Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

  • K.CC.4.c

    Understand that each successive number name refers to a quantity that is one larger.

  • K.CC.5

    Count to answer “how many?” questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1–20, count out that many objects.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 2 reviews) (2 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Jeremy B. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Thomas M. Ryan Intermediate School
Richland, United States
Skate into patterns and counting.
I liked this app for number sense acquisition. It is engaging and entertaining for students. It is very game based so they like the feel of it and can progress through to more difficult numbers. It is very basic (just jumping to touch the correct numbers) but kids still enjoy it. The audio is speaking and very motivating. Overall it is a nice app for young children to learn/work on number sense and patterns.
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