Review by Leslie Crenna, Common Sense Education | Updated December 2012
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Math Magic

Get it now
  • Download on Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download on Amazon

Encourage and empower with flexible, fun basic math app

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Math
Skills
  • Critical Thinking
  • Character & SEL
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
K–6
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (4 Reviews)
Price:  $0.99
Platforms:  Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle Fire, Windows Phone, Apps for Windows

Take a look inside

5 images
Untimed addition practice with counting mode selected (magic wand) with five correct answers and a flower earned.
Timed mode (167 seconds remaining) addition expression with counting mode selected.
Multiplication practice with products as high as 20 and 11 correct answers.
Division practice with three incorrect answers indicated (though only one added to total at top) and final correct answer remaining.
Preferences page with 20 numbers selected, sound effects and negative number on, auto advance, one minute challenge time, and all four operators selected for challenge (timed) mode.

Pros: Simple, flexible, empowering, colorful -- an ideal combination for young mathematicians.

Cons: The gameplay menu is too small, and some icon images are unclear.

Bottom Line: Solid and attractive arithmetic app scales easily to reach a range of student skill levels.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

This would work really well as a warm-up activity before a quiz on one of the skills it addresses, or as a fun reward after a successful day in class. The timed challenges could create some healthy competition among students, but overall, the warmth and encouraging nature of this app works for struggling students as well as kids who've mastered the material.

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Standards:

Math Magic is a simple arithmetic program that quizzes kids in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. From the main play space, users can select individual operators or countable objects, or, from the preferences page, select negative numbers, any combination of operators for timed challenges, or a maximum number -- 5, 10, or 20 -- to use in expressions (addends, subtrahends, products, or quotients). Timed challenge mode allows kids to see how many correct answers they can get in a minute, though no data is kept.

The play space consists of a mathematic expression, four answer choices (fill-in-the-blank option for iOS only), and a running tally of correct and incorrect answers. Kids tap the correct answer or choose to advance to the next expression by shaking or clicking the arrow button. Cheerful and enthusiastic kids' voices celebrate correct answers with phrases and green checks, while incorrect answers result in a small red cross and a short device vibration (plus optional gentle encouragement urging kids to try again until they get it right). Kids earn ribbons, cupcakes, stars, and flowers for correct answers.

The app's appeal lies in its flexibility and scalability: Kids have lots of choices, and there's lots of room for different skill levels to practice here. It's also very encouraging, which should keep kids coming back and feeling confident. It's a pretty straightforward quiz app, so there's not a ton of learning depth, but kids'll enjoy its cute perks (Cupcakes for right answers? Yes, please!), and with repeated practice, lessons should stick.

The Android version has no levels, so gameplay can feel endless. The only other downsides are that the counting objects icon is cryptic (magic wand), the gameplay menu is too small (Android only), and data doesn't save even when preferences are changed. It's not super exciting, but graphics are colorful, the interface is intuitive, and encouragement is extensive.

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

Graphics are colorful, crisp, and charming. Kids will hear other kid voices cheering them on when they get correct answers; this virtual peer encouragement is great and should keep kids coming back.

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

Ability to choose operators, negative numbers, and numbers up to 20 is empowering; optional counting objects extends learning and age range, but wand icon to select is cryptic.

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

Data doesn't get saved from game to game. The menu to select operators and settings is too small, but it adds great flexibility in the gameplay space.

Common Sense Reviewer
Leslie Crenna
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Counting And Cardinality

  • K.CC.4

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

  • 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.

Number And Operations In Base Ten

  • 2.NBT.5

    Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

  • 5.NBT.4

    Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place.

Operations And Algebraic Thinking

  • 1.OA.6

    Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 – 4 = 13 – 3 – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 – 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).

  • 2.OA.2

    Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.2 By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

  • 3.OA.7

    Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

  • K.OA.5

    Fluently add and subtract within 5.

The Number System

  • 6.NS.2

    Fluently divide multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 4 reviews) (4 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Colleen M. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Lakeshore Elementary School
Holland, United States
Drill and practice with positive reinforcement!
Overall I really like this app. It is fast and easy (no real setup required). It is easy to teach students how to navigate the app and choose the options that I am asking them to use. This is a great alternative to a "mad minute". I like that it reports the students score at the end of the minute and that could be recorded and used as data point to push students to do more! I don't like that there is not the option to show the equation vertically. I have found that when students are adding 2 or 3 ...
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