Sushi Monster is a game that parents can feel good about letting their kids play for a long while. That’s because defeating monsters this time around requires mental math skills and calculation instead of violence and weaponry.
Sushi Monster, a universal app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, is great for challenging kids to improve their mental math skills in addition and multiplication. A giant sushi monster appears in the middle of a sushi bar, holding a number. Another creature then dishes out some sushi trays, each also with a number on them. It is your job to choose the number which
I experimented on some actual children, who loved the game. They may need a paper and pencil handy, however, as some of the problems are going to be beyond the mental math abilities of most. By the second or third level many of the multiplication problems require multiple digits to formulate the correct answer.
Also, Scholastic advertises the game as being compliant with Common Core standards. This is more marketing than anything else, as a solid foundation in number sense and mental math has already been present in most state content standards, especially in California.
Nonetheless, it is probably a better option for your child than ORC: Vengeance or other games where the only math is counting the dead bodies you have amassed.
Download Sushi Monster from the App Store (Free)
On Target:
- Highly engaging
- Very focused on math
Off the Mark:
- Only addition and multiplication
- Many problems too hard for elementary students
