Everyday Mathematics - Monster SqueezeTM app review: a greater-than and less-than guessing game

Introduction

Everyday Mathematics - Monster Squeeze^TM is an iPad and iPhone game for kids to learn the concept of lesser-than and greater-than. It is a fun two-player game to guess the correct number.

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Learn Greater-Than and Lesser-Than

When you ask a child to guess a number, you expect him or her to go all over. Everyday Mathematics - Monster Squeeze^TM introduces the concept of greater than and less than as well as guessing. The game simply asks you to guess a number, and if you guess too high, it will tell you that the number is less than 10, for example. You then guess back and forth between players until you narrow it down with the monster telling you greater than, or less than the whole time.

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At first, I thought, “Wait, that’s it?” but really, kids can have a tough time with the greater-than and less-than concept. It’s funny how kids will have difficulty, yet games like this can help them have that light bulb breakthrough.

Learn Through Play

Everyday Mathematics - Monster Squeeze^TM is fun to play. By guessing the number back and forth, there is a bit of competition as well, and kids thrive on this. The game goes for five rounds, so you can get the child to play either with you or with a partner for a game, and then move on to something else. You could also easily set this up as a center in an activity based learning environment. Most classrooms can’t afford a class set of iPads, so you can set down one and use other manipulatives to teach too.

The game also has several color options. I enjoy that kids can pick from a few different options, then their dot appears in the score area at the bottom right of the screen for easy tallying. There are also five rounds so that you can easily see the winner. Odd numbers mean one player always comes out on top. Also, if your child wants then they can go best three rounds of five, or whatever you would like!

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Free
• Fun to play
• Learn greater than or less than concepts
• Easy to score with the dot system in the bottom right

Cons

• A little too simple and can get boring quickly

Final Thoughts

Everyday Mathematics - Monster Squeeze^TM is a game to help children learn greater than and less than concepts. They do so through guessing numbers between a given range, and listening to the game give directions regarding if the number is greater than or less than their guess. There is a score along the bottom to keep track of who wins easily, and scores up to five so that there is always a winner. I appreciate this odd number tracking, and the color selection option so the child can pick their favorite color. Overall, this game is very easy to use, and I can see kids getting bored with it rather quickly, but it is a good learning tool if kids will sit through the full round.