Welcome to the jungle, this app’s got fun and games.
With Math Tales-The Jungle from Marshmallow Games, preschoolers ages 3 to 5 can reinforce skills they learn in the classroom with some of the world’s wildest of beasts by their side.
When kids first open the app, they will meet jungle animals of every kind, including giraffes, zebras, gazelles, monkeys, and more. These colorful animated characters, coupled with a narrative voice that reads rhyming instructions aloud, make for an enjoyable learning experience that’s disguised as play. There’s even some quirky jungle music in the background that will have kids moving and grooving.
The creative narrative is the backbone of this app, as it takes kids on a journey through nine exciting chapters, each linked to a different educational theme and animal. After the Lion king describes the epic escape of Ray the elephant from a huge circus, the ferocious feline asks kids to help the rest of the animals prepare for a welcome home party. It’s a nice idea that will make kids feel like they’re part of a team.
In the first chapter, kids have to help Sophie the giraffe decorate the jungle by choosing the correct color to complete a decoration strip. Described as a logical sequence, this task challenges preschoolers to match a sequence of colors already in place, to ensure the party has a uniform look.
In the second chapter, Corrine the gazelle needs assistance with shapes, sizes, and number sequences. In this level, kids can sort elephants in order of increasing size, and place turtles with the same size trumpets together. By touching and dragging the animals to place them in different positions, kids can enhance and work on their hand-eye coordination skills.
The fourth chapter, which looks to sharpen visual perception, asks kids to help locate food among the jungle leaves. By recognizing colors, kids get to pick out partially hidden objects until they’ve found them all. The app’s bright colors really make this challenge fun.
There’s even a Parent’s Area of the app, which as you may have guessed, is just for parents. Using a basic multiplication problem’s answer as a security code, preschoolers won’t be able to access this section unless they’re superbly brilliant for their age or just insanely lucky. The Parent’s Area lets parents view the app’s goals for kids, related app information, and a thank you from the Marshmallow Games team. It’s pretty exclusive. There’s also no third-party advertising or in-app purchases within the app, so parents can rest knowing that their kids are safe in Math Tales.
Math Tales-The Jungle features almost 100 pages of tale that excite and challenge kids to use their heads with tasks that involve colors, numbers, math operations, logic, visual attention, and spacial recognition. And special learning goals along the way ensure that kids don’t advance until the previous chapter’s duties are fulfilled, which highlights the importance of progress and patience. From counting sugar spoons for cake baking to re-assembling ripped cards, kids are guaranteed to discover meaningful morals while laughing along the way.
Math Tales-The Jungle is available for iPhone and iPad and contains support for English, Spanish, and Italian languages.