Missing Sign

How to play

1. Read the sum: for example 6 ? 3 = 18.
2. Try each sign in your head.
3. Tap the sign that makes it true.

Choose Relaxed for ten questions with no clock, or Race to answer as many as you can in sixty seconds. After a wrong answer the game shows the right one and the reason. At the end it lists the questions you missed and keeps your best score for each level on this device.

Levels

• Level 1: Plus or minus
• Level 2: All four signs, small numbers
• Level 3: All four signs, bigger numbers

Start at the level where about eight answers in ten are right, and move up when it feels easy.

What this game practises

This game turns sums inside out. The child sees the answer and must think about what each operation does to the two numbers: adding and multiplying make things bigger, taking away and dividing make them smaller. That sense of what an operation does is exactly what is needed to choose the right operation in a word problem, where most mistakes are made.

Tips for parents and teachers

• Ask first: is the answer bigger or smaller than the first number? That halves the choices.
• Have the child say the full sum aloud after answering.
• Make up your own: write three numbers and ask for the sign.

Play it without a screen

Write sums on slips of paper with a box in place of the sign. Or call out three numbers, such as 4, 5 and 20, and let players race to say the sign.

More games for classes 3 and 4

• Sum SprintQuick sums against yourself. Type the answer on the number pad.Classes 1 to 7
• Place ValueWhich digit is in the hundreds place? What is the 7 really worth?Classes 2 to 5
• What Comes NextA row of numbers follows a rule. Find the rule and choose the next number.Classes 2 to 7
• Memory MatchTwelve cards face down. Turn over two at a time and match each sum with its answer.Classes 1 to 5

All games Games for classes 3 and 4