Instructify

Elementary students can brush up on their math and word skills with several games from Arcademic Skill Builders. Games center on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as consonants, vowels, nouns, verbs, all that stuff. Several of the games have a classic “Space Invaders” feel to them, as you have to find the right answer to a problem before the invading space ships, jellyfish, tanks or blobs reaches your character at the bottom, so you can enjoy a bit of educational nostalgia if you’d like to give them a try, too.

Probably the coolest feature - the games are optimized for the Nintendo Wii, so if your students have one at home, they can play these games with the Wii Remote.

Overall, the math games are better than the word games. For example, “Grand Prix Multiplication” rewards speedy answers by making your car go faster. Also, numbers seem like a natural choice when you’re racing against the clock. Also, word games like Coconut vowels, where you try to jam missing vowels into the middle of don’t reward some correct answers. I tried to put “ee” into “f__l” but the game insisted only “oo” was the answer.

Minor glitches aside, Arcademic Skill Builders gives young students a suite of games fun enough that they won’t notice they’re learning. -BILL FERRIS

Arcademic Skill Builders