Tutpup.com – Mental Maths Magic
Richard Taylor from www.tutpup.com passed his new site on to me in a recent comment on the blog:
We have just beta released a new free maths games website which is starting to get quite a bit of traction in the UK. It’s free, has no ads, and allows kids to compete head to head but doesn’t allow them to communicate directly. It is really KS1 & 2 focused but we are getting lots of use from secondaries (or we were last week before half term).
We have just added a few new teacher features (class registration, reports etc) and if you have any ideas or queries drop me a line, or if you like it you could put in a link.
I have had a chance to look at the site this weekend and to test it with a low ability class of 11/12 year olds today and I’m delighted with it!
The site allows pupils from around the world to compete against each other at mental maths questions in a completely safe environment, no actual personal details just clever usernames made from colours and animals (I’m bluepig22!).
The competitive element is the clincher, the class I tried it with today are difficult and disaffected but did more Maths today than they have for most of the year.
The site is simply designed and my class enjoyed beating not only each other but pupils from Brazil, Australia, France, Japan……
I’ve not even looked fully into the class reports feature but this could be most useful for identifying weaknesses and future teaching points.
A nice touch is the graduation medal that you get when you have done really well at a certain level, this really encouraged pupils to move onto a more difficult level rather than sticking with the easy questions all day.
An excellent, free resource, well done Richard! Let me know what you think 🙂