GimmeFive supports students in developing strategies for mental calculation of addition and subtraction. The app has features that make it suitable for use by all students and, in particular, even by those who have difficulties in arithmetic or are dyscalculic or are affected by autism spectrum disorders.
GimmeFive consists of eight environments.
The first five environments support the development of skills that are a prerequisite for the development of mental calculation of addition and subtraction, such as:
• the ability to perform addition of numerical quantities with result less than 10;
• the ability to master the additive relationships between units, tens and hundreds with results respectively equal to 10, 100 and 1000;
• the ability to decompose a number in order to simplify the solution of additions with the result between 11 and 18.
The last three environments support the development of strategies for mental calculation of addition and subtraction with result less than 1000.
The practice in these environments allows students to have a concrete experience of the various steps involved in the strategies of mental calculation implemented by experienced people. Through the experience gained in these environments, students internalize these strategies and execute them mentally.