Kalkulino is a well-designed educational game that helps primary school children in grades 1 to 3 develop essential mathematical skills. Through strategic gameplay, children learn to quickly grasp and decompose numbers, add and subtract them skillfully, and even have fun doing it.

The game was specifically designed to ease children's transition from counting-based arithmetic to efficient calculation strategies and to develop the necessary basic skills. This is an important foundation for further success in mathematics lessons.

What is Kalkulino?

Kalkulino is a strategic learning game for primary school children (6-8 years old) that promotes number sense, operational understanding, and strategic thinking. The game helps children playfully to:

• to develop skillful decomposition and addition strategies
• to deepen the completion up to 5, 10, 15 and 20.
• to strategically break down and combine quantities
• to plan ahead and justify decisions

These are key skills for moving away from predominantly counting-based calculation strategies and are therefore an important foundation for success and enjoyment in mathematics lessons.

Rules of the game:

• Two players take turns placing their bets. If no second player is available, it is also possible to play against a computer player.
• Each player has their own row of fields. The first player to completely fill their row gets a point.
• For each turn, two or three numbers can be chosen. These can be added to your own row. added or from the turn of the other player taken away become.
• Number stones can be used by long press can be broken down into the number button (e.g., 9 can be used as 2 + 7).
• With the Steal button Stones from the opponent's row can be transferred to one's own row.
• If the target stone is not hit exactly when adding it, the excess stones are added to the opponent's row – so it is strategically important to choose the right number.
• Becomes at the same time If both your own and your opponent's target areas are hit, there is immediately two points. It is therefore worthwhile to keep an eye not only on your own row, but also on that of your opponent.
• The winner is the first person to reach a certain (pre-set) score.

Didactic background

Kalkulino is based on the principle of game-based learning. Unlike gamification, which only uses individual game elements, in Kalkulino the mathematical requirements are an integral part of the game: Whoever calculates skillfully wins – arithmetic is not an add-on, but the strategic tool.

The game combines four key learning factors:

• Motivation: The game process itself is rewarding – children experience flow while solving strategic puzzles.
• Emotion: Successes motivate, mistakes are used as a learning opportunity ("next try") – the game enables productive failure (Graceful Failure).
• Cognition: Mathematical problems – decomposing, completing, comparing – are a central part of every game decision.
• Social interaction: Playing together naturally creates opportunities for conversation about strategies and decisions, and thus process-related skills.

Meta-analyses almost universally show positive findings regarding educational games compared to traditional learning materials (see Vogel et al., 2006; Wouters et al., 2013). In mathematics instruction, particular potential is evident: improved problem-solving skills, reduced anxiety about math, and especially effective for lower-achieving children.

Strategic thinking illustrated by an example:

Each turn offers a choice of actions – and not all are equally advantageous. For example: One player has the numbers 9 and 5 available and five free spaces on their side. The other player still needs four spaces. What to do?

• Add 5: It earns you a point – but your opponent can also score on their next turn.
• Add 9: Hit your own target and your opponent's simultaneously – two points at once!
• Take away 5: It neither scores a point nor prevents the opponent from scoring a point – not useful.
• Steal: It's only worthwhile if it fills up your own row.

Such decision-making situations arise in every move and require children to decompose, complete and compare numbers – not as an isolated arithmetic task, but as a strategic consideration with a concrete goal.

differentiation

Kalkulino offers various settings to adapt the game to the children's learning level. This allows the app to be used in both remedial and regular classroom settings. The difficulty can be increased gradually – from simple completion tasks to complex strategic decisions with multiple options.

Tips for parents and teachers:

• Discuss strategies with the children and play a few rounds together.
• Have children explain why they make certain decisions or have them analyze game situations.
• Adjust the winning score for shorter or longer game rounds.
• Use the game option settings to differentiate and gradually increase the requirements.

For example, game situation analyses can be discussed with the children during the game, as in this example: