Beast Academy, a math curriculum for grades one through five, stands out from all other math programs because it is presented in a comic book format. Cartoon characters—staff and students at Beast Academy—are introduced at the beginning of each book, and the same characters are used throughout the series. Beast Academy Online now also offers students most of the same content presented in an interactive format.
Contrary to what you might expect, this is a comprehensive math curriculum that is more challenging than curricula from many other publishers for these levels. While the comic book lessons are colorful and entertaining they also do a solid job of teaching concepts and skills. Reasoning and problem-solving strategies are taught throughout the courses and practiced through games and workbook activities.
Since the full-color comic book presentation takes up more space than traditionally-taught lessons, each course has four “textbooks” called Math Guides. So, for example, the third-grade course has Math Guide 3A, Math Guide 3B, Math Guide 3C, and Math Guide 3D. An index at the back of each Math Guide makes it easy for students to find a particular topic they might need to review. All levels except 1 have a separate Math Practice book (described below). Level 1 combines lessons and practice in the same book.
Each Math Guide is divided into three large chapters with each chapter covering a broad topical area. With four Math Guides per course, this results in 12 chapters per course.
Level 1 teaches counting, shapes, comparing, addition, subtraction, categories, patterns, large numbers, measurement, and problem solving. Level 2 covers place value, comparing, addition, subtraction, expressions, problem-solving strategies, measurement, odd and even numbers, large numbers, and algorithms. For Level 3, the topics are shapes, skip-counting, area and perimeter, multiplication, perfect squares, the distributive property, variables, division, measurement, fractions, and estimation. Fourth-grade topics are shapes, multiplication, exponents, counting, integers, division, logic, factors, fractions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), decimals, and probability.
While some of the listed topics might sound too simple for their grade level, consider that fourth-grade instruction on shapes includes definitions, measuring angles (including how to use a protractor), parallel and perpendicular lines, and symmetry. Students learn a substantial amount of geometry in this chapter. The publisher notes in the FAQs that the first chapter on shapes in Math Guide 3A (and Math Practice 3A) is very difficult for many students. They suggest that in this case, you might skip over that chapter, returning to it at a later date.
Beast Academy aligns loosely with the Common Core State Standards. It spends more time on key concepts as well as mathematical thinking and conceptual understanding than is called for in the standards. Some skills are taught more than a year earlier than in Common Core, and just a few standards are missing, such as a third-grade standard on graphing and a fourth-grade standard on line plots.
Free downloadable pre-assessments with solutions can be used to determine whether or not a student is ready for each Math Guide.
Each Math Guide has a corresponding Math Practice book. Math Practice books are printed in black and white. They include a few cartoon illustrations, primarily using cartoon characters to summarize key concepts or direct students to pages in the Math Guide where that concept was taught. The Math Practice books serve principally as the source of lots of practice in solving problems. While there are a few pages with arrays of problems to solve, most pages in the Math Practice books have word problems, visual problems, puzzles, and creative thinking problems. Along the way, they also have instructions for an occasional game or hands-on activity.
Difficult problems are marked with a star and the most difficult problems have two stars. Hints are provided at the back of the book before the answer key for all starred problems. The answer key in each Math Practice book takes up a substantial number of pages since it presents fairly complete solutions and/or explanations. Parents who want more of the same type of problems for their children to solve can download free printable worksheets from the publisher’s website.
The FAQs at the Beast Academy website include one explanation that will help you understand why the curriculum includes so many difficult problems, including the ones for which students might need hints. It says:
Most real problems in math, science, or life can’t be solved with a simple, cookie-cutter solution. Instead, real problems usually require applying knowledge in a novel way. We include many challenging problems in Beast Academy because we believe they help kids become flexible, logical thinkers who persevere in the face of challenge. Students also learn math at a much deeper level when they solve difficult problems, since they have to think for themselves rather than mimicking prescribed procedures.
As an added benefit, difficult problems make math much more interesting and fun! Most kids find unraveling one challenging puzzle far more satisfying than mechanically completing pages of simple problems.
Students might want to read straight through each Math Guide, then go back and tackle the practice problems, and this is fine. There’s plenty of help in the Practice Guides to make this work.
The comic book presentation means that students can read through a large part of each chapter independently, taking time to enjoy the visuals along with the lessons. However, these are not really independent study courses. Up front, parents should help children become familiar with the way the course works. Also, occasional “stop signs” on pages direct students to try something, answer a question, make a prediction, or otherwise interact with the lesson, and parents might need to be involved at these points. In addition, the games and hands-on activities generally need some sort of parental assistance and/or another player. When it comes time to check student work, parents should go over the practice pages referring to the answer key. There are often alternate problem-solving strategies or other helpful notes in the answer keys that parents might explain to students. Still, the courses don’t require lesson preparation time, and as students become familiar with the courses, I expect they will do more on their own.
Math Guides are not consumable. Since they are printed on sturdy paper, they should last through at least a few students. If you are teaching more than one child, they might take turns with each Math Guide if that is practical. Math Practice books are consumable, so each student completing the course will need his or her own Math Practice books.
The only things missing from these courses are cumulative reviews and assessments at the end of each course. However, you might not need them. If you really want a final exam, you might simply copy some of the problems students have already solved from previous books and create your own cumulative assessment.
Note that a number of errors made their way past the editing process for these books, so be sure to print out the “Errata” page and make corrections in your books before students get confused.
Beast Academy Online
Beast Academy Online presents the same comprehensive program, including practice problems. Students can access course material from most devices, and digital versions of the guide books are included for parents. Students unlock new content by completing lessons and earning stars, so there's a built-in reward system. The system tracks and reports student activity and progress.
Students can be enrolled by the month or the year. If you choose to enroll for the year, you can pay for only online access or you can pay extra for the bundle that includes both online access and all print materials for the course. The extra flexibility might be very useful in some situations, and it also gives students more opportunities to work with pencil and paper for problem solving.
Summary
Beast Academy offers a very interesting option for those who want math courses more rigorous than the Common Core. At the same time, many students will like the style of presentation so much that they might not even realize how challenging the courses might be.
