This paper reports on how the affordances of the app Math Shake reshaped the learning experience—an aspect of a research project examining the ways mobile technologies are used in primary-school mathematics. Students used different digital tools within the app to solve word problems, while the affordances, including simultaneous linking, focussed constraint, creative variation, dynamic and haptic, made the learning experience different from when using pencil-and-paper technology. However, while the affordances of the mobile technologies are important, the teacher’s pedagogical approach was also influential in the learning.