Educational Software

2005-12-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

3D Froggy Phonics is a program designed for ages four to eight. Here students can -Learn-, -Watch-, and -Play- as they explore each letter in the alphabet with Frizzy the Frog. Students -Learn- the letter sounds for each letter and how to combine sounds to form words, -Watch- animated movies for both the short and long vowel sounds, and -Play- skill building games. The games include a paint activity, reading activity, spelling activity, a mouse skills activity, and a memory game. There are several animal characters that guide the student. This a great phonics program that really focuses on phonemic awareness in an enjoyable and stimulating way.

2005-12-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

FASTT MATH is a piece of software produced by Tom Snyder for the Scholastic company. It is based on a validated strategy for increasing competency with basic math skills called FASTT (Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology). The software is designed to develop automatic recall and correct usage of basic mathematical facts, freeing students from the burden of having to willfully recall and apply them during complex problem-solving. A built-in assessment tool allows the software to adapt to the student’s individual needs, and a useful set of tools for collecting data about individual students, or groupings of students.

2005-12-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

Scholastic’s Wiggleworks is designed to raise scores on standard literacy tests in the K-2 range. It has the added benefit of being thoroughly validated and compliant with the recommendations set forth in the READING FIRST national initiative to raise average scores on literacy-specific competencies (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension). The Wiggleworks package also contains a built-in assessment tool, which will be of use for teachers in collecting and analyzing data about their students. The software includes facilities for reading-aloud with visual cues, palettes for constructing words out of ``virtual refrigerator magnet-letters,” and point-and-click repetition of unfamiliar or difficult words.

2005-12-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

Jumpstart Reading with Karaoke is a program that allows the child to interact directly with the software by providing voice-recognition technology. The child is guided through reading exercises by an interactive kitty cat, which dispenses suggestions and helpful advice as the child proceeds through the examples. Technologies like these are beneficial in the sense that they do more to address the individual needs of each learner. Skills are reinforced through practice, which leads to mastery. The software uses time-tested rhyming, repetition, and visual-association techniques as a prelude to singing songs which the learner must learn to read. Jumpstart also provides a “clubhouse,” where children are able to apply their skills to singing 24 different songs.

2005-12-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

Disney’s Mickey Mouse Kindergarten is designed for children ages 4-6. Mickey Mouse collects stories throughout the city as he encounters several of his friends. Skills include number recognition, counting, attribute discrimination, telling time, following directions, simple addition, using clues to solve a mystery, and filling in letters to complete words. This software touches on many Kindergarten concepts while engaging and entertaining small children. It also increases young children’s knowledge of computer basics.

2005-12-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

Destination Neighborhood is a program designed for students in grades Kindergarten through sixth grade. Students can write about adventures using Destination Neighborhoods familiar settings and characters. As students select scenes, animate stickers from the Sticker Picker, write (stories, letters, journals, poems), add music, and add narrations; they explore the neighborhood and the people who live there. Students can print their story or watch it on the screen. When you view the screen students can see and hear each page of their story. This is a great program for strengthening writing and editing skills, and for developing students understanding of story structure.

2005-11-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

WiggleWorks is a software program designed for grades K-2 to help students develop reading and writing skills. The program attends to several important skills including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, listening, writing, and speaking skills. In the WiggleWorks program students are asked to select one of three stories- Birds on Stage, Peanut Butter Rhino, and Frog’s Lunch. Several different options are then accessible to the student- hear the story read aloud by a narrator, read the story yourself, write and illustrate your own version of the story, write your own story, play a word game, or form words on a magnet board. The students stories can also be read aloud using the text-to-speech component and students can even record, save and play their own voice as the read. WiggleWorks is really interactive for young readers. It teaches and reinforces skills that are essential to reading growth.

2005-11-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

Dollarville is a software program that teaches children about money, and is designed for students ages 5-9. Students become sheriff of Dollartown, with a western theme, and learn about money skills, identifying coins, purchasing items, and using the correct change. Their are several different characters in this town including Deputy Dollar, Mayor Cents, and Buck Buffalo Nickel.
There are four levels in this program- coin identification, basic coin values and advanced coin values, basic math skills, and purchasing and making change. There are tons of games, questions, and graphics to reinforce learning. There is a certificate of completion that can be printed for students and tons of verbal praise. The progress of individual students can be tracked, making this a great evaluative tool for teachers.

Software - CD-Rom
Mac Classic, Windows 98, Windows XP
Cost: $25-30 per CD-Rom

2005-11-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

My Amazing Human Body is an extremely interactive and exploratory program for children, and is designed to teach them about the human body. It is intended for students 6-10 but I feel that that it can be used with older students as well. There are four major sections in the program; Build Me A Body (students answer questions about parts of the body), What Am I Made Of (find out facts about the human body and view simulations), Take Me Apart (students manipulate parts of the body and drag them to their correct location on a skeleton), and Me and My Day (students can comment about themselves and ask questions). Seemore Skinless is a talking skeleton that hosts My Amazing Human Body. There is a secret file in which the students can record facts about him/her self and view a glossary or fact file. There are lots of fun features, animations, simulations, activities and games. This software encourages students to really get involved and investigate the human body to its deepest layer.

2005-11-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Math Blaster has a proven track record of almost 20 years as being an effective tool for teaching basic mathematical skills for grades 3-6. The focus is on simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division exercises, but also targets problem-solving skills. Families of mathematical techniques are grouped together as sets of related facts for children to commit to memory, and apply to practice problems. An engaging outer-space theme pervades the entire course of instruction, turning the normally tedious job of learning math into a set of fast-paced video games. The structure of the games not only helps children to learn math, but builds speed and accuracy in computation, which is an invaluable skill throughout the educational development of the child.

2005-10-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

Time Flies 1.4.2 is a great tool to use when teaching students how to quickly and accurately read time using both analog and digital based clocks. This program includes four different tasks; matching an analog clock to a digital clock given three choices, matching a digital clock to an analog clock given three choices, matching digital and analog clocks, and a memory excercise. Time Flies offers learners a variety of setting options so that instruction can be tailored to address individual needs; number of questions asked within each task, 12*24*12/24 hour time choices, numerical information that is presented on the analog clocks can be changed to increase complexity, and several time interval levels of difficulty are provided (hour, 30 minute, 15 minute, 5 minute, minute). Students can monitor their progress by checking the high scores screen and printing out report cards, which can also be very motivating. Time Flies supplies educators with printable worksheets for additional practice. There is an unregistered version of Time Flies that is classified under shareware. To download a trial version visit www.Scolasoft.com -specializing in kid friendly educational software.

2005-10-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Lexia Cross-Trainer: Logical Reasoning is an interesting program. While most educational software directly addresses curriculum items, Lexia’s Cross-Trainer is a suite of interactive games which help to build basic cognitive abilities in ages 7-adult. In particular, Lexia’s Logical Reasoning software builds proficiency with basic logical concepts, including pattern-matching, grouping of objects by class/similarity, basic knowledge of conjunctions/disjunctions/negations (and’s & or’s & not’s), and various styles of inference (deduction and induction). The Lexia software also recognizes impasses in student performance, and provides remediation on-the-fly to address these deficits. Logical skills lie at the heart of solid performance in mathematics, science, reading comprehension, and technical writing, among others. It’s good to see that educational aides are being developed to exercise these basic set of tools.

2005-10-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Ice Cream Truck is a software program designed for grades 2-6, but I believe that it could be integrated into the curriculum for middle and high school students. It is an ice cream truck business simulation program where children make decisions and strategically plan where and when they will sell, and how much inventory they will purhase. As owner of the truck, the student must purchase and sell three kinds of ice cream to customers given four locations. Depending on the day of the week, the time of day, the temperature, scheduled events, and location of sales, the owner purchases treats based on their perception of the supply and demand. If the owner runs out of gas they must be towed at a charge and loose money. If the owner runs out of money the game is over. The goal of the game is to make as much profit as they can, up to $99,999,99.oo.
This program is great for math, economics, and social studies lessons. Students really begin to make smarter purchasing decisions, make predictions, and evaluate variables. There is a journal component to the software as well, tying in ELA standards.

2005-10-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Kid Keys 2.0 begins to teach students typing and mouse skills to ease their use of the computer . Keystone the Dragon and his friends in the castle guide students through a variety of tasks; finding letters on the keyboard, typing the alphabet in order using the keyboard, typing sentences, correct finger positioning, and manipulating the mouse. The software is very motivational with characters, pop-up pictures, sound effects, songs, words of encouragement, and printable Certificates of Achievement that our personalized for completeing various activities. The program really enforces student learning. Multiple levels allow learners to progress at their own rate as the program is designed for use with grades pre-k through second.
Computer presence in the educational setting is now almost a certainty and keyboarding skills are something that must be taught in schools. By the 21st century all children in the nation ought to be technologically literate. This is the challenge. Getting students familiar with the keyboard in the earlier grades will set the ball rolling and help our nation to reach this goal.

2005-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

My First Incredible Amazing Dictionary has over 1,000 words that children encounter early in life. Each word provided on this program has a picture, speech component to read definition, and links to other related words. There is a "surprise me" icon that pops up random words, a "backtrack" icon that shows students the most recent words viewed, a "quick search" icon where you can type in the word you are looking for, and a "game" icon including three fun and interactive activities. The three games presented are "Guess What"-asks questions about an object and students choose between three options, "Spell It"-gives you an option of easy (K), hard (1), and hardest (1-2), and "What's That Noise"-where students match pictures to sounds. This software is great for early elementary students. The program is interactive and provides terrific sounds, special effects, animations, and graphics!

2005-09-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Storybook Weaver Deluxe is a great way to get kids writing stories because they can create and print their own books with story image illustrations, scenes, colors, patterns, pictures, words, and sounds. The software stimulates children to be creative and provides a list of story starters for students who can't get motivated to write. Children can listen to their story being read aloud with the text-to-speech feature, giving them a greater sense of accomplishment. The stories can also be written in Spanish and used for ESL students and when learning Spanish. A very interactive program!