Modelling or simulation software enables children to try things out and make things happen, to make changes easily and recognise the consequences of such changes.
Modelling has been traditionally taught through LOGO (instructions that move a 'turtle' around the screen or floor), but it can also be achieved through art software, adventure games, graphics programs or clip art. Here are some products to get you going.
The Modelling Toolkit
2Simple, 39, www.2simple.com, 020 8203 1781
This is designed for the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. It comprises five different activities, each with three differentiated levels that allow children to predict, explore and make decisions. Each activity has been designed with opportunities to link with core subject areas and can be used to teach ICT skills or as an ICT resource to support literacy, numeracy and science.
One activity looks at completing patterns through colouring and rotating shapes, while another uses a colour palette and tools to consider how a colourless chameleon can be blended into the background or be made to stand out. Another activity involves the practical task of making a sandwich, encouraging the process of planning, revising and editing in science.
Audio instructions at the beginning of each task are in French, Punjabi, Spanish, Bengali, Sylheti or Welsh as well as English.
Rating: 8 out of 10
The Magic Forest
Logotron, 39, www.logo.com, 01223 425558
This is an ICT-based modelling environment designed and developed for children from four to seven years. However, many aspects of the software would challenge older children. It comes with a variety of activities to explore, understand and change.
Children are encouraged to modify and change the prepared activities. The consequences of their decisions are seen and experienced on screen, and ultimately create their own completely new activities using a pictorial icon language.
The Magic Forest is packed with beautifully drawn backgrounds and characters, including children's favourites The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, Incy Wincy Spider and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Rating: 9 out of 10
My World 3
49, Adventures in My World, 40 (requires My World 3), www.r-e-m.co.uk, 01458 254700
This is an electronic version of 'fuzzy felt'. Screens can contain pictures, text, animation and sound.Children choose, pick up, move, drop and delete objects to build up an environment. Objects are layered so it is easy to hide things, and there is also a set of tools to resize, rotate and flip objects.
My World 3 comes with sets of screens, but many publishers create their own themed sets, such as early counting, literacy and nursery rhymes. Remember, you always need the My World 3 software to use them.
Adventures in My World is a set of screens designed to support the Key Stage 1 curriculum. Children visit and explore six areas - a house, a garden, a farm, a village, a playground and the woods - where they can try out a variety of curriculum-based activities. They will find puzzles and pattern making, sound matching and counting, each with spoken as well as written instructions, making it suitable for the youngest children.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Albert's House
Resource, 35, www.resourcekt.co.uk, 01509 672222
In a typical house lives a very untypical mouse, Albert. He has a room behind the skirting board, complete with a matchbox bed and chest of drawers. Albert's House essentially involves finding Albert. Activities vary from a simple search through the house to an interactive Find Albert Mouse.
There are hide and seek activities and there is a game where the user must help Albert avoid the cat by carrying out a series of actions in a logical order. Items around the house can be investigated by clicking on them and there is considerable attention to detail, down to the food in the fridge and the accuracy of the clocks - all of which speak the time.
Albert's House is probably best used by the adult carer, working with a small group or with an interactive whiteboard. The content offers much in terms of developing speaking, listening, positional and vocabulary-based work, and would be a useful starting point for lots of literacy and other cross-curricular activities.
Rating: 8 out of 10
