Mouse Island from d2 (19.99) is a fun-packed adventure game featuring 38 maths-based puzzles, spread over three levels of difficulty.
The children can visit seven great locations: the ship, the lagoon, Aztec ruins, the dungeon, the old inn, the spooky forest or the dragon's cave.
The three main characters - Roly, Red Mouse and Blue Mouse - complete tasks involving matching shapes, recognising numbers, counting and addition. The aim of the game is to help the mice replace the missing parts of their ship and each activity is either linked to an early learning goal or a KS1 National Curriculum objective. It could be used individually or in groups to reinforce and develop basic numeracy skills. I am sure Mouse Island will appeal across the whole of the key stage.
Telephone 01204 366677
Moles from Resource Education (25) is a complete mouse training program and particularly suitable for nursery and reception children as it introduces five ways of using the mouse. The five activities teach pupils how to: roll the mouse, click on the mole, click and drag, rollover and drag the mole and double click.
There are many ways in which Moles can be used to enliven counting activities and to develop both speed and accuracy in the use of the mouse.
The 'Set-up Editor' allows you to create up to six set-ups combining the various features of Moles.
Telephone 01509 672222
Ask Oscar by Kudlian Soft (35 for a single user) is the ideal software for introducing pupils to a branching database and tree program.
The children are asked to sort items using questions and answers and animated characters are on-hand throughout to make suggestions and comments. One of the great advantages of this program is the completely interactive trees. By watching the objects moving up and down the tree diagram the children can see the implications of their decisions. This is an extremely versatile program and can be used to support work in both numeracy and science. It certainly provoked some lively discussions among my Year 2 pupils and led to some further work developing questioning skills. The only disadvantage I can see is that it is assumed you are already familiar with launching programs and opening and saving files on the computer, but it is well worth persevering.
Telephone 07000 583542
Science Fair would make a welcome addition to your KS1 science resources.
This is a stimulating CD-Rom from Sherston Software (40) using colourful graphics, speech and animated activities to introduce and teach early science concepts.
It features two characters, Bert and Vicky, who take children on a visit to the fairground where early science lessons are put into a lively setting.
Each of the five main areas - electricity, forces and motion, light and sound, earth, sun and moon in space and day, night and the seasons - is organised into two levels of difficulty. All text is spoken as well as displayed and any sentence can be heard again by clicking on the 'repeat'
button.
Science Fair has been designed so that children can work independently, and the various support systems ensure early learners can successfully follow the instructions. The resource sheets and photocopiable resources support, and consolidate, all practical science teaching.
Telephone 01666 843200
Zoombinis Island Odyssey from Mindscape (20) is bound to appeal to seven- to nine-year-olds so will probably prove popular in the out-of-school club. This is the third title in the Zoombinis series and makes an exciting addition. It combines maths problem solving with a fun introduction to science, focusing on skills involving astronomy, ecology and life cycles. The advanced graphics add to this program's appeal and the icon bar provides support at each stage of the adventure.
Telephone 01293 651300
Star rating
Mouse Island *****
Moles ****
Ask Oscar ****
Science Fair *****
Zoombinis ***
