Software review

www.sherston.com, 01666 843200 (47.50 + VAT)

Mr Wolf is kind and gentle but he's getting a little forgetful! This new CD- Rom from Sherston Software asks children to help Mr Wolf in his clock repair shop. Here they learn the concepts, vocabulary and maths related to understanding and telling the time. An interactive 'talking' clock adds to the fun.

Mr Wolf invites children to help him with his various jobs and guides them through each activity with narrated animation sequences. Designed for children aged four to six, the program has three levels of difficulty that correspond to the first three years at school, including extensive teacher controls, teaching objectives, record-keeping facilities and a comprehensive bank of photocopiable resource sheets.

Pupils are introduced to the concept of fast and slow, and they will learn to order and read the names of the week as they help Mr Wolf complete his jobs. Months and seasons of the year are also covered.

Mending cuckoo and chiming clocks introduces the basics of analogue clocks and telling the time; differentiated levels cover o'clock, half and quarter-hours. By helping to mend digital clocks, children are taught to tell the time to the quarter-hour using both analogue and digital displays.

A 'talking' clock has two modes: play mode motivates children to learn to tell the time through experimentation, while the demo mode is designed to be used to teach it to a group or class using a large screen or interactive whiteboard.

This CD-Rom is up to the usual professional standard we expect from Sherston. However, the pace of the activities could be a little slow, and perhaps over-narrated, for some children. As with all Sherston software this CD-Rom is available on approval, so try before you buy and make a decision before time's up!