JumpStart Kindergarten covers a full year of kindergarten curriculum, ages 4-6. It's designed to reinforce and build upon the skills that your child is learning in school in pre-reading, early math, language, and creative arts. The program is based on nationally recommended curricula and teacher lesson plans and covers such subjects as pre-reading, alphabet, letter combinations, counting, quantities, similarities and differences, ordering, sequencing, problem-solving, shapes, colors and time concepts. |
Installation. The program is easy to install and only uses 6 MB hard disk space. Activities. Mr. Hopsalot's Kindergarten Classroom is a great place to hang out and have fun. As children explore the classroom, playground and garden, they will encounter 18 skill-building activities and 8 catchy songs. Just inside the front door of the classroom (the right-hand side of the room), children will find these activities:
- Puzzle--Children put these picture puzzles together by matching numbers, letters, shapes, colors, sizes, or words? Jack and Roquefort will give clues. When players complete 4 puzzles, they win a star. At the lowest level, more than one choice disappears after an incorrect choice. At higher levels, no choices disappear. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice recognizing colors, shapes, sizes, numbers, letters, and words, matching letters with their sounds, and identifying words that rhyme, words that are opposites, and words that are similar.)
- Clock--It's time for children to meet Bonnie Bunny! Bonnie wants to share her day with them. Children can click on a time to see what Bonnie Bunny is doing at that hour. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice telling time, associating events with the times of day they occur.)
- Bulletin Board--The Bulletin Board is changed every month. Children can click on the holiday pictures associated with each month to see a fun animation. Kids can drag the gift to their birthday month for a treat when that month arrives.(Educational Benefits: Your child will learn about months, holidays, and seasons.)
- Radio--Children can sing along for fun. Hopsalot's classroom is full of fun, snappy tunes to sing along and dance along with. There are eight different songs they can play. They just click on any radio button to hear a song and see a fun animation.
- Photo Album--The album is a great way to help children remember all the pictures they have seen and all they have done. This is where the photos from the trips to the Petting Zoo are stored.
- Bebop's Home--Here children can Meet Bebop. He is one cool hamster, and his his favorite game is hide and seek. He can be hiding in the classroom, or hiding outside. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice listening and following directions. In each area where Bebop may be hiding, your child will practice the skills that are taught there.)
Near the back door of the classroom (the left-hand side of the room), children will find these activities:
- Chalkboard--There's something special about Hopsalot's Chalkboard. With his special chalk, children can make lots of silly sentences! There are three levels: (1) sentences are composed of Subject, Verb, and Object; (2) sentences include Adjectives; and (3) sentences include Adjectives and an extra Noun. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice building sentences, listening skills, and memory skills.)
- Blocks--In this activity the bright blocks are all scrambled up. Children need to help Jack and Roquefort put the blocks in the correct order. At the lowest level, three blocks are rearranged. At higher levels, the number of blocks will be increased. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice letter and number recognition and sequencing.)
- Dolls--The dolls go for a train ride. But before the train can take off, the dolls have to line up in the correct order, from biggest to smallest, or smallest to biggest. Don't worry - Roquefort is holding a card that shows the order children need to put the dolls in. At the lowest level, three dolls are out of order. At higher levels, the number of dolls will be increased. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice arranging items in relation to size.)
- Paint Set--There are lots of fun things children can do with the Paint Set. They can paint and draw their own pictures. They can play picture-matching games and choose: Funny Faces, Outer Space, Sports, Undersea, or Dinosaurs. Then they can color your game pictures. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice creative art skills such as painting, coloring, and matching.)
- Classroom Closet--There's lots more to play with in here. This is one of Bebop's favorite places to hide.
- Pattern Blaster--Children get to help Jack and Roquefort, and their friend Brie get the cheese. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice recognizing colors and shapes and build visual discrimination skills.)
There is an outside area also Children can click on the Back Door to go to the Garden, Jungle Gym, Tricycle Game, or visit the Picnic Area.
- Hopsalot's Garden--Exciting things don't just happen in the classroom. Out in the garden, there's plenty going on - and growing on. Children can play two games in the garden. (1) Gopher Fun -- The Counting Game where children help save the garden before the hungry gopher grabs his grub; (2) Wacky Water -- Making Patterns where children help Hopsalot water the plants in the correct order. At lower levels, the patterns are simple and the child has several chances to get the correct answer. At higher levels, the patterns are more complex, and the child has only one chance to get the correct answer. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice counting and recognizing patterns.)
- Jungle Gym--Children try to climb to the top of the Jungle Gym before the squirrel beats them to it, and they need to watch out for some balloons that are in the way. At the lowest level, letter matches are all uppercase or all lowercase. At higher levels, both upper and lower case letters must be clicked in order. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice phonics skills, including letter recognition and alphabet sequence.)
- Tricycle Game--There's a whole tricycle obstacle course outside the classroom. When the race starts, children have to keep moving to stay in the correct lane and win the race. (Educational Benefits: Your child will practice phonics, letter recognition, and counting skills.)
- Picnic Area--There's all kinds of fun things to click on in the Picnic Area. Sometimes this is one of Bebop's hiding places. Children need to see if they can find him.
Tracking. Knowledge Adventure's exclusive Adaptive Learning Technology tracks a child's advancement through the program. The difficulty levels of each activity will be automatically increased or decreased depending on your child's success. You can access the Progress Report for immediate feedback on how your child is doing in each fundamental concept.
|
