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1st grade software
Jump Start First Grade is a comprehensive program that integrates basic 1st-Grade curriculum into amusing, age-appropriate activities.
Frankie, the Jump Start Mascot, leads the user on a tour of an interactive school, where learning and fun occur in tandem. The first stop on the tour is the 1st-Grade classroom. Here Mrs. Flores teaches the early fundamentals in the most creative of ways, and students uncover delightful surprises with every click. Activities abound, and each successfully completed attempt wins points which can eventually be redeemed for 'milk cap' (remember POGS?) rewards.
Students visit the Jump Start 'Reading is Fun-damental' Library, which includes eight original storybooks with over 200 pages and illustrations, tackle the 'Tick Tock Game', where hours and minutes correlate to movement on a gameboard, or appreciate 'Music in the Mouse Hole' which features a note-able mouse orchestra. Also included in this room are a simple paint program, and a very average concentration game.
Venturing out of the classroom, 1st graders hit the Lunchroom, the domain of portly Ms. Pickles. Here they flex their math muscles using appropriate coins to purchase food from the vending machines, identifying fractions as they serve ravenous students in the food line, and practicing addition skills as they check out students on the virtual cash register. In the Kitchen they become food preparers, carefully adding ingredients to the baking machine to create culinary delicacies or studiously reading and filling pizza orders.
On the Playground kids uncover Frankie's buried bones with the 'detect-o-matic', or test their knowledge and skill in math marbles and milk caps.
Other program highlights include two field trip locations, and seven sing and learn songs.
Students' progress is individually tracked in the Progress Report on Mrs. Flores' desk. It shows success rate for each educational topic and also serves as a direct link to modules, games or puzzles that include skills used in that area.
Although three levels of play exist in many of the modules, the program's Adaptive Learning Technology allows it to monitor each user's progress and adjust itself accordingly.
Our kid testers also complained that the 100 points needed to earn one milk cap was excessive. Ideally this delayed gratification should make students spend more time with the program, however many of our testers found the goal so distant it caused their motivation to wane.
PC: Windows 3.1, 3.1.1 or Windows 95, 486Sx25 or faster cpu, 6 MB available hard drive space, 4 MB RAM (8 MB Windows 95), SVGA 256-color graphics adapter, Double-speed or faster CD-ROM, MPC-compatible sound cardreturn to top of page
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