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The player interacts with several colorful characters that provide the premise for each puzzle. The games consists of several educational mini games involving adding and subtraction math, word recognition, and reading. You search for clues and assist the school staff during your hunt. You and your classmate Frankie, go on a treasure hunt created by your teacher, Ms. But eventually, your young student will master all of this and it'll lose it's magic. Replay Value: A wide variety of activities and lessons keep them coming back. Sound: Excellent quality on voices (critical for first grade instruction, since one shouldn't rely on their reading comprehension at this age).Įnjoyment: For a first-grader in an educational environment, it doesn't get much better than this.
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It sometimes suffered from slow animation though. Graphics: Top notch, indicative of Knowledge Adventure in color palettes, cheeriness, and quality of graphics. JumpStart First Grade is not a baby sitter, but it's a winner in the edutainment department. Still, the program is a very effective learning tool for first-graders, as long as the parent or teacher recognizes that he/she must supervise and guide the child. Knowledge Adventure could have added intuitive capabilities, whereby it measures the amount of effort required for the child to finally get the answer right, then calculate whether or not the student is ready to move on. It will then "graduate" the student to a higher level and, effectively, to more confusion. Furthermore, many of the exercises can be successfully completed just by random guessing until the right answer is accidentally clicked, fooling the game into thinking that the student really learned the material. Some success can be achieved just by letting the student explore the program without supervision, but many areas will likely be missed. Children are drawn to this feature as well, since their progress is measured in milk caps which they can trade and collect. This is not just a parent/teacher report card. Student progress reports are always just a click away. The three "Rs" are there, along with more intangible goals, such as creative expression, following instructions, abstract reasoning, and decision-making. JumpStart First Grade covers all the bases of the first grade student-too briefly to be a substitute for a standard curriculum, but a wonderful support tool.
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Some are almost too challenging for first graders (such as the lunchroom activity, Serving Up Fractions), but the majority are surmountable, leaving the student with a great feeling of satisfaction. While it is target to first grade students-theoretically ages six to seven-I've witnessed several of my second grade daughter's friends-eight and nine year-olds-lost for over an hour in JumpStart First Grade, captivated and entertained by its mind-stimulating games. Not only is the environment exciting and inviting, but the learning activities themselves are equally colorful and animated. The activities are found in a classroom, in the lunch room, and in the bus while on field trips. JumpStart First Grade presents a world familiar to first-graders: a world that, for such a young student, is both exciting and frightening-a colorful school ground.
#Jumpstart advanced 1st grade download series
Making education entertaining is always a challenge, but Knowledge Adventure has done it again with this-another in their ever-growing series of grade-targeted edutainment products. One of the best things about JumpStart First Grade? It's fun!
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