A bundled CD-ROM multimedia title designed for primary school users, that was often bundled with a Time Windows PC (A common OEM at the time). This stuff pretty much helped me graduate from school.
Simple Spelling
This section teaches spelling in the form of phonetic concepts. There are three programs in the package that provide speech, graphics, animations and sound effects and is controlled by using the mouse.
The first program concentrates on the fundamental three-letter words that are the traditional phonic nursery slopes – cat, mat, hat, etc. You also get audio that sounds out the word, though it comes through rather choppy.
On the next activity, you deal with letter blends such as cl (clown/clown), bl, and fl. Again words are shown and sounded out and we are given the task to spell out the words.
Again the sounds occasionally come out choppy, despite running on a 16x CD-ROM drive.
The final activity teaches the concept of magic e, how putting the letter e at the end of a word changes the sound of a preceding vowel.
So it’s basically your average English lesson with the magic of 90s PC multimedia.
Word Puzzles
There are three puzzles, anagrams, word search and fun with sentences.
Anagrams: This help understand the structure of a word, particularly noting the position of vowels and the way words blend together, such as “fr” and “cl”, there are three levels that range in difficulty, the user rearranges the letters in the correct order. The player uses the mouse to click on a letter and drag it onto a blank space to build up the correct word. Three attempts are allowed before moving on to the next word.
Word Search: A list of the words is shown on the left of the screen and each is highlighted when the word has been found. Clicking on the correct first letter of a word turns the whole word green. Clicking on the wrong letter loses a life, of which there are only three. If the player clicks on a letter and nothing happens, it means the letter is within a hidden word.
Fun with Sentences: This consists of two different puzzles, each of which is designed to help think of the structure of sentences. In the first game, the player is invited to pick the correct word from a choice in order to complete a simple sentence. The second game requires the player to rearrange the words in a jumbled sentence. The mouse is used to click on a word and drag it to its correct place in the sentence.
SATs Tests
Helps prepare for SAT’s tests, which are standardized exams that are carried out in the UK. The questions included here are part of the national curriculum. There are 20 questions to be answered that are covert at either a Key Stage 1 or 2 levels (the difference being the age, 1 intended for ages 7 and 2 intended for 11)
Each question is selected at random and can be answered by selecting a number or typing the answer. Sometimes you will need to select a graphic or icon on the screen.
At the end of the test, you are graded and can see the questions that you got incorrect. The program keeps track of your scores in a graph view so you can track your progress over time.
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