Virtual VTECH Read and Spell with Zoo-phonics

Age Group: Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8 Type: Price: $35

PC version requires:
Windows 95 or later, 90 MHZ, 16MB RAM, 1MB HD, 640x480 screen resolution, 4x CD-ROM

Mac version requires:
Power Macintosh, iMac or faster, Mac OS 7.6 or higher, 16MB RAM, 3MB HD, 640x480 resolution, 4x CD-ROM

Description:

Virtual VTECH Read and Spell with Zoo-phonics has been designed, for children Pre-K through 1st Grade, to teach the alphabet, shapes and sounds of letters, and body signals that immitate the letter shape and link to its sound. There are 15 alphabet and spelling Zoo-phonic activities:

Click on the statue of Zoophonia to open her printable Address Book. Grandma Zoophonia will teach you letter shapes, body signals, and sounds for each letter. Zebra Zeke will sing an alphabet rap diddy, or you can hear and learn the Zoo-phonic Alphabet Song. The Zoo's Main Building encourages children to rehearse the Zoo-phonic Alphabet Song on their own. Click on the double flags with the music symbols and the music will begin playing and the Zoo-phonic animals will go marching by in alphabetical order. PeeWee Penguin, and his penguin friends, would like to help you arrange words on their floating ice blocks to make a sentence. If you are not sure what comes next, click on the walkie talkie and Zebra Zeke will help you. Zoophonia will read the sentance when it is arranged correctly. Elli Elephant is at the Zoo Billboard, but the words are all mixed up! Use the empty blocks below to put letters in the correct order to read the zoo news.

Francy Fish enlists children's help in Capital Fun. Zoophonia calls out a sound, players need to click and drag the correct letter to Jerry Jellyfish where his tentacles will put the letter into an aquatic machine. The lower case letters come out capitalized and are saluted by all. Sounds and body signals are reemphasized. Inny Inchworm is at the top of the flagpole and wants you to play the Inchworm Game. Zoophonia introduces a family, for example: "at" family, each "at" has a blank space in front of it and a picture of what you want the child to spell above it. Use letters such as c,b,h, and r to spell words like: cat, bat, hat, and rat.

Robby Rabbit invites children into the Petting Zoo. A game of matching ensues as children are asked to match two alike letters, animals, or merged animal/letter symbols. Zoophonia is there to act out body signals and say letter sounds. Follow the blue pointing finger to explore all the areas of the Petting Zoo. Umber Umbrella is at the Aviary. Find Zoo-phonic Characters, letters, or animal/letter merged pictures hidden in the Aviary--click on the hidden letters to put them on a chart. Visit the Snack Machine and push the green go button, and the snack machine will fill with letters. Zeke will call out a sound, then you click on the correct letter and it will be replaced with a snack. Four snacks in a row, or on a slant, and the machine will roll you something good to eat! Bubu Bear wants to find words hiding in the honeycombs of a Beehive. The words are listed along with an arrow giving the child a hint as to the dirctional position of the word.

Catina Cat would like to hear some stories at the Zoo Library. Choose one of eight books and the Zoo-phonic animal in the story will read it to you, or you can read it yourself. Kao Kangaroo is at the Zoo Train Station setting up boxes that need to be put into the correct train cars. This activity has two different options. The child can click on the letter or picture and hear Zoophonia repeat the sound and bodysignal, or they can set the clock and try to get the cars loaded with the correct boxes before it's time for Zeke to leave. Go to the Zoo Kitchen and put the word magnets on the refrigerator door on the same word on the refrigerator lock. This will unlock the refrigerator where children can help Gordo Gorilla pick up spilled bananas off the floor. Zoophonia will call out a word and children can click and drag the bananna, with that word on its side, to the basket.

Olive Octopus needs help putting a group of words into alphabetical order. The alphabet is shown at the top of the screen as a help. Zoophonia will go through the words after the task is accomplished. Sneaky Sammy Snake and his slithering snake friends have a message for you. Decode the message by finding the matching number above and obtaining the correct letter. Zoophonia will then read you the message.

Features:

• 15 Zoo-phonics Alphabet and Spelling Activities
• Choose a guided lesson plan or plan one yourself
• Keeps progress track of up to 50 users
• Includes a comprehensive "Parent Guide"
• Printable Zoo-phonics flash cards
• Original Zoo-phonics Music

Technical Aspects:

Report and Conclusions:

My four year old thoroughly enjoys the program, especially if we sit down with him. Yesterday, while sitting next to his Grammy Bunny, he wrote cat, papa, dog, and a variety of other words and letters all by himself. Knowing that neither my husband or I have done any formal letter recognition or writing practice with him I knew it was from the time he has spent with the

Read and Spell with Zoo-phonics program. He loves to follow us now, with his Handy Dandy Notebook (it's a Blue's Clues thing), and write letters.

Why am I so excited? Besides the fact that I can see how much he has learned on his own, I can't wait to take the time and help him accelerate that learning progress:D Also, we all know that without language there would be no communication, right? Good communicators have higher success rates and make our society better.

Read and Spell with Zoo-phonics will begin to help your child on his or her way to good communication. It's EXCITING!!! An impressive program, thank you VTECH!