Mr. Hopsalot's Burrow--Mr. Hopsalot's burrow is a fun place. Click on a pillow that will play an alphabet
song and review the letters of the alphabet. (Letter shapes and recognition.)
Grandpa--Grandpa lives in crocodile country. Visit Grandpa
in the Bayou and help his
pet egret, Einstein, navigate his way across the swamp to deliver
mail to Grandpa. Mr. Hopsalot displays a letter on a sign and you
click on the letters on the rocks, lilypads, alligators, turtles
and logs in the swamp that match the letter on the sign. At higher
levels, players will be asked to match upper- and lowercase letters,
and to distinguish between letters that are commonly confused, including
b, d, and p. (Practice matching upper and
lower case letters.)
Grandma--Granny lives in the North and coaches a hockey
team made up of penguins. Take to the ice with Granny and her plucky
penguins for a nice ice hockey game. A letter appears on the
scoreboard, and at the same time, a hockey puck glides across the
ice with a word on it. If the word on the puck begins with, ends
with, or contains the letter on the scoreboard, click on the puck
or on the penguin player and watch him score. There are three levels
in this activity: Level 1, match the letter on the scoreboard with
the first letter in the word on the puck; Level 2, match the letter
on the scoreboard with the last letter in the word; and Level 3,
match the consonant blend with the blend in the word. (Learn
consonants & blends by picking the beginning letters and letter-blends
of words.)
Sister Gracie--Gracie lives in the Southwest. Visit sister
Gracie for a fiesta!
If you match enough vowel sounds, the pinata will burst open and
spill goodies everywhere. A letter appears on the pinata. If the
letter is a vowel, you click on the pinata or on Gracie and if you
get it right, you get the goodies. You need to smash all of the
pinatas for a clue. There are three levels in this activity: Level
1, identify vowels; Level 2, identify short vowel sounds; and Level
3, identify long vowel sounds. ( Practice
identifying vowels, distinguish vowels from consonants, and learn
long and short vowel sounds.)
Cousin Romulus--Cousin Romulus lives on a farm. Mosey over
to a cow dance and try to
match the letters on the signs to see the cows do a merry "moo-galoo!"
The cows are lined up, each with a card that has a part of a word
printed on it. Two cows will dance to the front of the line. When
they meet, Mr. Hopsalot will sound out the letters, asking you to
repeat them. If the letters form a real word, you can click on the
dancing cows sign and watch them dance. There are three levels in
this activity: Level 1, the cows form three-letter words; Level
, the cows form words with the soft C and soft G sounds; and Level
3, the cows form words with digraphs. (Sound
out letters phonetically, recognize digraphs, and distinguish between
hard and soft Gs and Cs.)
Cousin Flash--Cousin Flash lives at the beach. Go to the
beach and help cousin Flash win the big surf race. An erupting volcano
spews forth a cloud with a word in it. In a canoe in the water is
a group of Toucans wearing head-dresses with a letter on each head-dress.
You need to spell out the word in the cloud for Flash to advance
in the race. An incorrect letter makes Flash stay in place while
another surfer advances. There are three levels in this activity:
Level 1, clouds have three-letter words; Level 2, clouds have four-letter
words; and Level 3, clouds have three- and four-letter words, each
missing one letter. (Word building.)
Bebop--Bebop, Mr. Hopsalot's jazz-loving hamster friend,
lives in the Big City and plays a mean horn. Visit Bebop and help
him write songs by finding the rhyming words he needs. Bebop reads
the first line of a song and asks what rhymes with the last word
of the line. You click on a picture with the correct rhyming word
on it. If you are correct, Bebop plays a riff for you. If wrong,
you hear a sour note. There are three levels in this activity: Level
1, choose from two picture options; Level 2, choose from three picture
options; and Level 3, choose from four picture options. (Sentence
building, rhyming, reading, and listening skills.)
Carrot Patch--At the end of every activity you complete
successfully, you'll be rewarded
with a clue. Use the clues to dig up the treasure that is hidden
in the carrot patch. (The clues review
all foundational reading skills and using the clues to discover
the treasure chest teaches phonic skills.)