Five Cuddly Teddies Story Kit for IntelliKeys
by Gerry Kennedy
Five Cuddly Teddies Story Kit
For PC Compatibles running MS Windows and Apple Macintosh computers – Requires IntelliKeys
This colourful kit is made by the Hands on Concepts team in Western Australia in conjunction with IntelliTools. The kit is designed for use with the ubiquitous IntelliKeys board. Children in junior primary and students with special needs will delight in accessing this series of stories using mouse, Touch Screen, IntelliKeys or Switch (the Story overlays only).
These colourful onscreen activities cater to young children. They have been designed using another very popular IntelliTools package, IntelliPics. It is a powerful yet elementary approach to the use of multimedia in mainstream primary and special settings. IntelliPics can be used effectively to create and design your own onscreen interactive activities. You can import and incorporate pictures, sounds, music, animation, text and sound effects. Hands on Concepts have cleverly designed these kits to be “out of the box” solutions.
Each activity has an overlay. You simply place it on the IntelliKeys board. Start an IntelliPics activity or file (a runtime version is included on the CD-ROM) and the corresponding overlay ‘file’ is sent automatically. Setting up is quick and easy! If you possess the full version of IntelliPics, you can modify and customise content over and above the original material. You can even modify and edit the learning content!
This fuss-free approach is appreciated by busy teachers and/or teacher aides as there is no technical expertise involved. ‘The Five Cuddly Teddies Story’ or ‘The Colourful Caterpillar Story Kit’ can be purchased separately or as a bundle. Both accommodate early learners and will be most suitable in special school classrooms, in pre-school or kindergartens.
Five Cuddly Teddies Story from Hands on Concepts
The theme of Teddy Bears is universal and will appeal to older students who use IntelliKeys or who have special learning and/or access needs. The package incorporates music, songs, voiced text, animation, colourful characters and text. The screens are well designed with good “figure ground”. The text is large and a clear non-serif Arial font (in the PC version). (NOTE: Using Options/Activity Preferences in IntelliPics, you can change the font from 12-72 point, with the default size being 20 point). There are six IntelliPics files with two overlay files. The kit assists in teaching a number of concepts, including:
- Counting: This is evident in the Five Cuddly Teddies Story, which is sung. The teddies all disappear!
- Subtraction: Count and see a bear with a hat, shirt, pants, shoes and a tie. Each article is a different colour.
- Colours: Teddy is wearing an article of clothing. You choose the colour (from a choice of five colours)
- Matching: The child matches the teddy with the corresponding article of clothing
You can also use the Story and Explore activities. The story is sung with teddies disappearing (due to an over active puppy dog!). Mother Teddy is quite upset that her Teddies keep disappearing off the couch! It is a form of subtraction and very well designed and presented. It could be used in Music Therapy, as it is an enjoyable song, with repetition and simple lyrics. The Explore activity lets the students experiment and play with number and colour. They can choose their favourite bear, and colour him in and have up to five on the screen. (NOTE: In Activity Preferences, you can have numbers up to 20 and have 12 colours displayed. This would suit advanced learners or older students who can use a mouse or trackball). The teddy bears are very cute. Five teddies appear on the overlay dressed in coloured clothes and performing different antics. They certainly appeal to younger children who have teddies as toys and bedtime friends!