Curriculum Companion: It's Alive!
by Mayer-Johnson, LLC
Fun, supplemental onscreen activities to learn about living and non-living things through discussion of needs and abilities!
In the sixth unit of the Curriculum Companions series, students will learn that all people, plants, and animals are living things and that living things can grow, change, and die. Students will also learn that living things have needs such as food, water, sunlight, and air.
What are Curriculum Companions?
Curriculum Companions are topic-specific and engaging computer-based activities to supplement instruction in K-2 topics. They are designed to be used with any curriculum and academic standards you currently use to guide your instruction.
Curriculum Companions support goals in reading, writing and application of new information with more than 18 computer-based activities that align with content-area curriculum and academic standards.
They are appropriate for students of all ages and abilities with academic goals in the K-2 grade-level.
Features and Benefits
- Every activity can be adapted with different levels of support.
- Every interactive, onscreen activity is designed with the teacher and student in mind.
- Activities align with content-area curriculum while incorporating reading and writing supports that provide students with opportunities to practise and demonstrate what they have learned.
- The same types of activities are offered on different topics so students become familiar with the activity structure – even when working with new subjects!
- Onscreen instructions guide you through applying changes to existing activities so you can modify and adjust them to suit different goals and abilities – with or without substantial knowledge of the Boardmaker Software Family.
Curriculum Companions are designed to be used with multiple students and teachers can track their individual progress with student management tools. You can evaluate student progress and performance with student and teacher-friendly summary reports.
How do Curriculum Companions work?
Each of the eight Curriculum Companions includes activities focused on reading, writing, practising and quizzing, all with adjustable levels of complexity and prompting support to suit each student’s individual needs and goals.
- Reading Supports

Reading supports for successful reading comprehension include text-to-speech, visual supports, interactive glossaries, idea maps and automatic visual and auditory prompting and reinforcement that:- Expand vocabulary as students learn new concepts
- Improve reading comprehension using photographs, illustrations and symbols
- Promote student and teacher interaction to build background knowledge and establish links to previous learning experiences.
- Writing Supports

Writing support for successful expression of learning include a range of activities like errorless writing grids, sentence building templates and target word banks to:- Help students demonstrate understanding of content
- Motivate students to try more challenging methods of written expression
- Increase confidence with unique activities that suit individual skills
- Practice
Through practice tests, students can demonstrate what they have learned and get feedback on their progress. Practice activities include:- sorting
- classifying
- labelling
- fill-in-the-blank
- multiple choice
- true/false questions and more.
- Quiz
Teachers can use the provided quizzes to evaluate student understanding of new concepts as they track progress.
Videos about Curriculum Companions
Requirements and ResourcesexpandClick to collapse
Software Requirement
- Boardmaker Plus!, Boardmaker Player or Boardmaker with Speaking Dynamically Pro version 6 or higher for Windows or Mac
View/Download
Curriculum Companion: It's Alive! is targeted at the following age ranges:
- Early Childhood
- Early Primary
Curriculum Companion: It's Alive! is designed to foster development in the areas of:
- Literacy
- Science
- SOSE
Users can access Curriculum Companion: It's Alive! in the following ways:
- Mouse/ Trackball/ Joystick
- Keyboard
- Touchscreen
- Single Switch
- Multiple Switches
For answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and technical support visit:
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