Thinkin' Things 1

Our children will live and work in an Information Age that we can only begin to imagine. As they master the basic skills of the three R’s, they must now also develop a broader, higher-level set of thinking skills that will transfer to the workplace of the future. Edmark® Thinkin' Things was designed to offer young students experiences with a variety of just such thinking skills: memory, critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity - in short, all the twenty-first century skills that today's young learners need. Set in Toony the Loon’s Lagoon, early learners encounter colorful, fun characters as they complete challenges that are automatically adjusted to meet individual learning needs. With all instructions spoken by the characters, reading is not required so that non-readers can participate fully. FREE LEARNING GUIDE - A teacher's guide is available from the Thinkin' Things site. Click on the "Software MacKiev's Web Site" link at the bottom of this page. Designed for: Pre-K-2, ages 3-8 *** THE FIVE ACTIVITY AREAS 1. TOONY THE LOON'S LAGOON Students build auditory and visual memory as they repeat Toony the Loon’s musical patterns. They create their own memorable melodies with Toony’s wacky xylophones: glasses, strings, hollow logs, and even squawking chickens! 2. ORANGA BANGA® Students need to watch and listen carefully as Oranga Banga plays on his funky drum set, and then repeat what he plays. For an even greater auditory challenge, students can ask Oranga to play in the dark! 3. FEATHERED FRIENDS Young learners will need to put on their thinking caps to create the missing bird in the series. Students will learn about attributes, differences, patterns and analogies. 4. FRIPPLE™ GUIDES For a fun-filled lesson in Boolean logic, students visit the Fripple Shop and fill customer orders for Fripples while learning to observe, compare, contrast and recognize relationships. 5. BLOX FLYING SHAPES Students blend music, art, science, and play as they experiment with motion and the illusion of depth, creating works of kinetic art as they control the motion of shapes and the sounds they make. *** FOR EDUCATORS - MORE ABOUT THINKIN' THINGS Thinkin’ Things celebrates intellectual diversity. A student’s musical and rhythmic intelligence may shine when working with Toony the Loon and his xylophones, or visual and spatial intelligence in creating with BLOX, or logical and mathematical intelligence with the Fripple Guides and Feathered Friends. In areas that may not come as naturally to some children, Thinkin’ Things offers warm, friendly experiences in which self-confidence is built, exploration and creativity are fostered, and persistence is rewarded with success. Thinkin’ Things also focuses attention on how students learn. Is a particular student more likely to remember what is seen or what is heard? How do they approach learning? Do they “guess and test?” Once something is “discovered,” do they use that information in another way to “see what happens?” Do they, for example, prefer to take Fripple orders at the door (both auditory and visual), on the phone (auditory only), or by mail (visual only)? Thinkin’ Things promotes learning in each student’s areas of strength while encouraging growth and building skills in other areas as well. Thinkin' Things assesses a student's capabilities as they participate in activities and automatically adjusts the difficulty level as students progress. Teachers can use the "grow slide" to see what their students are learning, to set a particular level, or select a particular exercise. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES * Compare and contrast attributes * Improve visual and auditory memory * Hypothesize and test rules * Strengthen creativity * Create and discern patterns * Complete visual analogies * Strengthen ability to conceptualize and evaluate * Recognize visual and auditory strengths