Erin Miller
September 27, 2002

Software Review: Curious George Learns Phonics
 Title: Curious George Learns Phonics
 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Interactive
 Date Published: 1997
 Platform: Mac and Windows
 Content Area: reading
 Range of Grade Levels: K-2, beginning readers
 Content Description: This game is designed for beginning readers. There are 6 fun phonics games for children to play. The main theme is a circus. The games are: Animal Acrobats, Fun House, Peanut Pickup, Comedy Clowns, Sammy the Musical Seal, and Story Theater. This software is very child friendly and easy for children to navigate. They can choose whatever game they want to play and play it however long they want to play it. The software is very exciting from the moment it comes up on the screen to the time one turns it off. It has music and stimulating visuals. The first game I chose to play is called Comedy Clowns.  This was my favorite game. The player matches pictures to sounds in a word. If the right answer is given, the 2 clowns tell jokes. Some examples of the jokes are: What happens when a refrigerator gets unplugged? It loses it’s cool, What do you do if you get a blue banana? Try to cheer it up. If the player needs help with one of the problems, they can click on the icon in the corner and a? will appear and the player is given a clue. Next, I played Funhouse. A word is given to the player, letters come out of windows and make sounds so the player must match the first sound in the word and put it on a billboard. This was a neat game because each letter that came out of the windows made the right sound. For example, if the letter “t” came out, the sound was made with it.  I played the Seal game next. For this game, eight pictures come out, five are the short “a” sound. The player puts the right pictures on the horns so that the seal can play music. This game was also neat. The short “a” sound was reinforced over and over again. Story Theater is great because the reader can pick the story to be read. The words appear on big pages and light up as they are read. The animals in the book are off to the side acting out what the words say. This is great for kids who want to work on reading skills and comprehension. Animal Acrobats works on rhyming words. Three of the same animal comes out and they each have a picture. The player must match the rhyming word with the word given. If the right answer is given, the animal is launched forward on a platform. If the wrong answer is given, the animal is tossed backwards and a clue is given. At the end of a section the animals do acrobatic stunts. It is interesting to watch. Peanut Pickup was the most frustrating game on the software. It involves a maze of peanuts and the player is supposed to match the consonant sound of a letter given. For example, if the letter “b” is given, the player must get the vendor with the picture of a bed into a tent. It is very hard to do. This game was the biggest weakness of the software. Otherwise, the games are very easy to play.  I would definitely use this software in a classroom because it is interactive and fun and really teaches children concepts that they need to know. I would use it to enhance learning and make phonics fun. Overall I would rate this software a 7 because it is very good, but not perfect. I could probably think of a couple ways to improve it. Other reviews of Curious George software can be found at http://www. connsensebulletin.com/spellcsr.html. Another plus for this software is that you can print out a Certificate of Achievement for the children.

Other software reviews:
1. There’s a Dinosaur in the Garden review by Tina Velgos. http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/reviews/dino.htm
-Based on this review, I would use this software if I was doing a dinosaur unit and I had children who were interested in dinosaur facts and names. It looks like a fun game that works on skills such as spelling, memorization, and reading.

2. Curious George Learns to Spell review by Connie Ziko and students
http://www.connsensebulletin.com/spellcsr.html
-Based on this review, I would use this software for children who needed extra help in spelling.

3. Kid Phonics review by Linda Bloom
http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/reviews/phonics.htm
-Based on this review, I would use this software because it sounds like it would be very interesting to children and instructional as well. It also looks very visually stimulating.