Product Description
WiggleWorks is an entertaining story collection that uses fun
activities to help children learn to read and write.
Prospects
Parents of children ages three to eight.
Key Selling Points
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* Helps children learn the basics of reading and writing
* Fun activities expand kids' creativity
* Involves parents
* Lets children work at their own pace.
* Keeps kids' attention for long-term value.
* Helps children learn the basics of reading and writing.
- Read books. Kids can read a WiggleWorks story themselves, or have the
narrator read it for them. They can click on unfamiliar words to hear
them read out loud. "My Words" lets children choose words from the
stories to build a personal word list. With a microphone, kids can
also record themselves reading, then listen to how they sound.
- Write stories. Kids can use WiggleWorks to write their own stories,
which can include words from their own word list and the WiggleWorks
word list. The "Story Starters" feature is available if young writers
need ideas for beginning their stories. "Paint Tools" lets children
create pictures to accompany their writing.
- Practice the alphabet. Kids can learn to recognize letters by playing
with them on WiggleWorks' electronic "magnet board." To coach kids
along, their friendly worm host can speak the letters and suggest fun
things to do with them.
* Fun activities expand kids' creativity. WiggleWorks helps children
become creative writers. their imagination is the only limit to what
they can do with it.
To entertain and inspire kids, the WiggleWorks CD includes three books
with colorful illustrations and engaging music:
- Peanut Butter Rhino. A story about a happy-go-lucky rhino who yearns
for his missing peanut butter sandwich.
- Birds on Stage. Rhymes and riddles about a family of feathered
friends.
- Frog's Lunch. A tale about a frog and his rather unfortunate lunch: an
innocent fly.
Kids can rewrite and re-illustrate the WiggleWorks stories as much as
they like, using existing characters or adding themselves and their
friends as characters. They can also write and illustrate their own
stories. Their guide for these and other activities is the friendly
WiggleWorks worm.
* Involves parents. Each WiggleWorks story comes with a parent activity
card that offers ideas for writing stories and for related reading,
drawing, singing, and play activities that parents and children can
participate in together. With a microphone, parents can also record
ideas and words of encouragement for their kids.
* Lets children work at their own pace. With WiggleWorks, kids and their
parents are in control of the learning environment. If the exercise is
reading, parents can set the pace at which text is highlighted and read
by the narrator; they can even customize the settings for different
children. WiggleWorks also lets kids choose their own stories and
signals them when its time to turn the page. In addition, kids can
choose to read to themselves, read outloud, or write their own stories.
If the exercise is writing, kids can take all the time they need to
develop a story.
* Keeps kids' attention for long-term value. WiggleWorks combines story
telling, drawing, reading, and writing activities -- typically found
only in individual software packages -- on one convenient CD-ROM disc.
This variety means that kids will find exciting new things to do with
WiggleWorks every time they use it -- so they'll want to keep using it
for a long time. And the customization features enable parents to keep
WiggleWorks challenging as kids get older and increase their skills.
Product Details
* Any Apple Macintosh computer with a 68020 or later processor, including
Macintosh LC, Macintosh II, Macintosh Performa, Macintosh Centris,
Macintosh Quadra, Power Macintosh, and PowerBook computers.
* At least 4 megabytes of memory.
* A 12-inch or larger color display.
* A CD-ROM drive.
* System software version 7.0 or later.
* Recommended: A microphone (for recording children's and parents'
voices).
Availability and Localization
* WiggleWorks will be ready for order in late September, 1994. It's
presently available in U.S. English.
Article Change History:
23 Jan 1995 - Corrected spelling of WiggleWorks.
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