Description:
Hit the beat with cuddly canine Blue and fill the empty newsstand with issues of your own paper. While Steve minds the store for Cash Register, you and Blue travel through a series of five learning activities designed to strengthen listening comprehension and writing skills, as well as word and letter recognition. Each activity becomes a hot news story for the Big News Gazette, but it's up to you to decide if a story makes it into the paper, or where in the paper it will appear.Blue's pursuit for all that's fit to print takes kids through the library, where they meet up with lots of Blue's pals. Help Green Kitten and other feline friends write and illustrate stories, jump into a dictionary and match missing words to their definitions, or play Word Match with Magenta, Mrs. Salt, and Mr. Pepper. Create your own stories with Fan, or choose from words and pictures to help Blue find missing items. As kids participate in each activity, they earn stories to fill the paper and the newsstand. The quality of the learning activities is excellent, a smooth introduction to a concept that can often be overwhelming. In addition to reading skills, kids sharpen their memories, vocabularies--even their decision-making skills, by selecting which stories to feature and how the articles should be laid out. The characters are charming, the graphics are sharp and brightly colored to hold kids' attention, and the light dose of humor and bluesy music woven throughout make this program a delight--even for those unfamiliar with the television show that made Blue a star. There are some extra-nice touches: word cards that sound themselves out when clicked on appear throughout the game, and unlike some children's programs that can leave kids lost with a lack of direction, here kids are prompted with instructions from participating characters if they wait too long to take action. The program even includes a copy of Blue's ABC Time Activities for kids to further hone their language skills. (Ages 3 to 6) --Leah Ball
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