Reading Blaster

Reviewers: Belle Wong (parent) and Hayley (6)
E.B. Phin Public School
Pickering, Ontario, Canada
EMail address: belle.wong@home.com

Reading Blaster, Ages 5-7
Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
https://store.knowledgeadventure.com
Win/Mac CD-Rom
Minimum system requirements:
Windows: Windows 98/95, Pentium 90 or faster, 16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended), 256-color Super VGA graphics, 4X CD-ROM or better, mouse, Windows compatible sound card, printer recommended Macintosh: Power Macintosh, 256-color graphics, minimum 640X480, 32 MB RAM, System 7.5.3 or higher, 4X CD-ROM or better, printer recommended
Date reviewed: May 4, 2000
WAYCOOL rating: 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, Way Cool.

Although my children have been raised with several different versions of Math Blaster, we were eager for the chance to take a look at Reading Blaster, which we had never tried before. We definitely were not disappointed!

In Reading Blaster, Ages 5-7, players begin on the Planet of Lost Things. Children throughout the galaxy have been losing lots of things - like socks and balloons! - which somehow have ended up on the Planet of Lost Things. Players must play the activities and earn five keys in order to unlock the Lost and Found room and return the things back to the children who have lost them.

Players can select a level from 1 to 5, and a chart keeps track of each player's progress and increases the skill level of each activity as students master the basic skills required for each level. A handy little chart icon at the bottom of the screen lets you see your progress at any time during an activity.

There are five different activities to choose from. Picture This is a comprehension activity in which players must follow specific instructions, step by step, to create a poster. In the first level, the instructions are simple directions to place a certain object within a certain area of the poster. The levels progress in difficulty, and by level five, players fill in the blanks with objects as well as place them in the correct position on the poster. Once the poster is created, players must also choose the correct name for the poster.

In Toy Trains, players drag and drop train boxcars to correctly spell the spoken word. In level one, players are required to spell three letter words. By level five, players are forming one or two syllable words, including words ending in "ing".

Sorting Socks requires players to catch only those socks containing words with beginning sounds that match the spoken sound. In level one, the words are short, three-letter words. By level five, players must sort through longer words, as well as match beginning sounds that are consonant blends and digraphs.

In Lost Your Marbles, players are snakes and must sort words by category by gobbling up correct words. The category becomes more difficult as the levels progress. For example, in level one, a player might be asked to gobble up words that are numbers. By level five, players are asked to sort words that are things, or which are descriptive words.

The final activity, Balloon Blowout, tests players' sequencing abilities. Players must rearrange balloons into words, sentences and even stories. In level one, players focus on unscrambling short three letter words. By level five, players must properly unscramble words in a story, including punctuation marks that end sentences.

Each time players complete one of these five activities, they earn a key. Some of the activities also contain a "bonus round" when completed successfully. For example, in the bonus round for Lost Your Marbles, players (who are snakes on the screen) must gobble up the balls containing points, but must not crash into any parts of their snake-bodies, which grow longer and longer as more and more balls are gobbled up. In Balloon Blowout, players get to play Blowout!, a fast-paced arcade style games where a small character (I think it's Mel) bounces in the air and pops balloons overhead.

Once players earn the five keys, they move on to the Lost and Found activity, where they must locate five different lost items hidden among an assortment of items. Many of the items are cleverly hidden, and players must be very observant in order to locate all five hidden items.

In addition to these main activities, players may also go to the Story Corner, where they can read and listen to a number of different stories, like the City Mouse and the Country Mouse. There is also a "B-Mail" program, ("B-Mail" stands for Blaster Mail), where players write B-mails to different characters like Max Blaster. The Blaster Message Board allows players to use an array of "magnetic" letters and numbers to create words and sentences. There's also a Word Search generator, in which players create their own word-search puzzles and print them out on the computer.

When the program starts up, players also have the option of going into Sticker Play, where they can make actual stickers that can be printed out on your printer.

We found that most of the activities in Reading Blaster made the reading part a lot of fun. Some of the activities, like Toy Train and Balloon Blowout, were similar to other activities which we have played in other reading games, but others, like Picture This and Lost Your Marbles, were new twists on old ideas and very enjoyable. Hayley and I both enjoyed Picture This the most. We found it challenging and different each time we played it.

Hayley and I rate Reading Blaster, Ages 5-7, 9 out of 10 on the WayCool scale.

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