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Penguins on Ice | Blast the Rocket | Word Jumbler
Story Plant | Word Balloons|
Space Spins | TV Stories Online| Goldilocks| Adventure In The Museum| The Unicorn In The Park|
TV Poems Online
INTRODUCTION
The web-based English games on the the Starship website address the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for children working towards the end of Key Stage 1. The web games support specific concepts introduced in other contexts such as the TV and radio programmes. They are designed to develop, reinforce and support the English skills and concepts that children who are working within the wide range of National Curriculum level 2 will be addressing.
The information below tells you what areas of the curriculum each game covers and provides an overview of each game. There is also information about how the games tie in with the TV and radio programmes as well as the Print and Do sheets.
If playing the games in Netscape, you will need Flash player 4.0.20 or above in order to print out the results. There is an option to upgrade your Flash as you access each game.
Penguins on Ice
Aim of the game
- Making sentences
- Punctuation
- Adjectives and adverbs
Overview of the game
This game features Dave and the penguins. The penguins are skating round with words on their tummies. They need to be lined up on the podiums to take their bow. The game has 3 playing options:
- Make a sentence : The penguins have to be put in the right order to make the sentence make sense.
- Which mark? : The player has to choose the correct punctuation mark to complete the sentence.
- Make it interesting : The player needs to choose the correct descriptive word to make the sentence more interesting.
If a penguin is placed on the correct podium, it spins. If placed on the wrong podium, it will bounce back onto the ice. There are 6 sentences in a game. The help penguin offers relevant hints for each game. Click on Dave to hear a sentence repeated.
At home
Write a sentence. Cut up the words and see if your child can rearrange them. Encourage them to read it aloud to make sure it makes sense.
Write a boring sentence. The man went to the park. Take it in turns to write it in a more interesting way eg Slowly, the old man walked to the park. OR On a bright sunny morning the cheerful man ambled to the fun-filled park.
Links
Watch all the TV English programmes
Listen to all the Radio English programmes
Print and Do: Speech Marks, Speech,Apostrophes, Writing Postcards, Writing a letter, Time Connectives
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Blast the Rocket
Aim of the game
- Practice in recognising the past tense endings.
Overview of the game
Star needs help filling the rocket with fuel to make it take off. The fuel is past tense verbs. Star says the present tense of a word and the player has to click on the correct spelling of the past tense. For each correct past tense, the word moves into the rocket and the dial on the rocket goes up. If it's the wrong spelling, there is a 'wrong' sound and the next word is read out. When the player has 4 words correct, the rocket engines light up. When the player gets all 8 words correct, the rocket will take off.
The help button gives the relevant past tense rule for the word displayed. Click on Star to hear the word said again.
At home
Say a sentence related to what you see in the present tense and ask your child to say it in the past tense eg The man walks up the road. OR The dog eats his supper.
Links
Watch TV English programme 2 : Moods and feelings
Print and Do: Speech Marks, Speech, Apostrophes
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Word Jumbler
Aim of the game
- Helps with different areas of spelling.
Overview of the game
The Word Jumbler machine offers three different game options:-
- Sounds the same - The player is asked to click on the correct spelling of the word needed to complete the sentence. The missing word has two different spellings but sounds the same.
- What's the pattern? - The player is asked to click on the correct vowel phoneme pattern to complete the word in a sentence.
- Count the syllables -There are 2, 3 and 4 syllable words. The player has to listen to and look at a word and work out how many syllables it contains and then click on the correct number. Click on 'Listen again' to hear the word again or 'listen slowly' to hear the word pronounced in such a way to help the player recognise the syllables.
At home
Think of rhyming words - try to spell them. Are they spelt the same? Do they have the same spelling pattern? Eg bear and hair. Can you think of one that sounds the same but is spelt differently? Eg two and too.
Circle words in a section of a magazine that have the er/ir/ur spelling pattern. When reading see how many you can spot? Which is the most common way of spelling that sound?
How many words can you write in one minute? Play the game with ear/eer words.
Links
Watch the TV English programmes
Print and Do: Writing Postcards, Writing a letter
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Story Plant
Aim of the game
- Planning a story
- Recognising what features makes up a story
Overview of the game
The player has to build up a story by choosing from the sentences on the leaves as the plant grows. Sky, one of the main Starship characters, acts as a story guide. She talks the player through the things to think about in planning a story eg who is in the story, where and when the story is taking place etc.
The story builds to an exciting climax and then Sky suggests reading it out together. The player can then print out the story and finish it off or play again and make another story.
At home
Choose a topic or subject that particularly interests your child. Draw round each other's hand. Write the topic name in the middle e.g. animals. Choose five question words - Who? Where? When? Why? What? How? Write a question to do with the topic that you would like to find out about on each finger.
Read adventure stories together. Talk about what the main events are eg what happened at the beginning? What went wrong and how did it end?
Take your child's favourite story and talk about the main events in the story. Try and write them or draw them onto a time line to show how the story builds up.
Make up your own story together. Just talk about it. Take it in turns to say and make up the next part. Write it down for your child. Get them to draw pictures to go with it and write a caption to go with the picture.
Links
Watch TV English programme 4 : Planning your writing
Listen to Radio English programme 4 : The Hunter
Print and Do: Non-fiction Reading and Writing (Page 1) (Page 2), Planning a Story (Page 1) (Page 2)
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Word Balloons
Aim of the game
Overview of the game
This game features the characters Daisy and the Unicorn from the Starship TV English programmes. The aim of the game is to help Daisy reach the Unicorn by collecting word balloons. The Unicorn has a balloon containing a word. The player is then asked to choose a word that has a similar meaning to that of the unicorn's from a collection of balloons.
If the player clicks on the wrong answer, the balloon will pop and the player will be asked to have another go. For every correct word chosen, Daisy will receive a balloon and will gradually get nearer to the unicorn.
There are 6 words in a game. Click on the Unicorn's balloon to hear a word said again.
At home
Use post it notes or cut up paper to jot down words that mean the same thing, have a family competition- how many can you think of that mean the same as went? Focus on boring story words such as went, said, nice, good, and fun.
Make a treasure hunt at home based on words that mean the same as whispered and shouted e.g. mumbled, whispered, muttered/ shouted, bellowed, roared. Two teams have to find their three words around the home!
Make collections of words that are good describing words. Use a dictionary to help. Group them into group that mean a similar thing e.g hot, warm, sweltering etc
Links
Watch TV English programmes 2 and 4 : Moods and feelings, and Planning your writing.
Print and Do: Time Connectives, Speech Marks, Speech, Non-fiction Reading and Writing (Page 1) (Page 2) , Planning a story (Page 1) (Page 2)
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Space Spins
Aim of the game
Alliteration
Overview of the game
This is not a game as such but a machine, which contains a number of captions that are examples of ‘alliteration’. The words in the sentences create a pattern and sound, because each word begins with the same letter/consonant. For example Fiery Fred, the fireman, fought fires on Friday.
Click on the handle and a sentence appears on the screen and is read out aloud. There is the option for the sentence to be played again or for a new sentence to be played. There are 12 sentences in total, which come up in random order.
At home
- As your child clicks on the lever, listen to Sky read each sentence. Then read aloud the sentence together.
- Recap on alliteration with suggested questions: What letter does each of the words begin with? What else is similar about these words, do they ‘sound’ the same? Does the sentence make sense?
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Together, continue some of the sequences. For example Horrid Helen hated hairy hats…. heavy handbags, happy hamsters, hot chocolate, history homework, Henry and Harry.
- Encourage children to think of all the words they can, which begin with that letter. Then ask them choose words that would make a sentence.
- Support this activity, with printable version of Space Spins. Read out the sentences together and then make up a sentence with the same letter. Suggested sentences: Mad Mary made mandarin milkshakes,
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Charlie’s chum came camping carrying canned carrots, Heike helped Hilary hold her horse, Fatima fed five fat fishes, Soneeta sailed slowly singing soothing shanty songs, Tina took time to travel to the top.
Links
Radio Programme 2
Online Games: Penguins on Ice – Make It Interesting, | Word Balloons
Print and Do: Space Spins
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TV Stories Online
Overview of Stories
- These web-based based stories focus on some of the key topics covered in Key Stage 1 of the English National Curriculum and are taken from the full animations shown as part of the Starship English TV series.
- Each story has been split into a series of manageable chunks of text, with illustrations and audio clips to help you support your child’s reading development.
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It is recommended that each story is first read aloud with an adult and that the child is encouraged to listen to the audio clips provided, before they attempt to read the story alone. Take time to scroll through the pictures together and discuss what is happening in some of the scenes. Draw attention to any new or difficult words.
Goldilocks
Objective
Letter Writing
Story Overview
In this alternative version of the traditional tale, the spotlight is on ‘Letter Writing’. Goldilocks writes a letter of apology to the Three Bears inviting Baby Bear to her party.
How To Use
- When reading the story together, review the traditional tale of Goldilocks and focus on how to plan a good letter.
- Suggested Questions: Who do you think the story is about? Do you recognise any of the characters?, Where is the story set? Do you know the story of Goldilocks? What do you think Goldilocks is doing here?, What sort of letter do you think she might be writing?, Who is the letter to? Where should Goldilocks write the address? How should the letter start? How should Goldilocks finish the letter? What else does Goldilocks say in the letter?, Can you think of other types of letters you might want to write? E.g. Invitation, Thank you letter etc., Can you think of reasons to write a letter? For example, to communicate information, to say thank you, to reply to a letter etc.
- Support child’s understanding of letter writing with the ‘Writing a Letter’ printable activity.
- A full-animated version of the story can be seen in Programme 1 of the Starship English TV Series.
Links
Online Games: Penguins on Ice
Print and Do: Writing a Letter
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Adventure In The Museum
Objective
Story Writing
Story Overview
The story follows the adventure of three young visitors to a museum, who become mixed up in an attempt to steal some of the exhibits. The children become heroes as they manage to raise the alarm and help capture the criminals.
How To Use
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Read story as example of what makes a good story and to expand vocabulary.
- As you read through the adventure together, talk about how the plot unfolds and focus on what happens at the beginning, middle and end.
- Suggested Questions: Look at the title; what sort of story is this? Where is the story set?, Who do you think the story will be about?, What are the names of the characters?, What’s happening to the characters?.
- Look out for words, which help to make the story more interesting. For example: glittered, shuffled, glowed, glimpsed, slipped, dusty, spotted, gazing, hissed, slightly, crouched, loomed, glinted, gleamed, edging, beamed, burly, bombarded.
- Support child’s knowledge of story writing with either the ‘Story Plant’ online game or the Planning a story (Page 1) (Page 2) print and do.
- A full-animated version of the story can be seen in Programme 4 of the Starship English TV Series.
Links
Online Games: Story Plant | Penguins On Ice | Word Balloons
Print and Do: Planning a story (Page 1) (Page 2)
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The Unicorn In The Park
Objective
Words and phrases, which express feeling and emotion
Story Overview
The story describes the thoughts and feelings of a Unicorn who dwells in a neglected park and who is affected by the actions of others. As the unicorn becomes distressed by the vandalism of the park bandstand, a young girl called Daisy encourages members of the local community to help her re-paint the bandstand. Whilst the community work together to return the bandstand to it’s former glory, the unicorn regains it’s strength.
How To Use
- As you read the story together focus on the characters’ feelings and draw attention to any word or phrases which convey an emotion. For example: Warmth, happiness, kind, weak, cruel, angry, exhausted and guilty
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- Talk about Unicorns and what they are.
- Suggested Questions: Why is the Unicorn a ‘very special creature’? Are they real? How do we know? How would you feel if you saw a real Unicorn? How do you think the unicorn is feeling? What made the Unicorn feel ‘tired’ and ‘weak’? What does the Unicorn need to live? Can you give an example of a ‘kind thought’? What did the vandals do which was ‘cruel’? How do you think the Vandals felt, when they went to help Daisy? Do you think the people enjoyed painting the bandstand? How can you tell they are happy? How did the Unicorn feel when the bandstand had been painted?
- After, reading the story. Ask child to evaluate the story and to talk about they ‘felt’ about the story and their ‘feelings towards the characters.
- Review any new words, and encourage children to look out for words and phrases, which describe feelings when they read other books.
- A full-animated version of the story can be seen in Programme 2 of the Starship English TV Series
Links
Online Games: Penguins On Ice -Make It Interesting | Word Balloons
Print and Do: Planning a story (Page 1) (Page 2) | Word Balloons
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TV Poems Online
Aim of Poems
Spelling - Vowel phonemes: er, eer, ow, air
Overview of Poems
These fun poems tell stories using words that use 4 vowel phonemes.
- OW Poem - This poem tells the story of a storm and uses key words with the ‘ow’ sound.
- The Hairy Bears Poem - This poem tells the tale of the Hairy Bears and the homeless Hare which settles in their home. The poem focues on the spelling for the ‘AIR’ sound and uses words featuring the different spellings for that phoneme: air/ear/are/ere.
- The Meerkats Poem -This poem describes the behaviour of five little Meerkats, with words featuring the‘eer’ sound: eer/ear/ere.
- The Thirty Quirky Birds Poem -This poem tells the tale of Bertie Bird, a bird who can't fly. It focuses on the spelling of the ‘er’ sound and uses words featuring the different spellings for that phoneme: er/ir/ur.
How to Use
- First listen to the poem, then read poem aloud together, emphasise the relevant vowel sounds.
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Talk about what it’s about and any difficult words.
- Talk about the layout of the poem, the sentence structure, punctuation etc.
- Ask them what the poem sounds like – rhyme, tone, sound in the words.
- Pick out the relevant vowel sounds.
- Together, list as many words as you can think of with the appropriate vowel sounds.
- Together construct a simple rhyme using the relevant vowel phonemes.
Links
TV Programme 1 – ER vowel phoneme
TV Programme 2 – EER vowel phoneme
TV Programme 3 – OW vowel phoneme
TV Programme 4 – AIR vowel phoneme
Web games: Word Jumbler – Sounds the same
Print out: Word Jumbler – Sounds the Same
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