Piano Pooch

Link Here

The Math Wiz would probably die a little inside if he knew someone he knew learned piano off the internet.  Being a Math and Music Wiz and all.  The only reason I call him the Math Wiz is that “Math and Music Wiz” is way too big of a mouthful to say all the time.  So let it be known here that He does music quite well.  Professionally even.

Today’s game dabbles in my instrument of choice.  Badly by the way.  I’m not particularly phenomenal at the piano.  Piano Pooch hops along the keys and you have to remember which ones he hit in which order to play the Chinese New Year Concerto.  It’s a bit hard, but looks like it’s meant for younger children so I’d play this one yourself before unleashing your kids/students on it!

Look at Piano Pooch!  All decked out in traditional Chinese garb, cocked and a the ready to help you move along on the fantastic journey called “music exploration!”

See, he hops along the keys and you have to rebmember which order they go in so you can learn the piano concerto.  The keys are the same as you’d find on a real keyboard/piano, so it’s easily transposable to a real life keyboard.

Hop hop hop.  After each level, you win a composer’s bust too! 

 

 

 

Look!  I won Liszt!

 

 

PIANO POOCH -- LINK HERE

Reccommended Age: Grade 3-6

Difficulty Level:

Fun Factor:

On a side note, I went to water my plants today.  Remember?  From my Food Glorious Food post?  Well guess what.  My black thumb didn’t get a chance to kill the plants.  The game has been discontinued!  I failed to notice that it was only for a limited time and a contest.  I was really quite disheartened to see that it was down.  But what can you do?  Those Who Be at The Internet make the rules, and not me.)

Sadly yours,

Bill Nye Explains Quicksand (like you see in the movies)!

Bill Nye holds a very special place in my heart.  I watched him forever when I was in grade 3.  And his movies still excite and fascinate me to this day.  Here’s Bill’s segment on QUICKSAND (like you see in the movies).

 

View Away!

Expedition Africa

Link Here

Reminisant of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, this game is super fun and every time you play it it’s going to be different!

Game play!  The rules of the game are that you roll the dice (leaving it up to chance!) and picking which dice you want to keep.  Kind of like Yatzee.  You can keep your weapons, get a new porter, more food, or medicine or you can move however many kilometres (miles?  I don’t remember..)

A screenshot of the game board.  Look at all the miles I’m chocking up!  Look at the porters and food! Look at the lack of medicine.  I’m pretty sure the next roll I lost three porters and the roll after that I was down to one crate of food.  This is a high stake game.  Most definitely a high stake game.

Look at my roll!  So very artsy!  So very precarious.  Only 30 miles (kilometres?) and four crates of food (which as you can see I DESPERATELY NEEDED).  But don’t worry, I still had two more rolls.

This is the choose your own adventure part.  Depending on the resources you’ve collected when you hit different checkpoints you get to chose how you’re going to pick your next step!  Every game is different!

Ahh… the end of the game.  I made it to the Mpanda Foothills!  Safe and sound and I only lost … how many porters?

EXPEDITION AFRICA – LINK HERE

Recommended Age: Grade Six and above

Difficulty Level:

Fun Factor:

With Love

Egyptian Mummy Maker

The Royal London Museum had many piece on tour to different museums and it chronicled different cultures throughout the decades beginning with Early Man, working it’s way through the Egyptian period to the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire all the way to the Pacific cultures and Asia.  Concluding the exhibit was “where we are today” with pictures of popular culture and artifacts from today. 

This game instantly reminds me of when I went to the museum in the summer.  We were in line (the Math Wiz and I) and in front of us was this little girl and her mom.  She was talking away about what they were going to see and how excited she was about living in Victoria.  We enter the museum and she makes a beeline straight for the Egypt part of the exhibit. 

I kind of meandered my way through Early Man, not particularly liking the early bits of world history.  The replica of the Rosetta stone was neat… but that’s beside the point.  This little girl hopped right on up to this sarcophagus and starts looking at it.  The museum volunteer starts asking her a lot of questions.  Like, “Who do you think this coffin belongs to?”

“Just by looking at the SARCOPHAGUS you can tell it’s someone royal because of the bird that’s on it and how it’s made.  You can see the gold parts along the top and …”

This little girl rocked.  And I mean really rocked.  The museum volunteer was correcting her along the way “We were told by the London museum that it’s not a royal person, but it was definitely someone wealthy.”

The mom stood there smiling and then gave this girl a big hug.  “She’s my little Egyptologist.  Sometimes I think she knows more than the museum curators.”

This mom rocked.

Either way, the entire situation pretty much rocked.

On with the game.

LINK HERE

It’s an incredibly informative game. So packed full of information, that if I didn’t know what a lot of the terms were I might be a bit lost.  This game is probably for someone a little more Egypt inclined than your average school child, but in the big picture you can learn a LOT in a short time.  The game talks a lot about the cultural importance of Egyptian mummy-making, and why they did each individual step.

You are an assistant to the chief embalmer in Egypt.  You make all the decisions toward a particular person’s mummy.  Get it wrong, and the person will not  be admitted to the afterlife and is doomed to be in purgatory not being alive and not being dead.  There’s quite a lot of weight on your shoulders!

 

There is no holding back in this game for sure.  It details how they extracted the brain and which tool is used.

 

 

 

Very graphic.  All with attributes of Ancient Egyptian art too.  That is a brain pouring into a bowl. 

 

 

 

Picking which organs should be left in the body prior to mummification.

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Egyptian hieroglyphics.  For something fun, but relatable to this topic, click here: Hieroglyphic Alphabet Translator Make your own name into hieroglyphics!

 

 

Miss B had fun with this one!

 

MUMMY MAKER GAME – CLICK  HERE!

Recommended Age: Grades 3-7

Difficulty:

Fun Factor:

 

Related Links:

Woodlands Jr. School in the UK – Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt for Kids

Do you want to be a Mathionaire?

View Here

Now, Miss B. isn’t particularly fond of or any good at math.  This is why she has the Math Wiz.  Today’s review is of a game made by a person of British (English?  I recall my history of England teacher referring to them as both.  Please forgive me if I’ve offended anyone) origin.  I only know this because instead of winning a million dollars, I won a million pounds.  Which I believe equals approximately 1,695,415 in my home currency.  Which I think is a pretty good deal.  Or so the Math Wiz tells me.

I started off playing the game at a nice level.  I level I can handle.  The first question I didn’t have to use Microsoft Calculator on.  Which was nice.  Really nice actually.  It made me think I had a chance.

 

 

Ha ha ha… no way.  By the time I got here I was using my calculator more than is probably normal.  Miss B.  isn’t good at math.  The Math Wiz says I count “One, Two, Three, Jellybean, 9, 10, oooh… what’s that?”  Miss B’s brain is meant for history and the arts.  Not for science or math.  But because Miss B. understands that not everyone is like her, she tries to review as many different kinds of educational games as possible.  All for you.

Nearing the top here.  I haven’t employed the Math Wiz’s mad skills yet.  I’m doing pretty well for myself, even if it is algebra!

 

 

 

Alright, it’s the bottom of the ninth, and Miss B. is on her last question.  She has used up all her lifelines and is guaranteed a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right.  (At least she learned that much!)  What the computer doesn’t know is that she has… duh duh da daaaa… THE MATH WIZ!!

 

After saying 7 the Math Wiz continues to ask questions such as “why are you asking that?  It’s 10 in the evening?  You don’t do math, why are you doing it?” and I really want to savour the moment of hitting “yes” and winning my 1,000,000 dol….err… pounds.  Miss B. commences to silence the Math Wiz with a satisfactory answer.

Do I doubt the Math Wiz?  Have I ever doubted the Math Wiz?  At least when it comes to numbers?

 

 

 

Of course not!  The Math Wiz is a math wiz for a reason!  Nothing is too hard for the math wiz!

 

 

 

Lookie here at my winnings!  Look at that 1.6 million dollars I won virtually!  Now if only I could get a cheque that big in the mail that didn’t come with having to sign my life and funds away to Random House.

 

 

DO YOU WANT TO BE A MATIONAIRE? – LINK HERE

Recommended Age:  Grades 4-7.  Miss B. is obviously in grade 3 because this was much too difficult for her!

Difficulty Rating:

Fun Factor:

Happy Adding!

 

 

Mind Your Manners!

 

Link Here

The words of Queen Victoria, “We are not amused” are the wrong ones to use when discussing McCord Museum’s online role-playing game.  It’s fun graphics and cute voices are entertaining as you click your way, maneuvering the etiquette of the Victorian era.  All the character’s voices sound like Beaker from the Muppets.  Somewhat high pitched… “Mi Mi Mi Mi Mi” for the ladies, and lower… “Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah” for the gentlemen.

 

 

 

 

You start off by picking a character (I picked the girl, just because I am one) and then clicking on different scenarios on a map.  This particular one is of going to the ball.  You’re given four pictures of different attire that you may or may not wear.  You then must pick which is the most appropriate for the particular occasion.  Lucky me, I picked right!

 

 

 

Then, you’re given different scenarios.  Many of the ones I got were about acting like a proper lady in the presence of a gentleman, train etiquette and proper table manners as a hostess.  It’s reminiscent of the “Choose your own Adventure” books I read as a kid.  Except, instead of having a different ending for each option, there’s only one right answer.  and if you get it wrong…

 

 

 

 

Something funny happens!  In this frame, my character is getting cannonballed for not picking the right attire to a dinner party.  I got run over by a horse one time when I picked the wrong answer, and another time when I made a social faux pas my virtual game friends kept saying what sounded like “Oh my gosh… oh my GAWSH” while my character spoke her her Beaker-esque voice.  It’s all quite charming.

 

 

 

Finally, if you pass all the tests with the acceptable amount of points (you get points for correct answers, and you lose points for incorrect ones) you’re graded.  Today, I was a “picture of politeness.”  How lucky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is quite possibly one of my most favourite games I’ve found so far, and I’m glad to start off with it.  The graphics are simple and fun, it’s easy to navigate and can be used as a learning tool with children between the ages of 11 and 16.  However, I found it really fun and played it quite a few times before stopping and saying “No Miss B.  You must go to sleep!” so maybe that cap number is inappropriate. 

Although not difficult to navigate, a couple of the questions were a bit tricky, so be careful when you answer them!  You might get run over by a horse and buggy!

 

Mind Your Manners – Game Link

 

Recommended Age: 11-16 or All Ages (with maybe some help from a Big Kid)

Difficulty:

Fun Factor:

 

I didn’t want to give a fun factor of 4… although this may change later on.  It’s a pretty awesome game.

 

Happy Learning!