On-Track Vocabulary Puzzles

 
Welcome to School Zone's Vocabulary Puzzles On-Track Software!
     
In this Read Me document, you will find the following:
 
Age Level:  Ages 5 - 7
 
Educational Goal: 
To teach and practice vocabulary words through interactive software that appeals to a variety of learning styles.
 
Educational Skills: 
  • Vowels
  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives
  • Opposites
  • Rhyming Words
 
Key Features: 
    • School Zone Interactive software keeps children actively engaged.
    • Educators developed this electronic workbook; it contains the most current and essential skills, content and approaches.
  
Additional Features: 
    • Learning is reinforced with audio and animated rewards.
    • Simple program design allows children to work independently.
    • Fun games are rewarded after every two screens.
    • New questions and activities are generated.
    • Instructions for each page are read aloud.
    • The answers are marked as correct or incorrect.
    • The program saves the progress of each user.
    • Personalized progress reports and reward certificates are available.
    • This electronic workbook has printable pages for off-screen practice.
 
Play Summary: 
  Vocabulary Puzzles uses a variety of methods to review, teach, and reinforce vocabulary words. The goal is to complete all of the pages correctly. Once this is accomplished, the user can print a personalized certificate of completion. After every two screens, the user is rewarded with a game. The user’s accomplishments can be tracked with progress reports as well as red and green pencils at the bottom of each screen. Green pencils indicate completed screens with correct answers, red pencils indicate attempted screens with incorrect answers, and blue pencils indicate screens not yet attempted. A user may quit Vocabulary Puzzles at any time and return later. By using the same user name, the software retains that user’s progress. The software randomly shuffles the activities and exercises for each new user.
 
Some Things to Remember: 
    • A green arrow appears at the lower right-hand corner of each activity screen. Click the green arrow to end what you are currently doing, correct your work, and then go to the next page or activity.
    • A stop sign icon appears at the lower left-hand corner of each activity screen. Click the stop sign to end what you are currently doing and go to the exit menu, where you can print a progress report or exit the program. Click the blue arrow on the exit screen to shuffle the exercises and start the program over.
    • The pencils at the bottom of the screen show which pages are correct, which pages need corrections, and which pages you have not attempted.
    • When the directions instruct you to “click,” that means you should press your mouse button one time.
 
Directions for the Activities and Software: 
  1. Introduction: 
  Ollie Gator will tell you how to start play. Type your name in the box, and then click the green arrow. A help movie will explain how to use the program. Click to stop the movie and move to the first activity.
  2. Activities:
  A voice will read the directions for each screen. If you need to hear the directions again, click any word in the directions. Place the cursor in the answer space, and then type your answer. To select an answer, place the cursor on the answer, and then click once. If you change your mind, click again to de-select the answer. To select more than one item, place the cursor on each item and click one at a time. To move items, letters, or words, place the cursor over the item to be moved. Click the mouse button and drag the letter or word to its proper position. Click again to release it. To complete a word search, click on each letter of a word. To make a line through a maze, click on the star. Then click each answer in order.
  3. Moving Between Pages: 
  After completing a page, click the green arrow. Correct exercises will be marked with a star. Incorrect exercises will be marked with a red check. By clicking the green arrow, you will move to the next incomplete page. You can choose a page by clicking on a pencil at the bottom of the screen. A red pencil indicates that you need to correct exercises on that page. A green pencil indicates a completed, correct page. You can return to a page at any time by clicking on that page’s pencil. Place your cursor over a pencil to see the page number. Click the stop sign to exit the workbook.
  4. Word Lists: 
  To open the Word Lists, click the picture of a chart at the top left of the screen. Click a category to select a word list. Then click on the printer and the word list will print from your selected printer. Click the green arrow to exit.
  5. Printing Pages: 
  A picture of a printer at the left of the screen indicates that you can print a page with exercises related to the current screen. Click on the printer to print the page.
  6. Completing Vocabulary Puzzles: 
  To exit the program, click the stop sign. To print your progress report, click the certificate. If you have not completed the program, you can continue play by clicking the arrow pointing to the workbook page. Once you exit and restart the program, you will automatically be taken back to the page you left. You can also go back and correct your work by clicking a red pencil or clicking the check mark on the exit screen. If you have completed the program and all of the answers are correct, you can click the picture of a certificate with a ribbon to print your award. Or, you can choose to play a game by clicking the picture of the balls with a yellow flag. You can start over by clicking the blue arrow.
 
Directions for the Games: 
  1. Balloon Blast: 
  Get your peashooter ready! Move the clown up and down the ladder using your mouse or trackball. Click to shoot all of the balloons that are a different color than the clown. Let the balloons that are the same color as the clown float to the top of the screen. You have three chances to collect as many of the correct color balloons as you can. You lose a chance when you pop a correct color balloon or allow an incorrect color balloon to reach the top. Click to start. 
  2. Tabby Toss: 
  Help the cat get all of the yarn in the baskets. Move the cat with your mouse or trackball. Bounce the yarn off the cat’s back, head, or tail into a basket. Don’t let the yarn drop to the floor. The game is over if you drop three balls of yarn. You win the game if you get at least 10 balls of yarn into the baskets. Click to start.
  3. Sort It Out: 
  How fast can you finish this puzzle? Using the top pictures as clues, find four more pictures that go with each one and place them below the top pictures. First click on a picture, and then move it to the correct space. Click again to release it. Click to start.
 
Technical Support:
  If you experience problems using this software, you can e-mail us at tech.support@schoolzone.com or call us at 1-616-846-9601.

 Support Hours:
Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST
Friday 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. EST

Additional support is always available online at: http://www.schoolzone.com/technical_support

Please have the following information available for technical support:
 
  • Operating system
  • CPU type and speed
  • Amount of RAM
  • Available hard drive space
  • CD-ROM speed
 
Minimum System Requirements:
  Windows® Vista, XP, 2000
    Pentium® III 1GHz (or equivalent)
    256MB of RAM
    800x600 32-bit color video
    16-bit sound card
    700MB of available disk space
    CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
 
  Mac® OSX 10.5, 10.4.11, 10.3.9
    Power PC™ G4 933MHz (or equivalent)
    256MB of RAM
    800x600 32-bit color video
    700MB of available disk space
    CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
 
 
Copyright © 2008 SCHOOL ZONE PUBLISHING COMPANY All Rights Reserved.
 
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple, Macintosh, and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.