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Gruffalo: Games

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  • iPad
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Teacher Overview

A well-designed iOS app for preschoolers inspired by 'The Gruffalo' children's picture book featuring a number of entertaining activities.

IXL

Teacher Review

The Gruffalo: Games app is based on 'The Gruffalo' children's book. The app is inspired by the iconic artwork and the characters of the book.  Through a series of activities, children try to outperform the Gruffalo, help the Mouse catch nuts or the bugs moving towards their way. Being familiar with the Gruffalo story is not a requirement for using the app and the proposed activities. 
 
The app presents six activities suitable for preschoolers. The first activity replicates the three-in-a-row game with the child being the Mouse and the app the Gruffalo. The second activity is the Nut Catch. Children try to collect as many nuts as possible and avoid other objects falling off the trees such as warms. In the third activity, a number of jigsaws with a different degree of difficulty are presented. The time needed for solving each of these jigsaw is recorded. The fourth activity called 'Snap' is a game of chance in which children try to be as quick as possible and snap similar cards. In the Marching Bug  activity children are asked to pick the correct leave and fill in a pattern of shapes, numbers, letters, or pictures. In the sixth activity, children pair pictures together within a set timeframe. 
 
In terms of its educational value, the app could help preschoolers exercise their sensory motor skills in terms of responding correctly and quickly to a range of visual sensory messages. In addition, the Matching Bug and Jigsaw activities could support early maths concepts such as ordering numbers and organizing and categorizing shapes. In terms of its entertaining value, the app is very well-designed and presented in an age-appropriate way with excellent graphics and music  that can capture the attention of very young learners. Overall, it could be argued that activities such as the Nut catch, Snap and three-in-a-row support better entertaining aims whereas the remaining activities support certain learning outcomes. 
 
The app could be further improved if the Gruffalo storyline was better integrated into the app and its activities. For example, activities could form part of the Mouse's stroll through the woods. Each activity could be a level to be completed by the users. Each level could be inspired by the animal the Mouse encounters in the forest. Winning a level could mean surviving a predator. Also, for those familiar with the book, the app could benefit from integrating activities related to the Gruffalo's storyline and not only the characters. The app as it stands at the moment presents commonalities - though much more elaborated - with the activities hosted in the Gruffalo's official website. Given the fact that it is a mobile application and not a webpage, it would benefit much from presenting the set of activities and perhaps additional activities related to the book's storyline in a more interactive and game-like manner that  evolve around the story of the Guffalo.

App Details

1436914800

4

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Age Category of the app

Ages of Learners

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Subjects

Games
Maths
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Safeguarding

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Skills

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Description

Can you outwit the Gruffalo? Take a stroll through the deep dark wood and put your skills to the test!

Play the first games app based on ‘The Gruffalo’, the much-loved children’s picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

Enjoy 6 beautiful and challenging puzzle games that help develop reactions, logic and problem solving skills, all specially designed for 3 - 7 year olds.

  • Outsmart the Gruffalo in a game of 3 in a Row.
  • Help Mouse catch nuts - they’re all good!
  • Piece together your favourite characters - how quickly can you complete the jigsaws?
  • Are you faster than the Gruffalo? Challenge him to a game of Snap!
  • Keep the bug colony moving – pull down the correct leaves to send them on their merry way.
  • Clear the woodland floor – pair Gruffalo, Mouse, Fox, Owl and Snake as quickly as you can!

‘The Gruffalo’ tells the magical tale of a mouse who takes a stroll though the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him - a fox, an owl and a snake - the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive. He announces that he is meeting a monster with terrible features, a ‘Gruffalo’, and the three predators are each panicked into running away. Mouse is now increasingly confident, there is nothing that can touch him in these woods, until he rounds a corner and comes face to face with the terrible product of his imagination: the Gruffalo itself! Once again Mouse has to dig deep and use his wits to escape the danger.

Gruffalo: Games is brought to you by Magic Light Pictures, producers of the Oscar nominated films ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘Room on the Broom’, as well as ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. Magic Light Pictures also produced the magical ‘Room on the Broom: Games’ featuring 8 wonderful, fun filled games based on the best-selling book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, creators of ‘The Gruffalo’.

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