Children control the movements of "Ollo" (a rolling blue ball with eyes) as they go on a scavenger hunt in search of special items needed to save Sunny Valley from a giant rolling tomato. The genius of the Ollo character is in its simplicity. This little, gender-neutral, blue ball has expressive eyes but never talks-- letting a child's imagination do the work. It works like a charm; Ollo becomes what you want it to be. Those familiar with the Freddi Fish or Putt-Putt series of adventures will appreciate that this program shares the same principal creators. However, some unique strengths take this software a step further: (1) state of the art graphics, narration and music; (2) a strong story line, with well developed characters that leave much to the imagination; (3) plenty of developmentally appropriate activities that are perfectly leveled for children (4) a new chapter metaphor that breaks the adventure into manageable parts. All this, and closed captioning, too. There are three larger activities (create patterns in the garden, decorate cakes and drop marbles) and dozens of mini games found behind the clickables, asking children to count by 3s, classify the flowers, compare quantities and so on. We were delighted by the educational validity of the activities, especially the open-ended style in which children encounter the concepts. Our testers were thrilled with the program, and so were we.
Product Description
In Ollo at The Sunny Valley Fair, kids will take Ollo all around Sunny Valley to find items that will save it from the giant tomato!
