Science: Sound
This game encourages kids to explore music. It allows them to mix and match sounds as they click on characters that represent different musical rhythms. They can even give Quack something he has always wanted: a solo!
This is an open-ended activity, and also encourages offline exploration. Help your kids explore sounds around them and let them make some noise of their own. An improvised kitchen orchestra with pans, whisks, bowls, and wooden spoons can be a great way to introduce many of the properties of sound.
Embrace the cacophony!
For some anywhere science activities about sound, try Exploring Different Senses or Playing a Tube Tune.
Science Skills: Patterns
Eight fish swim gently in a line. Kids must observe the pattern the fish form and select which fish, from a choice of three, to assign to the rightmost position. If they are correct, Quack will respond and a new set of fish will appear.
Almost all of our games are self-leveling. If players answer a round without error, they are offered a harder level in the next round. If they do make an error on the way to success, they remain at the same difficulty level for the next round.
In this way, the games keep kids within their own comfort levels, nudging them to more challenging levels only if they are ready.
For some anywhere science activities about patterns, try Categorizing Your World, Making Tracks, or Sorting Collections.
Science Skills: Categorizing
Chirp is a collector. Raccoon has a big pile of junk. Could this be the perfect friendship?
In this game, kids sort objects using increasingly sophisticated criteria. Initially, the game requires them to sort by color. Subsequent rounds lead to more complex sets like Things You Can Eat and Metal Things.
Once kids have assembled four objects, they will be told how many are correct. Because we feel it's important to let kids correct their own mistakes, kids can then click on any items to remove them. If there is a long period of inactivity, the goal will be restated.
Players might notice that objects can fall into more than one set. A red apple might be in the Red Things, Things You Can Eat, and Things That Grew sets. Older kids may also get a kick out of trying to guess what the set will be before it's announced. They can do so by watching the items as Raccoon hurls them from his hideaway.
Note: No robins were hurt in the making of this game!
For some anywhere science activities about categorizing, try Categorizing Your World, Making Tracks, or Sorting Collections.
Science: Animal Habitats
This simple matching game has a twist: Kids turn pairs of leaves, not to find identical pictures, but to pair animals with their homes. This game can be played using skill or trial and error.
The game has been carefully constructed to demonstrate that some habitats (such as trees or water) are home to many different animals. However, on any given round, kids will be asked to match only one animal to any particular habitat.
For some anywhere science activities about animal habitats, try Building a Rabbit Den, Digging a Hole, Going on a Bug Walk, Hunting for Animal Homes, or Making Homes for Creatures.
Science Skills: Observation
A good scientist is a keen observer of the world. In this game, Peep and Chirp take kids on increasingly cluttered strolls. Kids must remember what they have seen on each leg of the journey, progressing to the next level when they successfully report on something they just saw.
In the spirit of self-correction, if kids make an error, they can walk past the same objects again to have another look. Peep and Chirp alternate between rounds to help kids recognize that they have a new set of objects to review.
The later rounds can be tricky, since there are many more objects to observe and some are only partially visible.
For some anywhere science activities about observation and memory, try Drawing a Map, Observing Animal Differences, Observing Animal Movements, Watching Baby Animals, Observing Animals Indoors and Out, or Observing Small Creatures.
Math Skills: Estimating Distance and Counting
This game gets kids thinking about distance: they must estimate how far Frog should jump, from pad to pad, to reach the water's edge on the far right.
Clicking the buttons lets Frog choose a small, medium or long jump. Missing a lily pad lands Frog in the water. But don't worry: she'll be ready to start again when she hops out a moment later!
It may take a few attempts to judge the distances, but that's the fun of the game. Look for other characters on the bank, including — if you get to the end — Quack, who also has the Very Important Task of counting all the hops. Feel free to count along with your kids as they play.
For some anywhere science activities about estimation, try Measuring with Steps, Measuring Your Journey, Pouring Water, Measuring Time, or Sharing Snacks.
Science: Mixing Colors
By clicking on the tubes, players can make Quack squirt up to two blobs of blue, yellow, and red paint onto a fence. Clicking on the hose washes the paint off, enabling kids to have a fresh start.
Kids can experiment with whatever colors they like. The narrator reminds kids when tubes are empty.
Chirp also offers kids the opportunity to match a color by holding up a card. If the color orange, purple or green (which make up the secondary color group) is successfully created, Chirp offers some of the harder-to-mix tertiary colors. Like many of our games, this one gets harder only if the player is succeeding. Younger kids will be happy simply squirting paint, and perhaps making orange, purple, or green.
Mixing examples:
For some anywhere science activities with paint, try Making Prints, Mixing Colors, or Painting with Water. Remember to let your kids get messy!
Science Skills: Observation
Every good scientist needs a keen eye. In this game, characters peek from their hiding places in the tool shed. The narrator calls out their names. Players are then asked to find all of the characters.
The first level has three characters hiding. If they are all found, the lights go out and the characters hide again, ready for the next round. The difficulty increases only if the previous round was successfully completed without mistakes. So if a player finds the first three characters without error, she will meet those three, plus a new one, in the next round.
Younger kids may not progress beyond these early levels, but don't worry: it's pretty tricky. The levels progress to eight hidden characters, which can even be difficult for most adults to find without error. Try it yourself when the kids are in bed!
For some anywhere science activities about observation and memory, try Changing Over Time, Looking Closely, Observing Sticky Things, Observing the Day Moon, Observing Tides, or Searching for Animals.
Science: Balance
Four seats on a seesaw, along with an array of bunnies, let kids experiment with balance. There are five sets of bunnies, each set with its own distinct size, color, and weight. In this game, the bigger the bunny, the heavier it is — but don't forget to let your kids know that's not always true in the real world. (Help them to discover that a stone weighs more than an inflated balloon.)
Because they can drag bunnies to any seat, kids are encouraged to experiment. Prompts also ask them to try to balance the seesaw, or to make one end heavier or lighter than the other. As the game continues, players are encouraged to see what happens when bunnies are placed nearer the middle. Extended play thus covers the basics of balance, including the concepts of weight, size, and even distance from the fulcrum.
For some anywhere science activities about simple tools, try Balancing on a Seesaw, Building a Bridge, Building a Castle, Building a Pond, Examining Gadgets, Making a Dam, Making Bathtub Boats, Making Things Bigger, or Reusing Trash.
Science: Sound
In this online variation of Hide and Seek, Quack hides in a number of different locations. In each location, different hiding places change the way Quack's voice sounds. Is he muffled, or maybe far away? Is he down a hole, or underwater? Players can help Peep find Quack by listening as they look for him. There are also a few surprises along the way!
If the player finds Quack, he'll hide again. (Ducks are excellent hiders, as Quack himself modestly states.)
For some anywhere science activities about sound try Hunting for Sounds, Listening to Night Sounds, Listening to Echoes, or Playing Marco Polo.