The Magic Forest is an ICT based modelling environment developed and designed for children from four to seven years old. It comes with a variety of activities to explore, understand and change. Learners explore an activity and discover what happens. In many of the activities, learners need to make decisions and the consequences of their decisions can be seen and experienced on screen.
After using the prepared Magic Forest activities, learners are encouraged to modify and change them and ultimately create their own completely new activities. To enable non-readers to do this, The Magic Forest uses a simple pictorial icon language. Using this language, young learners can define and change the rules of each object (character) in an activity, and they do not necessarily need to be able to read.
Included with the program are a set of stimulating backgrounds and a set of fully animated characters that will allow young learners to create many different kinds of activities.
How does it work?
In a very simple way it is possible to build icon phrases that define actions and conditions, so that animated objects can move themselves around the screen, or be controlled by the learner(s). There can be a seperate set of rules for each animated object. Those rules are defined by tablets, which are placed in papyrus scrolls. There are tablets to define conditions. These must be at the beginning of a papyrus scroll. To complete the rule phrase, it is necessary to choose tablets that define actions.
 Using control tablets, we can control characters or objects with the direction arrows, the mouse or a joystick. Make your magic Forest activities come to life; no reading necessary.
Activities, backgrounds and characters
The Magic Forest is packed with beautifully drawn backgrounds and characters inclding children's favourites:
- The Gingerbread Man
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Incy Wincy Spider
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
| Logotron Asked Dereck Evans, ICT Teacher for Gwynedd LEA, to outline the possibilities for The Magic Forest:
How do teachers respond to it?
We are very excited about The Magic Forest. Modelling has been a concern within the authority for some time and at last we have a program which children can relate to and which will stimulate their natural inquisitiveness.
What are the main strengths of the product?
- Icon based
- Very little language, which will be beneficial to our Welsh medium schools
- Exciting and stimulating
- The software is based on stories which all children know and love, the excellent art work will further enhance their enjoyment.
How well does it match the curriculum and does it have cross-curricula potential in your view?
- We hope to be able to include different backgrounds of Welsh nursery rhymes which we can incorporate into language activities
- The software has many cross-curricular links, language development, design and technology, etc.
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