Free Software for Teaching Basic Concepts

Just in time to download and explore over the weekend and bring to the classroom on Monday I have some links to educational games that teach basic concepts.

Hiyah offers over a dozen simple touchscreen or switch activited games about basic activities pr nursery rhymes. The programs were made by the mother of a child with Autism.

Poisson Rouge is a bilingual English/French site for young children that is accessible through mouse or touch screen. It teaches ore-school level concepts with bright colors and animations.

Minisebran is a set of games for the 2-6 year old set and Sebran is for the 5-9 year olds. Boith use very high contrasting picture icons and would work well for students with some vision loss.

GCompris is an open source software set for ages 2-9 with a rather astounding array of games and activities. Many can be used with a touch screen. It is being used in schools around the world and is probably going to be on the $100 laptop. Childsplay is a very similar set of open source programs with similar acclaim.

Pysycache is software designed to teach very young children to use a mouse. These very simple activities can be used to teach cause and effect. Some work with a touch screen. JILetters can also be used with a touch screen to teach cause and effect.