MarcoPolo Weather
MarcoPolo Weather gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that MarcoPolo Weather is a digital sandbox tool that encourages kids to freely explore, experiment, and play. Kids can control and change various weather conditions, such as temperature, wind, and precipitation, and observe how avatars react to the changes. Kids can also clothe and accessorize the characters and add items to the weather scene such as flowers, a tent, an igloo, and more. You can choose from six different languages in settings including English, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.What kids can learn
The colorful graphics, fun sound effects, and the ability to alter and observe the effects of weather conditions will empower kids to explore.
Kids can directly observe how changes in weather affect the environment, and the narration helps kids build key science vocabulary.
The parent section provides detailed descriptions of most of the interactive objects and offers excellent ideas for extension activities. Also, multiple languages are available. Occasionally, elements of the game are confusing or difficult to manipulate.
What's it about?
Like most digital sandbox tools, MARCOPOLO WEATHER emphasizes exploration and open play. Tapping a play button lands you on the main screen, which includes an avatar and animated animals in an outdoor forest scene. Kids can select one of the nine weather conditions, change the setting from day to night, or tap to adjust the temperature and/or wind speed. They can drag interactive objects located along the bottom of the screen onto the scene, including clothing and accessories, two other avatars, fruits, flowers, vegetables, a tent, snowballs, and more. A parent section includes a description of the app and settings, as well as extension activities related to weather.
Is it any good?
MarcoPolo Weather provides a friendly environment for kids to explore weather. The narrated facts help kids build vocabulary and science knowledge, and the variety of interactive objects will keep kids engaged. As kids experiment with the outdoor scene, it's fun to see how the avatars react to the different weather conditions. Some aspects of the free play are a bit confusing, however: For example, in some scenes there is a beehive that drops when you try to drag it into the scene, and it's not entirely clear how to get it to stay. Overall, MarcoPolo Weather offers the interactivity and variety kids love and cause-and-effect science that can carry over into real life.
Families can talk about...
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Families can talk about weather in their own area. Are there seasons? If so, how does the weather change?
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Review the parent section and complete some of the extension activities together.
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Explore the tornado and hurricane conditions and discuss the importance of weather safety.
App details
| Devices: | iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android |
| Price: | $2.99 |
| Pricing structure: | Paid |
| Release date: | April 2, 2015 |
| Category: | Education |
| Topics: | Science and nature |
| Size: | 120.00 MB |
| Publisher: | MarcoPolo Learning |
| Version: | 1.7.1 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 5.0 or later |
