The activity is accessed by clicking on the Tree of Knowledge (Hopsalot's house) in JumpStartville.
Hopsalot's Bridge Builder is an activity that appears in JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade: Fundamentals. It is accessed by clicking on Hopsalot's house from the main screen, and teaches sorting skills at a first grade level. Which specific subject is taught varies, though the progress report can be used to access the desired subject.
Description[]
Hopsalot keeps his powerup, the Hyper-carrots, on a special island in his backyard. He has a machine that makes balloon blimps, which can be used to make a bridge. When the bridge is complete, Hopsalot can cross it to retrieve a Hyper-carrot. After he returns to the other side, he'll need to destroy the bridge for security measures. The machine can produce pop-blimps, which will break the blimps used to make the bridge.
Hopsalot's machine will release one balloon blimp at a time. The blimps have images or words on them. There are three columns with labels, and the player has to sort the blimps into the correct categories. The player can move the blimps using the left and right arrow keys, and make a blimp fall faster by holding down the down arrow key. Each column needs three blimps in it for the bridge to be complete. When destroying the bridge, the process is very similar; pop-blimps must be sorted into the correct categories, and each pop-blimp destroys one of the bridge's blimps. All twelve blimps must be popped to destroy the bridge.
Difficulty level differences[]
Skill (academic) Level[]
Syllables[]
- Level one: Words have 1-3 syllables. Hopsalot sounds out each syllable in a word.
- Level two: Words have 2-4 syllables. Hopsalot sounds out each syllable in a word.
- Level three: Words have 2-4 syllables. Hopsalot pronounces the words normally.
Shapes and Forms[]
- Level one: Sort 2-D shapes.
- Level two: Sort 3-D shapes.
- Level three: Sort objects based on which 3-D shape they resemble.
Life Science[]
- Level one: Sort the animals by whether they walk, swim, or fly.
- Level two: Sort the animals by whether they have fur, feathers, or scales/fins.
- Level three: Sort the animals by type.
Earth Science[]
- Level one: Sort the objects by which type of weather they are suited for.
- Level two: Sort the objects or articles of clothing by which type of weather they are suited for.
- Level three: Sort the objects by which season they are suited for.
Nutrition[]
Sort the foods by food group.
HTML manual description[]
HTML manual image
Gameplay Instructions
Hopsalot is very protective of his Hyper-carrot fuel. He keeps it stashed on an island in his backyard and the only way across is to build a bridge out of balloon blimps. The blimps are coded so that the wrong people can't build the bridge. As blimps fall from Hopsalot's machine, use the arrow keys to guide them into one of the columns below. Each column is labeled with the category of blimps that should be placed there.
Before you can enjoy the Hyper-carrots, Hopsalot will need your help popping all of the blimps in the bridge. The new blimps that drop will be pop-blimps. Guide them to the matching columns, just as before, and watch as they bust the balloons below. When the bridge is gone, the carrots are yours!
Curriculum Skills:
- Parts of Speech - Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives
- Syllables
- Food groups
- Animal characteristics
- Weather and seasons
- Shapes and forms
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Design document[1][]
Refrences[]
- ↑
Marx, Christy. 2010. Write Your Way Into Animation and Games, published by Focal Press. Pages 237-239. ISBN 978-0-240-81343-1