Muppet Babies: Animals in Nature - Ages 2-5

Animals In Nature is an educational title for the very young that features The Muppets. It has been designed for those of preschool age to play. It can be played with either the mouse or the keyboard and within the game the numeric and arrow keys all act to move the cursor between the icons while the ENTER, SPACEBAR and all the alpha and number keys will activate the selected icon.

The main menu shows Kermit the Frog riding a train whose wagons carry stacks of coloured bricks, there are eight activity bricks on the first three wagons and on the last wagon are three bricks that replay the keyboard help animation, explain the menu screen and exit the game.

The activity bricks are all coloured differently have a different animal pictures on them, they are:

• The brick with three animals on it (pink):
  This is where Kermit introduces the animals, says a bit about each and we hear the sound it makes

• The dog brick (light yellow): Identifying animals by name.
  In this activity we see a farm or a woodland scene. Along the bottom of the screen is a train with three wagons and on each wagon is an animal. Kermit says the animal's name and the task is to select the correct animal. Once selected the animal appears in the scene, make's it's sound and Kermit says his little piece about them.

• The rooster brick (red): Identifying animals by sound.
  This is basically the same as the previous game but instead of Kermit saying the animal's name an animal's sound is heard.

• The horse brick (a sort of rose colour): Colouring in a picture.
  There are a number of scenes shown in outline. The child can colour them in by positioning the cursor and pressing an action key or they can select an item and drop it into the scene. There is no choice in this activity. When placing an item it goes to a fixed position and when colouring in the colours are predefined.

• The duck brick (pale blue): Identifying an animal by its shadow.
  This uses the same backgrounds as the first two games, there are three silhouettes on the screen and one animal on the train, the child has to select the shape that matches the creature.

• The donkey brick (green): Identify animals by solving riddles.
  These are not riddles as an adult would understand them. In previous activities Kermit has said a few lines about each creature as it appeared such as, "The dove is a kind of white bird. Some people say it is the symbol for peace.", and in this activity the child has to use that information to identify the dove from the three animals on the train at the bottom of the screen.

• The sheep brick (deep yellow): This is 'Free Play'.
  In the other activities as animals are identified they appear in the main window, here all the animals are already present and the child can select them to hear Kermit's voice clip, the animal's sound and watch the little animation.

• The CD brick (mauve).
  Here Kermit sings nursery rhymes such as 'Old McDonald Had A Farm'

When a child has completed an activity they earn a certificate.

In addition to the on-screen activities there are work sheets to be printed that help with matching, counting, creativity and 'odd one out' identification.