Pre-readers and primaries can help farmer rabbit to plant some delicious fruits and vegetables. From soil preparation and pest control, all the way to the harvest, little ones participate in the entire process!
Concepts
App Overview
Happy Little Farmer opens to a field scene with a rabbit as a farmer standing next to his fenced garden plot. Three icons lead to the activities that simulate a few days worth of farming tasks:
Flower Pot - Berry Plant Day-to-day Tasks:
- Pour soil and place a berry seedling in a pot
- Fertilize and water
- Catch bugs and put them in a jar
- Prune browned leaves
- Pick 10 berries
Box of Peppers - Vegetable Patch Day-to-Day Tasks:
- Remove rocks, leaves, and sticks from garden plot and sort into containers
- Rake the soil
- Dig three holes
- Plant seeds
- Water the seedlings
- Smash bugs
- Pick and sort vegetables before they rot and fall off the plant
Bag of Grain - Wheat Field Day-to-Day Tasks:
- User a tractor to clean up, till, and seed a field
- Use a helicopter to water crops
- Harvest and bale the hay
From any day-to-day task, a carrot at the upper left takes the user underground to see progress through that particular farming activity. As each activity is completed, a star sticker is placed on a chart that appears at the end of the progression.
Also on the home screen:
- Settings: Choose from nine languages, turn background music (traditional toddler songs) on or off, clear stickers, sharing links
- Rabbit's Front Door: Takes you into the rabbit's house where you can see prizes that have been collected and move them around to decorate the living room
Prizes are earned through an Easter egg hunt, which is unrelated to farming. As youngsters perform their tasks, they click on the hidden eggs to earn prizes to place in the rabbit's home.
Curator Rating
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Adherence to task
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Worth the money
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Fun factor
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Scaffolding of learning
No tutorials included, and not all activities are intuitive
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User safety
Sharing features are included
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Control and feedback
Choose from nine languages, turn background music (traditional toddler songs) on or off, and clear stickers
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How techie do I need to be?
Novice
Instructional Ideas
During your garden unit, prepare youngsters for the real thing by having them progress through the application.
Classroom Considerations
- Most of the leaves on the garden plot do not match the leaf that identifies the container to place them in.
- Wrong choices cannot be made when sorting; if an item is dragged to the incorrect container, it goes back to where it came from.
- To return to the home screen from any task, you must first go underground, and then home. Also from underground, you can skip and choose tasks. The navigation is a little confusing.
- As of the time of this review, the Clear Sticker feature is not working. In order to re-set the rewards, the app had to be removed from the tablet and re-installed.
Pros
- Age-appropriate tasks
- Variety of activities
- Memorable display of plant lifecycle and farming process
- Beautifully illustrated
Cons
- Limited classroom value
- No written instructions for adults to refer to
- Navigation somewhat confusing