ThePolyglotsattheBirthdayParty

The playspace has fun incidental animations and accompanying audio. These playful elements repeat the chosen language used throughout the app.

The Polyglots at the Birthday Party playspace is a birthday party at a home that has both an indoor and an outdoor area. The language focus is on numbers. The activity focus is on exploring early maths/numeracy concepts such as number sequencing and one-to-one correspondence.

Numbers 1–5 and 1–10 are reinforced in this fun and familiar game.

This game of hide and seek models counting 1–5, then 1–10. One character counts while the others hide. Children search the screen to uncover the hidden characters, and when all characters are found, the game resets with different hiding places. The difficulty increases as children play.

The numbers 1–10 are the focus for this activity and are reinforced in each step. Children will also hear vocabulary related to ingredients for making a cake.

This is a three-step, hands-on activity. Children mix, bake and decorate a cake with candles. Each step offers different interactions with number words. Children can either follow a recipe for making a cake (vanilla sponge, chocolate cake or marble cake) or make their own creation. Cake ingredient words are introduced, and children can count aloud measures (eg cups) of each ingredient as it is added to the mixture. Children also hear numbers on the oven controls to cook the cake, and they can say how old they are as they place the candles on the cake.

Numbers 1–10 are reinforced along with revision of the chosen language related to the six colours from App 2: The Polyglots at the Beach.

In this fun game, children are prompted to tap a certain number of like-coloured balloons to match the signpost. As children tap each balloon, each number word is called out in the target language (1, 2, 3, etc). The activity is scaffolded into levels and provides opportunities to revisit the vocabulary for colours that is the focus in App 2: The Polyglots at the Beach.

Numbers 1–10 and beyond are the focus. Children are prompted to move forward as the numbers count up in the chosen language.

In this fun and challenging activity, children physically move the tablet while balancing a virtual egg on a spoon. The challenge is to move forward 10+ steps without letting the egg fall off the spoon. Children are encouraged to join in counting the steps out loud. When 10 is reached, a reward animation plays. The rear camera is used to show the child’s real-life background (for example, the floor of the preschool). Children can compete against four other children at one time.

In this experience, numbers 1–8 are associated with different percussion sounds.

This experience encourages creative play using a music sequence (both music and beat counting) to support receptive and expressive language. A backing track provides a base beat, and piñatas hanging in the tree provide percussion sounds on touch. Each piñata is associated with a different percussion instrument and beat.

This song focuses on number symbols as children can count from 1 to 10 and sing to the beat. Children also hear the phrases ‘Let’s go to the party’ and ‘It’s a birthday party’.

Children can launch the ‘Numbers’ song by tapping the CD player icon.