Eleanor's News Room

Eleanor's News Room is an activity that appears in JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade: Fundamentals. It is accessed by clicking on Eleanor's house from the main screen and is designed to teach language arts skills at a first grade level.

Eleanor is a reporter for the JumpStart News Network. The player chooses a story topic, and creates sentences that summarize the story for Eleanor's report.

Description
First, Eleanor will bring out her research cart, which contains four kinds of reading material: a webpage, a storybook, an encyclopedia, and a newspaper article. The player which source they would like to work from. Then the player will be presented with a short story, which they must read.

When the player is reading a story, a screen appears over the activity containing text and buttons. The left and right arrow buttons scroll through the pages in the story. The megaphone button makes Eleanor read the story out loud. The player can also click on individual words in the story to hear them spoken. The red X button lets the player exit the story and return to the report.

After the player has read the story, they must recall details from it and construct four sentences for the report. Word tiles appear on an electronic screen. The player clicks on word tiles and drags them to the writing board to create a sentence. The sentences must match the story's content, while also being coherent and grammatically correct.

Once the player has completed four sentences, Eleanor's report will go on the air. Afterwards, Eleanor rewards the player with Power Peanuts.

Difficulty level differences

 * Level one: Sentences are broken into two parts: subject and predicate.
 * Level two: Sentences are broken into individual words. The player must finish part of a sentence.
 * Level three: Sentences are broken into individual words. The player must create the entire sentence.

HTML manual description
Gameplay Instructions

Eleanor is the top reporter for the JumpStart News Network and she's very busy with the big Scooter tournament in town. Now is your chance to help report the news by choosing story topics, reading up on them, and creating the sentences for Eleanor's on-air reports.

Eleanor will pull out the research cart and let you choose between a newspaper article, a web site, an encyclopedia entry or a story book. Click on one to see the text for the article or story. Eleanor will read along with you. Click the replay button (megaphone) if you want her to start over. The arrows will let you scroll back and forth through any additional pages. When you've read the entire story, click the close button.

Next, you will help Eleanor write her report. She will ask you one question at a time about the story and she will present you with several word tiles. Drag the word tiles to the big writing board to create a proper sentence that answers the question. She will help you along the way. When all four sentences for her report are complete, she will read them on the air and reward you with some power peanuts.

This activity does not have gameplay leveling. The curriculum skills Level one breaks the sentences into two parts (subject and predicate). Levels two and three break the sentence into individual words and in Level two some of the words will already be placed in the sentence.

Curriculum Skills:
 * Reading comprehension
 * Sentence building
 * Punctuation

Concepts introduced in Eleanor's stories and articles:
 * The Human Body
 * The Ocean
 * Plants
 * The Solar System
 * The Desert
 * The Forest
 * A Trip to the Hospital
 * Community Workers
 * Fire Safety
 * New People
 * Making Friends
 * North Pole and South Pole
 * Insects
 * Farm Animals
 * Hygiene
 * Eating Healthy

Trivia

 * The image used in the digital manual has several differences from the final product: The font used is different and bigger, the console in which the words are found is shorter, the appearance of the boxes around the words is different, and the stand on which the computer and books are is rolled away during gameplay.