The Barber Shop is an activity and location in JumpStart Pre-K. The activity is designed to teach counting and visual discrimination, as well as introduce music concepts at the prekindergarten level.
Description[]
Location[]
The Barber Shop is one of the buildings in the Pre-K Town. Clicking on it from the main town screen takes the player to a closeup of the building with several interactive spots, and causes the Barber Shop Song to play. Clicking on the building will then take the player to the activity.
Activity[]
The activity on level one
The player can make music with Eleanor's animal friends. Several animals are lined up on stools of increasing height, and a mirror is above each animal. Each animal can sing a different note. To play the activity, the player must look at the clue that appears in the shaving cream, and then click on the mirror that corresponds to the clue. Clicking on the correct mirror causes the animal below it to sing its note. The activity is complete when the player has matched all of the clues, which causes the animals to sing a song.
There is also a free play mode, which is accessed by clicking the music note icon near the bottom of the screen. In this mode, the player can click on any animals to hear them sing notes and create tunes, or hear the animals sing songs by selecting a song from the jukebox.
Digital manual description[]
Digital manual image
Give the barber shop singers a warm-up.
Object: Match the clue in the shaving cream to the object, letter, or number in the mirror.
- Look at the clue that appears in the shaving cream at the right side of the screen. If the clue is one object, click on the mirror that shows the same object. If the clue is a word, click on the mirror that shows the first letter of the word. If the clue is a set of objects, click on the mirror that shows the correct number.
- To change animals just for fun, click on the lever at the bottom of an animal's chair. That animal will bounce off the screen and a different animal will take its place.
Levels: At level one, match objects of different sizes, colors and shapes to their identical mates. At level two, match different words to the letters with which they begin. At level three, match sets of objects to the number of objects in the set.
Rewards: When you match the clue to the correct mirror, the animal beneath that mirror will sing its note. When you have answered all of the clues given, the animals will sing a whole song for you! If you do a good job, you'll earn a star. When you have all four stars, you'll earn a visit to the Park for a special reward.
Free play: To play the tunes without playing the game, click on the Musical Note next to level three at the bottom of the screen.
- Click on the Up Arrow and Down Arrow on the jukebox at the right side of the screen to see what songs you can play. Click on the picture in the middle of the jukebox to play that song.
- To hear an animal sing its note, click on the animal. Try playing your own tunes this way!
- To change animals just for fun, click on the lever at the bottom of an animal's chair. That animal will bounce off the screen and a different animal will take its place.
Educational benefits: This activity teaches visual discrimination and counting. It also introduces basic music concepts, such as the arrangement of notes from low to high and allows your child to experiment with music.
Trivia[]
- The Digital manual image depicts the star bar as being purple rather than the final game's blue bar.
- The concept for this location and activity is based off of Barbershop music, a style of a cappella music which is performed with only vocals and no musical instruments. The animals also perform songs in an a cappella style, since the songs are produced from their vocals only.