GollyGee Blocks

Published by Golly Gee Software

Description:
When children open GollyGee Blocks, they are presented with a simple, graphical interface that puts them one click away from an array of blocks to choose from. The simplest of these blocks are the ones in the shapes menu. Here children can place basic 3D shapes with a click of the mouse, including spheres, cubes, pyramids, and more. Younger children can easily specify their block size as small, medium, or large while older children will appreciate the flexibility offered by the ability to create their blocks dimension by dimension. GollyGee Blocks operates in an entirerly 3D world. Consequently, one view may not do justice to a whole scene. That's why GollyGee Blocks lets children easily manipulate their cameras. Children can rotate 360 degrees around a scene or change to an overhead camera to see a bird's eye view of their scene. Children quickly learn spatial reasoning skills as they adjust their cameras to the views they need. While anything you can imagine can be built out of the basic shapes, GollyGee also has a variety of premade object which let kids get a quick start or make more complicated scenes. Kids can scroll through objects from different themes including city, outerspace, farm, castle, aviation, and more! What would any good scene be without color? GollyGee lets children color their blocks with a wide variety of hues. Many of the parts of the premade objects can be colored separately to give children more control over the final appearence of their objects. Another cool feature of GollyGee Blocks is that if small fingers slip and accidentally color the wrong thing, the undo button will take back an unlimited number of actions. Children can apply a variety of textures to all of their objects. Textures can also be applied to the background to change the backdrop of the scene or to the ground itself. Textures can also be blended with colors to give hundreds of possible coverings for every object.

The GollyGee Blocks Activity Guide!
The Activity Guide contains 52 classroom activities using GollyGee Blocks to teach Art, Language, Social Studies, Math, Science, and more. The lessons have been written by educators with help from the GollyGee Blocks developers. The lessons all include a background on the topic, procedure, extension activities, and hints on using GollyGee Blocks to accomplish the specific tasks.

GOLLYGEE BLOCKS TUTORIAL:

ART

• World Architecture Develop 3D scenes representing architecture from around the world
• Building Plans Construct a 3D scene from a plan
• Coloring Book Develop a coloring book from a compilation of 3D scenes
• Flipbook Create a flipbook animation
• Making Mosaics Use geometric shapes to make a mosaic
• Park Design Using unit block shapes, design a park scene
• Playgrounds Build your own school playground
• Quilts Connect geometric shapes to make a quilt
• Stained Glass Windows Build a stained glass window using geometric shapes, objects, colors and textures

• Acrostic Poem Use the Blocks to write and illustrate an acrostic poem

• Alphabet Objects

• Storytelling and Fairy Tales Draw a 3D scene about a story or fairy tale and write about the scene

• Idioms and Expressions

• Names

• News Report

• Nouns and Verbs

• Poems

• Prepositions

• Habitats Construct various types of habitats used by different cultures
• Holidays Build a scene to illustrate the events or significance of a particular holiday
• Islands Develop a 3D scene depicting an Island environment
• Local Landmarks Construct a 3D scene of a landmark in your local area
• Mapping Skills Create a map of the school using the birds-eye view feature
• Transportation Use the Blocks to explore how transportation modes affect events in history
• Trip Picture Develop a 3D scene that describes a trip or vacation you took

• Area and Perimeter Learn the concepts of area and perimeter
• Base Ten Construct representations for two-digit numbers
• Counting Develop, practice, and extend counting skills
• Division and Fair Share Learn about division by separating a larger group of blocks into smaller groups
• Geometry Recognize geometric objects have different properties when viewed from a variety of perspectives
• Data Analysis Create a scene and construct a graph based on it
• Ways to Make Ten Learn about the commutative property of addition by stacking blocks
• Multiplication Build arrays to illustrate multiplication and match to basic multiplication facts
• Patterns Construct repeating pattern scenes using geometric shapes, objects, colors and textures
• Probability and Statistics Investigate and perform probability tests
• Symmetry Create balanced, symmetric pictures

• Animals & Other Imaginary Creatures Construct a 3D animal using the basic geometric shapes
• Life on Another Planet Build a scene of life on another planet, and write about it.
• Building Bridges Learn about types of bridges and construct an example
• Energy Sources Build a scene showing ideas for producing energy
• Flying Things Learn about flying things and make your own
• Inventing Design an imaginary invention to carry out
• Latitude and Longitude Build an Earth model that shows the concept of Latitude and Longitude
• Recycling Build a scene that depicts environmental problems with waste and pose solutions
• Solar System Build a model of the solar system
• Space Station Build a model of the International Space Station
• Protecting the Environment Construct a 3D scene that portrays an important environmental issue

• Chess Set Build your own chess set
• Invent A Code Develop a code and encode a message
• Mascots Design a school mascot from basic geometric shapes
• Build a maze Students build a 3D maze
• Just One Shape Students see what they can build with just on shape
• Wheel of Shapes Build a scene using randomly selected shapes

• Mac

• Windows