Penguin Cold Cash targets students ages 5-11, but if you are up to a challenge, you’ll enjoy it, too. It’s really great fun, and even though I’m well over eleven, it tested my eye-hand coordination while forcing me to make change (something I’ve never liked to do), to use the fewest coins to come up with a total, and to identify the backs of coins and paper money. I have to admit I had some trouble keeping up with the action at the highest levels, but I don’t think students would. They are used to games like this, for they play them all the time. The good thing about this one though, is that it gives them practice in valuable skills.

Teaching about money can be quite boring once kids get beyond playing with fake coins in Kindergarten and Grade 1. What Penguin Cold Cash does is to get kids thinking about cash and how to work with it. The program is, of course, great for the primary levels, but intermediate-age kids will like it and learn from it as well. It’s perfect for teaching about cash or for enrichment. While your fourth to sixth graders might think before trying the program, “I already know all about money,” they won’t be saying that after they get into the games.

Speaking of levels, there are four for each game, so you (or your students) can select the ones that best fit what your students need to know and how challenging their work should be. For the younger students, you might pick an easy level for identification of coins, while older students or students who need enrichment will go on to higher levels.

Throughout the games students direct a group of lively penguins through maneuvers involving knowledge of money, mathematics, and eye-hand coordination. The penguins, with the help of your students, take on a treadmill, belly board, play hockey, catch fish, and go tubing. The fast-action animation is excellent, and the games are inviting as the little penguins race across the computer screen and sometimes plop headfirst down a glacier or into a snow drift. Your students will want to continue playing the games, and they’ll be checking their scores to see if they can outdo themselves and their classmates.

Besides the penguin challenges, the program includes a section in which students try to identify State quarters. The quarters come together in puzzle format while students select which state the quarters represent. This activity would make a nice lead in to a study of states of the United States, for the quarters detail famous state events, places and people.

Penguin Cold Cash, which teaches about money from a penny to $100, is priced at just over $20 for a single CD. School licenses are available as is group pricing. The program is Mac and Windows compatible.

Additional Information:

Penguin Cold Cash

EdVenture Software

24 Betmarlea Drive

Norwalk, CT 06850

203-299-0289

http://www.edven.com

Here are a few places to order Penguin Cold Cash:

EdVenture Software

http://www.edven.com/penguincoldcash.html

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/EdVenture-EV-006-01-Penguin-Cold-Cash/dp/B001XHLA4Y

Learning Services, Inc.

http://www.learningservicesus.com/home/ls2/page_4941_90/penguin_cold_cash.html