http://www.mattsonsoftware.com/

The URL written above is for the Mattson Software Company.  This site
has short, FREE, learning programs for grades 2 - 5 written for
Macintosh computers.  I'm running the programs on ruby iMacs with
system 9.2.2 and it's working just fine.  I tried one program on a
Power Mac 5260, but it wouldn't run so it probably doesn't work on
the older Macs.

Free:
Capital Search - reviews the use of capital letters.  It's a short
program, the kids activities vary several times while they're using
the program, but best of all, this program displays the rules for
using capital letters while the child corrects their work!  What more
could you ask for?

2D ShapeMaster and 3D ShapeMaster - matching shapes with their names
and attributes.  2D is great for 4th Grade since they spend some time
learning parallelograms, trapezoids, rhombuses, etc.

Lines and Angles - reviews right, acute, and obtuse angles, and
perpendicular, parallel, and intersecting lines.  There is one error
in this program, one question is missing words at the end of it.
It's easy enough to work around the error if you write the correct
question on the board and warn the kids at the beginning of the
program.  It's a good lesson in "everyone makes mistakes."

Mattson also offers three programs for a $25 site license/program
(it's a one time fee for 6 to 100 computers).  Unfortunately the
demos for these programs expired on May 1, 2003 so you get an error
message if you try to run the program.  You can run the demo on your
computer if you change the date on your computer to sometime before
May 1, 2003, but remember that if you change the date you should not
connect to the server to run Renaissance programs (you will get a
date and time error message and it will not be able to find your
Renaissance database)!

Punctuate This - Great program!!!  I have used it 2nd through 6th
grades and it's been a hit!  2nd Grade can do Level 1.  4th Grade I'm
starting on Level 2.  6th Grade I've started on Level 3 and let the
kids work through Level 4.  Level 4 gets tricky because the student
may have to place more than one comma in a sentence and each comma is
designated where it should go by the reason for the punctuation mark.
For example if a comma is designated to be placed between the name of
a city and state, but the student places it where a comma normally
goes in a list, the program marks it wrong. Each error must be
corrected before the student goes on to the next sentences.

Proofreader - students edit letters for capitalization, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation.

What's My Place - reviews the place values of numbers (tens, hundreds, etc.)

Dean Mattson, 4th Grade teacher wrote the software for his students
to match Texas' academic standards.  It's worth taking a look!

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