Granny Applebee's Cookie Factory

Item Description:

Granny Applebee's Cookie Factory builds confidence in decision making, promotes careful organization, and helps develop independent work skills for students in grades 4 to 6. Granny Applebee's Cookie Factory is published by Micrograms Software and is available in different configurations to fit your needs.

Students who accept the challenge of managing Granny"s cookie factory will be met with many decisions to make. Which cookie order should be filled first? Are all the necessary ingredients in stock? Where and when should supplies be bought? How is the thermal fiddlywink repaired? How much should you advertise to try increasing cookie sales? Should bills be paid now?

Granny Apple bee's Cookie Factory is an award winning program designed to develop critical thinking skills. The main goal of the program is to provide practice in decision making.

Some decisions allow for individual preferences. It won't matter if a child's first decision is to check supplies or check orders. It won't matter if bills are paid a week early or right on time. Advertising can be effective whether newspaper ads or television ads are chosen. There is no right or wrong move in deciding to bake chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies first. There are manyh ways to run Granny's factory productively. The important things are for children to feel comfortable exploring the program, to see choices, and to develop confidence in making the choics they feel are logical.

Some decisions call for specific answers. There is only one way to fix the diddlywink, replace the woozle cam, or seal the doughstributor cap. Players must read carefully and follow directions when making repairs. Also, when following recipes, students must mix proper amounts of the right ingredients and bake at the correct temperature, or cookie sales will drop off.

Some decisions depend on careful organizational skills. Students will need to be aware of the supplies they have. One can't bake 400 dozen of Granny's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with only ten dozen eggs. Students will benefit by cleaning and repairing machines regularly. Neglected problems will tend to lead to more severe problems. A well-organized manager also will advertise on a regular basis.

Making these decisions will build students' critical thinking and problem solving skills. Developing awareness of cause and effect relationships will help lead to logical solutions. If Granny wants more customers, she must advertise. If machines are not maintained, they break down more frequently. If cookie prices are higher, orders may decline.

Making these decisions will help children become confident, independent learners. At first, many children will raise their hands looking for specific directions to guide their actions. Have them work with a partner and encourage them to explore Granny's factory without worrying about being wrong. Once students understand the basic program operation, they will be ready to manage this challenge on their own.

As with any business, good organizational skills help lead to success. Neglected problems tend to lead to more severe problems. Understanding cause and effect relationships will help children deduce several logical actions. If they want more customers, they must advertise. If machines are not maintained, they will break down more frequently. If cookie prices are higher, orders will be lower. As students gain the confidence to make decisions, they will enjoy determining on their own the problems to which to direct their attention. Granny Applebee can provide hours of fun at work for young managers.

Program Requirements for Windows: Windows Vista, XP, 2000, 98 running on PC's < 6 years old.

Program Requirements for Macintosh: Programs with Easy Track Mac OS 10.5.3 Leopard to OS 9 running on Macs < 6 years old, including Intel Core Duo machines with Rosetta.

Programs without Easy Track Mac OS 10.2.8 Classic to OS 8.6 running on PowerMacs or above

Using Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000
Micrograms products compatible with Easy Track run under all the Windows operating systems listed above. Network versions can be served off of Windows 2008, 2003, 2000, NT, and Novell (>3.x) servers; or they can be run from the local hard drives of individual workstations and/or stand-alone machines. We offer nothing, at present, designed for Cytrix, NComputing environments, other terminal servers, or the "CD tower" environment. We offer no web-based products

Using Macintosh
Micrograms products compatible with Easy Track run on OS 10 native and on Intel Core 2 Duo machines with Rosetta. This means OS 10.2 thru OS 10.6. Snow Leopard initially requires that Rosetta be downloaded free from Apple. Network Macintosh program versions can be served off of Windows 2008, 2003, 2000, and Novell servers with Macintosh partitions, as well as from Macintosh machines running OS 10 Server. They also can be run from the local hard drives of individual workstations and/or stand-alone machines. Micrograms programs run fine in hardwired Macintosh computer labs, and they run better with newer versions of AirPort than with old.

Easy Track Updates
Easy Track is designed to be easily updated from time to time. When new programs are released by Micrograms, Easy Track will be updated to accommodate them. Suggestions from users may be added to Easy Track, and if any issues are discovered regarding Easy Track's operation, updates can resolve the problems. So before you begin importing student names into the Easy Track management system, we strongly suggest you download Micrograms latest Easy Track update for free from www.micrograms.com. And, from time to time we suggest you revisit the update page of www.micrograms.com to keep your school up to date with the latest Easy Track version.

Buy ANY Micrograms Network/Site License, and get a second Network/Site License (of equal or lesser value at the same school) for 50% OFF!