JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island facts for kids

JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island is a personal computer game from the JumpStart series. It was made by Knowledge Adventure. This game helps kids in fourth grade learn school subjects.

When it came out on December 2, 1996, some people didn't like it. Parents and teachers thought it was too dark and scary. Because of this, the game was stopped in 1999/2000. It was replaced by JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Sapphire Falls, which was made to be more kid-friendly.

Game Story and How to Play

The game starts in a peaceful schoolhouse. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and the school turns spooky. A substitute teacher, Ms. Grunkle, who is secretly a witch, turns the students into monsters! She then takes them to Haunted Island.

You play as a fourth-grade student who missed that scary day. Your job is to rescue your thirteen classmates. You get help from a friendly purple bat named Flap and a fortune teller called Madame Pomreeda.

Your Mission

Madame Pomreeda gives you missions. Each mission asks you to find a student's favorite things. To do this, you play three mini-games. Once you complete four missions, one monster student will turn back to normal. You keep doing this until all your friends are saved! The game tracks how well you do. If you struggle with a game, it will appear more often.

Collecting Keys

You also need to collect 25 special keys. These keys help you reach the attic where your friends are held. You earn a key by getting 5000 points in a mini-game. Five keys unlock one door in Ms. Grunkle's house.

Your Health in the Game

Your health is shown by a candle in the corner of the screen. If you answer questions from a ghost named Repsac incorrectly, your candle burns down. If the candle goes out, you get sent to a confusing labyrinth. In the labyrinth, you can find a "fountain of health" to make your candle grow back. But finding your way out of the labyrinth is tricky!

Characters in the Game

Ms. Grunkle

Ms. Grunkle is the main villain of the game. She is the substitute teacher who turned all the kids into monsters. She looks like a classic witch with gray skin and a pointed hat. She rules over Haunted Island. Ms. Grunkle will sometimes fly by on her broomstick to tease you.

Flap

Flap is a big, purple bat. He is your helper in the game. He often explains how to play the different activities. Flap is like the mascot for this version of JumpStart 4th Grade.

Madame Pomreeda

Madame Pomreeda is a fortune teller. She gives you the challenges you need to save each kid. She lives in a circus carriage. When you visit her, she gives you cards with three challenges. After you finish four cards, she uses the items you collected to figure out the child's true personality. Then, she says a rhyming poem to turn the monster back into your friend! Her name sounds like "palm reading."

Repsac

Repsac is a scary ghost who works for Ms. Grunkle. He sometimes pops up and asks you multiple-choice questions. If you answer wrong, your health candle burns down. His questions are usually about science or grammar. Repsac's name is "Casper" spelled backward, but he's the opposite of the friendly ghost Casper!

The Kids

Here are the kids you need to rescue and what they turn into:

Mini-Games to Play

To save your friends and collect keys, you'll play different educational mini-games:

The Spider's Web

In this game, you guide a tiny spider across a web. You need to make it crawl over letter-shaped bugs to spell out a word. Be careful to avoid a giant red spider on higher levels!

The Toad Well

Here, you control a toad at the top of a well. Make it eat number-shaped bugs that correctly complete math equations. Don't eat the "poisonous" bugs or let the toad fall in!

The Mutant Swamp

You'll experiment with different swamp plants. You need to figure out how much light, water, and space they need to grow. Your goal is to grow enough plants to meet a certain amount.

The Clock Tower

Inside the clock tower, you help a hunchback named Semimoto play music on an old keyboard. You move his hand to the correct musical keys, guided by a bat.

The Cemetery

In this game, you save a friendly ghost from the Grim Reaper. You do this by choosing the correct parts of speech (like nouns or verbs) to fill in a spooky story on a tombstone.

The Mummy's Tomb

This game is like a puzzle. You match related stone tablets with images and writings about history. When you match them, you uncover a mummy!

The Vampire Maze

Guide a vampire through a maze of hedges. You need to lead the vampire to the correct answer for a long division problem. Watch out for ghosts that will turn the vampire to stone!

The Pirate Ship

You control a ghostly ship on a world map. Use geography clues to find buried treasures in different countries. Make sure you don't run out of food and supplies!

The Enchanted Forest

In this game, you use decimals and fractions to mix three magical potions. These potions will turn a frog back into a prince.

The Fountain of Health

This fountain is found in the labyrinth. If your health candle is low, you can come here. Answer questions correctly to make your candle glow brighter and get your health back.

The Game's Ending

When you finally reach the attic, Ms. Grunkle tries to turn everyone, including you, into monsters again. But you have her magic wand! The wand protects you and your friends from her spell. Ms. Grunkle realizes she lost and flies away on her broom. She leaves behind a paper that shows the schoolhouse returning to normal.

After this, the game ends. You can still play, but some areas like Ms. Grunkle's house will be locked.

Fun Facts and Connections

• Some character names are clever references! Wolfgang is like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Albert is like Albert Einstein. "Penny Scilin" sounds like penicillin.
• Near Madame Pomreeda's carriage, you can find a cage that says "Cirque du Jumpe Starte." This means "Circus of the JumpStart." Inside, you can see characters from other JumpStart games like Eleanor Elephant and C.J. the Frog!