A Map of Squeeble Island

Hello Friends,

Happy new year to you! I hope you had a great Christmas!

Our inventors have told us that it's probably your first week back at school after a long holiday. After so long pottering about with your family, getting up late and playing with new toys, we're guessing that the first day back may feel very tiring! So, if you hadn't already noticed this on our website, we wanted to give a you a treat to come home to: a map! Of Squeeble Island!

We've talked about so many different places around Squeeble Island here on the blog, and so many of those places also appear in the apps that we feature in, so we thought that you may enjoy seeing the whole thing laid out in one place, so that you can properly imagine it all. There are also lots of things on there that you might not have heard about yet, so you might want to have a good look around and study it for new things. I'm really looking forward to telling you all about it - there are so many stories to share.

In the meantime, you can either look at it in full, enormous-scale on your computer, over on the KeyStageFun website on the 'Fun Stuff' page, or you can ask a parent or teacher if they'd be happy to print a copy out for you to keep.

We hope you enjoy the map and that you have a great first week back at school!

Whizz :)

Our Runners-Up

 Hello Friends,

In my last post I told you all about Wobble, the Squeeble who was created by the winner of our 'Design a Squeeble and Win an iPad' competition. Today, I want to introduce you to the four new Squeebles who have been designed by our runners-up!

On the left (can you remember how to tell your left from your right? If not, you might want to learn my simple tip for remembering!), is Ti, who was designed by Nicole, aged 6! She says that he likes to fly and swim! We can't wait to meet him to find out whether he likes to fly around on a Squeeberang or whether he can ACTUALLY fly! Flying isn't something that any other Squeeble has ever been able to do, so we're really excited to speak to Ti when he arrives here on Squeeble Island! 

On the right is Leefee, drawn by Joel, aged 10. Apparently Leefee is a bit of a chameleon who loves to hide by blending in the with the leaves on trees and bushes. Joel also wrote that he loves making friends - we're so pleased to hear that as even though we're really excited about all these new Squeebles arriving, we're also feeling slightly nervous and hoping that they'll be all be friendly and want to join in with our fun! 

And here's Frilly, with her beautiful head of frilly petal-hair! Jemima, aged 8, her inventor, didn't say anything about Frilly particularly enjoying hide and seek, but we're wondering if she'll be just as good as Leefee at this game as she will blend in perfectly when she's crouched down in a flower bed! Jemima says that Frilly holds a world record for skipping! She must have developed an excellent way of getting the rope to fly high above her head each time she takes a skip, as those petals look like an added obstacle for the skipping rope! We can't wait to learn her technique for perfect skipping.

And finally, meet Kaboom, designed by Louis, aged 9. Kaboom not only looks like a volcano, but apparently he occasionally makes loud, explosive noises to scare people! Some of the Squeebles here are feeling a little wary...we're thinking of wearing ear mufflers as we're wondering if he's going to arrive with a bang! (ha ha!) Ruby is busy making some chilli flavoured ice-cream to welcome him with, as Louis writes that he loves spicy foods!

Thank you so much to our friends who designed these amazing Squeebles to come and live with us! And thank you to all the others who entered the competition but didn't win this time...we wish that you all could have won...but we're sure that they'll be another competition in the future.

Whizz :)

A winner!

Hello Friends,

Thank you so much for all the amazing entries that you sent in for our 'Design a Squeeble and Win an iPad' competition. We were so impressed by what a creative and talented bunch Squeeble-users are! Your art work was stunning! I wish that every single one of the Squeebles you designed could have come to live with us here on Squeeble Island!

We're so excited to introduce our soon-to-be-new-friend Wobble to you! Wobble is designed by Martha, aged 7, and was chosen as the overall winning entry. Wobble sounded characterful, looked bright and colourful and, importantly, Martha had designed something that looked so Squeeble-like! Our inventors have already arranged for Martha's new iPad to be sent to her and in a few months time Wobble will appear with us in the next Squeebles app! Here's what Martha said about Wobble when she submitted her entry:

Squeeble Name: Wobble

Favourite Food: Rainbow jelly

Hobbies: Hula-hooping and cartwheeling

Other Information: If you point a torch at Wobble the light goes straight through him!

While Wobble is making his way to us here on Squeeble Island, we asked our inventors to send some questions over to Martha, so that we could find out some more about him. Martha's answers will appear in purple, as we think that may be one of her favourite colours.

1. We love the new Squeeble, Wobble, which you've designed. We can't wait until he arrives on Squeeble Island so that we can see if a torch light really does shine through him! Have you ever done this with a real jelly that's not a Squeeble? Did the light shine through it?
Yes! We did an experiment in Science at school. We shone a torch at different things to see if they are opaque or transparent.

2. Apart from obviously being a bit Wobbly, are there any other things that we should know about Wobble to help him settle in here on Squeeble Island? Any things that will make him really happy and feel welcome? 
He eats blueberries and raspberries, and likes to drink Cloudberry juice. Do you have any there? He would really like a candy floss bed to sleep in! Also Wobble's favourite ice cream is Chocolate and Raspberry!

3. Is there anything that Wobble is scared of? 
Wobble is scared of loud noises. They make him jump, and then he goes all wibbly wobbly!

4. We noticed that Wobble has little blue splodges over him. Are these blueberries sprinkled throughout his Jellyish body or something else?
Yes they are blueberries! It's because he eats so many!

5. Please could you tell us which Squeeble you are most like yourself and why?
I think I am most like Max. I love playing outside in the woods. I have also climbed up a really big mountain in Norway! 

I hope you enjoyed reading Martha's answers to my questions! We are busy preparing Wobble's candy floss bed...it's not as big and fluffy as we were hoping it would be though as we keep nibbling on little bits of it...

Whizz :)

Just a few days left to enter!

Hello Friends,

I just wanted to remind you that your chance to design a new friend for us is coming to an end this Sunday! Please hurry to send in your entries - we'd love to see your drawings, paintings, collages or even your own computer-drawn Squeeble!

The winning entry will feature in the next app AND you'll also be sent a shiny new iPad for you and your family (or you and your school, if you're entering with your school).

If you'd like to enter, ask your parent or teacher to take a look at the competition rules and where they should email a copy of your design to. They can find all the details they'll need here.

Our inventors have told us that they're looking forward to looking through all the entries next Monday morning! And here on Squeeble Island excitement is mounting...!

Whizz :)

Our new Squeebles Word Search app!

Hello Friends,

I'm so excited to tell you about the latest Squeebles app! We love word searches, so when our inventors told us that we'd be starring in a Squeebles word search app we were really pleased. 

We like word searches that contain lots of words about a particular subject, because just thinking about that group of words can transport you to a different place while you're hunting for the words. On a really rainy day, looking for sunshiny words can make you feel like you're actually on a summer holiday if you don't look out of the window! So, we suggested some topics for word searches that our inventors could use. There are word searches about: clothes, ice cream; football; outer space; growing things; pirates; the ocean, pets, baking and making things; fairy tales; nature; Christmas; summer holidays; music; sports; parties; food; around town; animals and...erm....us, Squeebles! Once you've chosen the subject, you can then choose whether the search contains easy, medium or hard words, so that you get a word search that's just right for you. 

But what's really great about this app is that you, your parents, your teachers or your brothers and sisters can also make your own word searches. You can ask a grown-up to help you enter some words so that they can double-check that they're spelled correctly (this will keep the Spelling Snake from feeling grumpy...or hissy, as he'd probably say, being a snake!) and then the app will generate a specially-made, no-other-word-search-like-it-in-the-entire-world, just-for-you word search. 

This app will help with your reading, it will help you to become familiar with the correct spelling for a word and it will help you to become really good at finding needles in haystacks (because a word search is a bit like that: you're trying to root out one word in a massive jumble of letters).

And each time you've found all the words in the word search, you'll be rewarded with one very shiny, star-filled, toadstool-jumping, wonderful turn in the Squeebles' Pet Race! 

Zoot's pet squog (you might remember from this blog post that a squog is a cross between a Squeeble and a dog), Onion, is the star of the pet race and it's your job to help him to collect stars and bones, jump over toadstools, piles of logs, and even on to flowers! While you do this, you must be very careful to try not to EVER bump into the Spelling Snake's head, because that will cause Onion to lose ten of the stars that you've just helped him to collect! 

The app will count the number of stars you've won and you'll be entered on to a high score table with anyone else who uses the same iPad or tablet as you, so that you can compete against your family (or if you're using the app at school, your friends and classmates) to see who can help Onion to collect the most stars. We'd love to hear what your highest score is and what you think of the new app. 

If you think it sounds like something you'd like, you can tell your parents or teachers about it. If they like the sound of it too, they'll need to search for 'Squeebles Word Search' in the iPad or Android tablet app stores.

Whizz :)

Squeebles can help you to learn other languages!

Hello Friends,

Today I wanted to tell you about how you can use our Squeebles Spelling Test app in new and exciting ways! The Squeebles Spelling app usually allows your teacher or parent to set up tests for you using your weekly spelling list or just any words that they know you're finding tricky. But did you know that it can also help you to learn another language?

You can ask your parent or teacher to enter new, foreign words for you to learn to say AND spell. They can enter short phrases or words, record them for you to hear, and even tell you what they mean in English.

Some foreign languages use special characters or accented letters in their words, so our inventors have created a separate keypad in the app including the most commons ones so that you can spell the words perfectly. Just tap on the green EA key on the keyboard to access them and then tap again to switch back to the regular keypad.

To make your tests foreign-letters-friendly, you'll need to ask your parent or teacher to turn on the 'Foreign Characters' setting under your player name in the Parents' Zone, so that it's glowing orange, like the one above! They can then use the keypad with extra characters too:

Mmm. Someone is being tested on how to say 'This is delicious' in French...I wonder if they've been eating one of Ruby's ice-creams...

Finally, I wanted to show you a picture that our inventors received this week. It's drawn by Tom, who's aged 6. Tom's parents said that they would be happy for me to share it on our blog with you, so here it is - you can see Mud, Bebe, me, Bitsy and Raino! Merci beaucoup, Tom, c'est fantastique! (that means 'Thank you very much, Tom, it's fantastic!' in French). We love to see your artwork, so please do email it to our inventors and I'll try to share as much as I can here on my blog. And remember, if you enjoy drawing Squeebles you may like to enter our competition where you can win an iPad and have your own Squeeble design featured in the next app.

I hope you have a great week,

Whizz :)

Design a Squeeble and win an iPad!

Hello Friends,

Today I'm excited to tell you that our inventors are running a competition asking you to design a new Squeeble to come and live with us here on Squeeble Island. Not only will this new Squeeble join our fun here, it will also appear in the next app, meaning the winning design will be seen by hundreds of thousands of children all around the world!

We're going to help our inventors to pick out the Squeeble design we love the best and the winning artist will be sent an brand new iPad!

This is the third time we've run this competition (although never before with the added prize of a shiny new iPad) and I want to show you how our inventors have created a Squeeble based on your drawings in the past. You can see the original drawing on the left and the finished design created by our inventors on the right.

First, here's Joshua's Squeeble, Raino, which was the winner of one of our other competitions. Joshua's character is based on a raindrop, which we loved! Raino also appeared in the app's credits.

We've also featured Squeeble designs from Poppy, who invented Bebe:

And Seth, who created Mud:

Aren't they fantastic! We love them. Just think, if Poppy, Seth and Joshua had never drawn those pictures, Bebe, Mud and Raino wouldn't even exist. We're so excited about who you might invent to come and live with us next. We can't wait to see your pictures and read your description of their personalities.

You can either enter with your school (for a chance of winning the iPad for your class) or ask your mum or dad to photograph or scan in your picture and send it to us (and if you won, the iPad would be given to you and your family to use). You can design as many Squeebles as you like and enter in one or both of these ways.

If you'd like to enter your own Squeeble design, ask your parent or teacher to read the entry rules and find out where to send a photo or scan of your design, here.

Whizz :)