Ignite by Hatch™ is a digital learning tool that supports children's growth across seven domains of learning from preschool through first grade. To provide targeted support, Ignite organizes its content into 12 skill levels, which are aligned to children's grade levels and developmental needs.
Grade-Level Placement and Starting Skill Levels
To ensure each child receives developmentally appropriate content, Ignite assigns a starting skill level based on the child’s grade. This decision is based on a psychometric analysis of the game and supports progress toward grade-level readiness, assuming each child plays for approximately 30 minutes per week.
Grade Level to Skill Level Mapping
| Grade Level | Starting Skill Level |
| Preschool (3yrs) | Skill Level 1 |
|
PreK (4yrs) Mixed Age Preschool Other |
Skill Level 3 |
| Kindergarten (5yrs) | Skill Level 4 |
| First Grade (6yrs) | Skill Level 6 |
Personalized Sequencing in Ignite
While each child is placed at a skill level that matches their grade, Ignite adjusts if they’re not yet ready for those skills. If a child does not demonstrate a skill after two attempts:
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They are automatically moved to earlier, foundational skills.
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If they’ve already demonstrated those earlier skills, Ignite provides a Guided Practice experience. Guided Practice helps reinforce concepts across all domains and subdomains.
For more information on these personalization changes, see: Personalized Learning Updates to Ignite by Hatch™
Visualizing Skill Progression
The learning path in Ignite is designed to show a child’s progression through skills over time. Along this path, you may notice stop signs. These are intentional breaks in the sequence—natural moments to review progress, explore other learning domains, and offer teacher-led support before the child attempts the skill again.
Child Progression Path
A larger version of this image can be found at the bottom of this article.
When and How to Provide Support
Hatch Insights gives you visibility into when a child might need extra help. There are 3 key places to look:
1. Support Needed
This report shows the specific areas your children recently struggled with and suggests offline activities to support learning. You can also use the Curricular Experiences Recommendations Report to identify small groups of children who need support with the same skills.
2. Child Skill Detail Report
This report provides a detailed view of one child’s activity across all subdomains.
Each colored rectangle represents the child’s progress:
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Red or Orange – The child tried the skill but didn’t demonstrate it.
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Purple – The child will either play a Guided Practice activity next or has just completed one.
You’ll also see markers that show how the child is progressing:
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Gold dot – Starting point based on the child’s grade level.
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Black flag – First skill level the child successfully demonstrated.
Example:
A child started at skill level 3 in Receptive Language. After two unsuccessful attempts, Ignite moved them to level 2, where they were able to demonstrate the skill.
Teachers can use this report to identify children who are struggling or moving to lower skill levels. It’s a helpful way to spot areas where more support may be needed.
3. Explore Experiences for Practice
Explore Ignite allows teachers or families to launch Ignite experiences without affecting a child’s progress or data. This can be a helpful way to revisit specific games with a child or small group, especially when extra support is needed on a skill they haven't yet demonstrated. Explore Ignite can be used flexibly for targeted practice or review, making it a great option for reinforcing skills in a more guided setting.
Assigning a Grade Level During Rostering
When children are rostered in Hatch Insights, their grade level is either:
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Manually selected by the teacher or admin.
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Automatically assigned based on the child’s birthdate (if no grade is provided), for ALL rostering methods.
The birthdate is required and used to calculate the appropriate grade level.
Note for Clever and ClassLink users: Grades must be supplied through those platforms and cannot be edited in Insights at this time
Where to Enter the Grade Level
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In Hatch Insights, the grade level can be selected via a drop-down menu.
Grade Level Drop-down in Hatch Insights
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In the Ignite App, you can also assign a grade during child setup.
Grade Level Drop-down in Ignite
Editing a Child’s Grade Level
You can update a child's grade level at any time in either Ignite or Hatch Insights.
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If you move a child up, their previously passed games will still show as demonstrated on the child's Skill Detail Report.
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You can also move a child down by changing their grade level. If you move a child down, the games with skills they did not demonstrate will not be given until they reach that level again.
How to Make Edits
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In Hatch Insights, go to the child’s profile to edit the grade.
Grade Editing in Hatch Insights
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In Ignite, access the child’s information from the Teacher Area to make changes.
Editing Grade Level in Ignite App