or use shift + lines to create a grid to compare several stories

or circles to create a Venn diagram for story/character comparisons

or use lines to create sections for a newspaper format. Groups can write "articles" about the stories they are reading.

or do a character study by drawing the character and writing several characteristics.

or drawing and labeling/recording your favorite part of the story.

or creating a new cover for the book.

In Moopies, draw a pumpkin, evergreen tree, heart, etc. Save. Kids can decorate with moopies or Stampinator, put their name on, and save. Assemble as a seasonal slide show.

Using the paintbrush, write your spelling words with Moopies,

practice cursive or manuscript letters,

use as a framed border for your work.

Use stamps to stamp out the letters in your spelling words. See if you can find a stamp that would go with the word, e.g. suns to write SUN.

Assemble a person to look like you with a stamp set (Toonies.STM). Write facts about you with the typewriter. Write your name with "A" moving alphabet.

Ask students to write their name, then pick out stamps to make a collage of things they like or stamps that reflect their individuality.

Create collages of words that begin with a designated letter sound. Stamp the letter, then students fill the page with stamps that begin with that letter.

Great for s blend and r blend words. Use it to practice saying these sounds!

Students can write a rebus story using stamps for nouns,

or you can write a story, leaving spaces for several nouns. Save. Kids can put different stamps in the spaces and create all sorts of new versions of the story!

Assign students to retell the main ideas of a story using a slide show. Limit the number of slides they may have, require pre-planning of their slides.

Assign students to draw a map of the classroom. Helps students with orientation to the classroom in the fall. Print, then ask student to label.

Draw a map of their neighborhood or bedroom.

Enhance the use of descriptive words. Assign students to create a picture with a stamp or import a clip art picture. Then students write a description of the image (not using the name).

 
Math Activities 
Create a picture using only the circle tool,

or one color,

or using 3 circles, 4 squares, 1 triangle

or have each student add 1 item to a drawing. The picture would be complete when all students have contributed.

Set up a Math story problem, and let kids use stamps or draw an illustration for the problem

or illustrate a problem and let them write or record a matching problem,

or have one child illustrate a problem and let a partner create a problem to go with it.

Have kids use stamps to show a particular number, then assemble into a SlideShow (1,2,3.. or 10, 20, 30… or 2,4,6… etc.)

Use stamps to illustrate place value. Assign a number. Kids can use a stamp for 1’s, hold control + stamp to make larger for 10’s, hold shift + control + stamp to make giant 100’s.

Draw a large shape and save. Kids can find out how many rabbits (or fish, or suns, etc.) stamps fit around the perimeter. They can record this on a class list. Later, graph this info.

Or stamp and count how many fit inside the shape (area).

Draw a large shape. Use the moving van to move pieces of it around the screen. Save. Have students use moving van to reassemble this puzzle.

Play Barrier Games. Student creates a picture using outlined shapes, large, medium, and small sizes, placed in varying positions. Print. Color in shapes. Students practice giving and following directions by describing their picture for another student to create on the computer, then comparing pictures.

Assign each student to write and illustrate what they would be doing at a particular time of the day. Assemble into a SlideShow labeled 24 Hours in a Day.

Create coins by drawing circles and putting the value inside. Now you can use the moving van to group coins into $1 amounts,

or place groups of coins on a grid and students can write how much money is in each group,

or draw groups of circles and let students write how much each is worth to total $1.

Same can be done using the rectangle tool and write $ amounts.

Kids can use stamps to create a pattern,

or create a pattern with an error. Can students find it?

or you can use letters and numbers to start a pattern for kids to continue.

Stamp 20 different objects and save. Have kids use moving van to sort them in some way and use typewriter to label each group.

Kids can sort stamps by color,

beginning letter sounds

alive/not alive, large/small, type of animal (bird, fish, etc.)

fiction (real)/nonfiction (pretend)

Kids can create an alphabet code using alphabet stamps and picture stamps. Have them decipher a sentence

or create a new sentence,

or use numbers and picture stamps to write number sentences.

Use the line tool and shift key to create a tic tac toe board. Save. Select 2 stamps for X and O and play away,

or write sight words, spelling words, or vocabulary words in each section. Save. Student can select a word, and read it aloud, or add either an s or es, or the opposite word, etc. If correct, player may fill space with paint can in his/her selected color. Kids can save games under their name for you to check later.

Create a checkerboard by using the line tool + shift key and then the paint can to color alternating squares. Save. Select and place 2 kinds of stamps, then use the moving van to play. Fill in empty colored squares with paint can.

In KidPix, select the Brush. Flip through the selections on the bottom of the screen till you find a picture of a die. Select, click on screen. Each time you click your mouse, the die will randomly change. Now, you can…

use the line tool to create a 6 column graph, save. Kids can record the "rolls" of the die

or decide who goes first

or list 6 letters and assign a number for each. Write a word that begins/ends with that sound for each roll.

or list short or long vowels or blends or digraphs or prefixes or suffixes, assign numbers, and write a word for each roll

Use the die option to create a set of dominoes (place 2 dice next to each other). Create a set of 12 dominoes on the top of the screen. Use the moving van to move sets one at a time to play dominoes,

or create as many domino sets as you can to equal an assigned sum

or add the top + bottom. Kids can write the sum underneath the domino set.

 
Wacky TV Movies 
In KidPix, select Goodies. Choose Pick a movie. Paste in KidPix. Kids can write their name and a sentence for the movie (main idea). Show them how to Save and put into a SlideShow. When everyone has gone through this center, you can easily run through everyone’s work by Playing the SlideShow.

Write adjectives or action words describing what you see in the movie.

List what you see and how it makes you feel. Arrange these ideas to create a poem about the movie.

With a partner, record a dialogue for your movie.

Choose 3 or 4 movies and write a story, connecting them in some way.

Write an adjective above the monitor. Kids can find a movie that goes with the word. They should be able to explain why it fits the word. Assemble as a slide show eg: The Spooky Show.

 
SlideShows

Suggestion: Have kids write and illustrate a rough draft on paper before sitting down at the computer. Their computer page doesn’t have to be an exact copy, but it will help them to organize their thoughts and save time when you have 24 kids waiting their turn!

Welcome students and parents at the beginning of the year by creating a SlideShow of activities and projects kids can look forward to during the coming year.

Introduce yourself at the beginning of the year by producing a show entitled "All About Me". Include where you were born, your brothers & sisters, things you did when you were young, what you liked (and didn’t like!) about school, info about your own kids and husband, etc.

Show kids how to create a page about themselves for a Class SlideShow entitled "All About Us". Great for Open House!

Have a committee of students produce a slide show about the school and classroom for students and parents who move in during the school year. Include things like your traditions (last Friday of the month is Hat Day!), how Reading and/or Math classes are run, etc.

Create a SlideShow in the beginning of the year with your classroom rules. As needed, assign student to review these rules on the slideshow.

If you run Curriculum Nights, have kids write, illustrate, and record their ideas about What Is Science or Our Favorite Books or Math All Around Us etc. Have the SlideShow run continuously during the evening.

Have kids create a class SlideShow by writing, illustrating, and recording: My name is______ and I am good at _____. Run slideshow during Fall Conferences.

At the end of each month, ask the class help put together a "diary" page recording speakers, field trips, birthdays, activities, units, etc. that occurred during the past month. By the end of the school year, you’ll have a wonderful timeline SlideShow!

Have each child create a page indicating their hopes and goals for the coming year. Assemble pages on alternate "trucks" in the SlideShow mode (blanks will not appear when playing the SlideShow). At year’s end, students should view the SlideShow and create a second page for the blank trucks indicating their accomplishments - sort of "before" and "after" pages for each child. This would be a wonderful "time capsule" to play again at their graduation from elementary school!

Good for any topic of study: create an ABC SlideShow based on your unit e.g.. Insects: Ants, Beetles, etc. Pages don’t have to be in order originally - you can move them around easily in your SlideShow!

After a vacation, kids can choose a background, draw and write or record what they did. Assemble as a SlideShow.

Kids will enjoy an ongoing SlideShow of jokes and riddles. They can write/record and illustrate the riddle on one page, and follow up with the answer on the next page. If this gets unwieldy, divide the riddles up by topic: Bug Jokes, or Space Riddles, etc.

Use Slideshows to publish student stories. This will take some thought on their part as to how to divide their story into pages. Another great way to show off at Conferences or Curriculum Nights. Print out individual pages for their portfolios (SlideShows don’t print)!

Students can create a SlideShow showing step by step how to do something, whether baking a cake, getting dressed, drawing a cat, etc.

Reading response ideas: create a 4-slide show showing the title and author, beginning, middle, and end,

or create a 5 -slide show showing the title & author, characters, setting, problem, and solution

or create a retelling of the story with a new ending, or a new setting, or new characters.

or retell with the characters and word balloons (use circle tool and lines)

Write the words to a song or poem on successive slides and have kids illustrate. A nice touch - have them record themselves singing each page. Students can sing along with the SlideShow during morning meeting, after recess, etc.

Individuals, partners, or small groups can create a SlideShow to share information they have collected on a chosen topic. These are great to have available at your Spring Conferences.

Use the SlideShow to build classroom vocabulary. Assign a student a vocabulary word, they are responsible to add to the SlideShow by typing the word, defining, and illustrating. You will have a great collection of your curriculum concepts/vocabulary. Students can review/edit as needed.

Create a SlideShow to reinforce Social Skill concepts. Pick a social skill (ie., controlling anger). SlideShow depicts the steps to take when you get angry. Assign students to review these steps as needed.

To help students develop a vocabulary of "feelings", assign a SlideShow where each slide depicts a feeling, and an example of when they experienced it. "I got the angriest when…, I was most embarrassed when. . . ."

For younger students, let them explore, explore, explore letters by stamping, moving, resizing, using wacky paintbrush to paint the ABC’s.

Create collective classroom Slideshows. Assign each student to pick a compound word. They type the word, illustrate it. They need to make sure the same word wasn’t already used. Then create a "Compound Word SlideShow."

Create an "action word" , synonym or antonym classroom SlideShow.

"Parts of Speech" SlideShow where each slide depicts examples of a person word, a place word, a thing word, an action word, a descriptive word, etc.

Rhyming Words - Put a word on a screen, student add rhyming words.

Create SlideShow of word families/rhyming words.

Alliterations! Reinforce phonemic awareness by assigning each student a sound, for which they create an alliteration, type, and illustrate (Molly makes many muffins Monday for munching at MACUL).

Students practice their sight words with a SlideShow. Teacher creates SlideShow by putting each word on a separate slide, then creating the show. With no sound, can be used as an assessment tool.

Add sound to the SlideShow, delay sound 4 seconds, and students have the chance to answer, before the answer is given. Students chart their progress.

Connect computer to VCR then videotape Sideshows. Send home with students to share with their families.