* To reinforce patterning skills: Make a border of boxes around the screen. You can do this easily by using the empty rectangle tool to draw one box, about an inch in size, then use the truck tool to repeatedly paste this box around your screen--9 boxes across and 6 down, leaving the center empty. Save this file as a master. The students then can use either the fill bucket or the stamp tool, or both to create a pattern. Then they can drag the letters of their name into the center and print.
* Patterning with Names: Create a grid of 6 rows of 9 one inch boxes. Have them stamp the letters of their first name into the boxes. (I stamped everyone's once as a model to copy, and then put a tiny star in the box they were to begin in.) Once the grid is all filled in, they fill the boxes with colors. The first letter of their name should always be one color, the second another, and so on. Watch for the developing patterns.
* Comparison with Names: We are going to use a similar grid tomorrow on one in class computer station. Two of my strongest students will get everyone to sign in by stamping the letters of their names in rows on the grid, each child using a different row. (We will need 3-4 screens to complete this.) We will decide which name on the screen has the fewest letters and give that one a stamped star, and mark the one with the most letters with a happy face. Then we'll print all the class screens out and have a quick and easy graph of name length.
* We read the Giving Tree. I found a cute Christmas tree with a very happy face. I copied the image as a bmp file and pasted it in a folder I made called Lessons in Kidpix. We made a class book using the tree on the title page. On the first page, I pasted the tree and wrote a short synopsis of the book and then typed this question, "What do you like to give that doesn't cost money?" On the next few pages, I tyepd their responses like this--Gail said, "I like to give hugs."
* Read the Scat the Cat color story. Then use a template of a cat on the KidPix screen and have them change the colors using the fill tool (so they learn how to use that one.) These could even be printed and bound.
* Read the Mixed Up Chameleon. Create a chamelion template on KidPix. Then have them use the fill tool and choose from many pattern options to create a unique chameleon. Make a book out of it. Have a chameleon cut out of clear contact paper (2 sheets back to back) and put it on a string or in a pocket. The students can place the chameleon on every page and see it change to match. If students are old enough, type a description of their patterns on the pages for everyone.
* Read The Three Bears. Tie it in with the 3 bears and the classification ideas there by using the size options (shift, option, etc) for stamps. Pick a size and stamp a bear with the same size accessories. Repeat with another size bear and accessories.
* Read In the Attic and have them design their own imaginative attics and write a short sentence about their picture.
* Thanksgiving - We dew pictures of a Thanksgiving feast table, filled with food with a pilgrim and an Indian on each side. They printed those in computer. I take them back to my classroom and on the day of our class feast, everyone shares what they are most thankful for in their lives they can be quite funny, I have hear hear warming, God, my family, my grandma, to dog, cat, beanie baby, and chocolate milk). I then take those ideas and type them to the bottom of the feast drawing they drew. Finally, I put it in a book with photos from the fun feast. They love it!
* Make a dot to dot leaf. Use the doto to dot tool on the paintbrush, but don't worry about the shape you're attempting to draw at first. The dots come out faster than I can plan my picture! So just get some dots and their numbers on the screen. Erase any superfluos lines. Then use the truck tool to move the numbers into position, cutting/copying and pasting. Came with the dots--copy and paste. You could do the same with a christmas tree. They could fill it with green and stamp decorations on it.
* Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Use the palm tree stamp and edit it so it is flipped, and place it on the left side of the screen. Use the combination of key strokes to make it stamp in its largest possible size. Use the truck tool to copy parts of the branches and stamp them to make the crown of branches larger and similarly extend the trunk. Fill the background with hot pink. The kids pick their favorite colors and stamp the alphabet in order up the tree with A placed at the top. They might not be able to get all the alphabet. I would have them try again, and get more practice. The neat thinkg about KidPix is that they will hear each letter's name as they select it to stamp.
* Make a simple house and color it brown. You might want to add some white icing details to make it look like a gingerbread house. Save this file. Then have the students draw little circles on the roof and so on and fill them in with M&M colors. They can try to put an "m" on each circle (Stamped or drawn). Its a candy house!
Winter - Illustrate the song Frosty the snowman. I give each child one verse and they have to draw a picture that matches that verse. Then we put it together to make a class book. We also make it into a slide show. You could do any song like this.
* Have each child illustrate a winter scene and have them write a short sentence about it. Print out and bound for a class book.
* Make a template with a large triangle, square and circle. Students type labels for each shape Then the students go to the stamps and have to decide if it has circular, triangular or square type shapes in it, if so they stamp it insde the desired shape.
* Students stamp in their phone number. They then have to use the "moving truck" to move each number into a box labeled either odd or even.
* Using type test the students typed a bat fact and then illustrated a bat.
* We ceated a slide show of our class field trip to the apple farm.
