HIT: Kidpix with primary

[Wanda Nall <wnall@TENET.EDU>]

Many had ask for a HIT on my post about using Kidpix with k5 through 3.  It
seems many
of us are in the same boat, have just gotten Kidpix and need to help
teachers use it in the
fall.  I got some great replies.  Hope this helps all to get started.  I
hope I can quickly
figure out how to do the slide show portion.  I only had a little time at
the end of the year
to begin to look at the program and did not put a slide show together.  I
will need to assist
most of my teachers so ensure that we use it.  I am more familiar with
Hyperstudio, so hopefully and I can get the hang of KP quickly.

Hi, Wanda...

This is not my idea, but a friend's...it is very cute...

She takes digital photos (these could also be scanned from a yearbook,=20
etc...) and puts them into a folder...then for each child, she imports that=
=20
child's picture into KidPix...then the kids save the blank document...

She then, on a large screen for whole class viewing, offers the following=
 art=20
lesson:

You have a picture of yourself, I want you to use the eraser and erase=20
everything but your face...Then, I want you to use this "face" and create=20
a...Christmas elf...a leprechaun for St. Patty's Day...a pumpkin or=
 Halloween=20
costume...you get the idea...

They are extremely cute...then she has the kids sign them or even type in a=
=20
sentence and prints them out for the parents...or for Open House...


Hi,
I tend to create a template for my prinary grade kids so they can spend
their time with the thinking part of thebactivity rather than getting
frustrated with drawing lines, circles etc.  For example we have a file
that is just a big circle in teh middle of the page.  The students then
stamp the leter of the week inside the circle and place stamps of objects
beginning with that letter inside the circle and stamps beginning with any
other letter outside the circle.  This is done with Kindergarten students
and introduces concepts of Venn diagrams.  We do a lot of categorizing
with KidPix and stamps as well.  We have a file with square boxes and
small circles scattered all over the page.  A caption can be added each
time it is used.  For example place living things in teh circles and and
machines in the boxes or place things you can hold in your hand in the
boxes and objects too big to hold in the circles.  Concepts from science
or social studies can be integrated this way.  I have made a file that has
a verticle line in the middle.  The left side is labeled BEFORE: and the
right side AFTER:  The child creates a picture and changes it some way to
show before and after.  This leads to cause and effect concept
development.  With older kids I have created a grid of small squares and
we have the kids demonstrate fractions or area or perimeter by filling in
or drawing with color specific sections of the grid.  They then type=20
the formula to match the visual.  We have had the kids create a patchwork
quilt using paterns and stamps illustrating their favorite things or
important objects in their lives.  They use the box tool to create the
quilt (this can be done as a template as well) and then fill in each
square.  We just had fourth graders do slide shows that illustrated their
thinking process used to create a project related to electricity.  First
they did the project and then reflected on the research process for the
slide show.  They included a title slide, a slide explaining how they
selected their topic; a slide identifying their resources used; a slide
identifying the scientific concepts demonstrated by their project; and a
slide explaining their project.  Each slide contained both text and
graphic information.  When I first had Kid Pix I considered it a plaything
for the kids, but I have discovered if you design the assignment well it
can really incorporate quality learning and thinking on the part of the
stuident.  I still see it being used without direction at times which
really concerns me as the potential is great.  If these suggestions are of
interest and too criptic to help let me know.  I will be glad to explain
further.

 have used HyperStudio for these projects, but you could just as easily use
Kid Pix.  In first grade (this worked really well in cooperation with some
terrific young first grade teachers) we read a variety of fables.  Then, the
children came into the library and worked in small groups to come up with
their own fable to retell based on fables they had read.  They had to each
come up with a picture which they then put on the computer.  It was great to
see the kids working together (these are heterogeneous groups) and helping
each other.  I have attached a copy of one for you to see.  I think you can
download the hyperstudio plug-in from their site so that you can view it.
In kindergarten next year I am planning on doing an "About me" slide show
with their pictures and some of their favorite things.  I've not worked with
kindergarten teachers on this project before, but I am sure it will work out
fine.  Good luck.

Wanda,
        Some Kid Pix ideas I've used with early primary are:
=09
=80making pictures of seasonal activities, then put together in a 4=20
seasons slide show
=80draw stages of an animals life, like egg, caterpillar, cocoon,=20
butterfly, then create a life cycle slide show
=80draw a picture of a favorite story, then retell it at the bottom of=20
the page by typing sentences; you can also add a recording of their=20
voice reading the sentences
=80practice time-order words, like first, next, then, and last by=20
drawing pictures about what they do to get ready for school

Hope this is the kind of thing you were looking for.

Wanda, a lesson that the kinder teachers and I have done with Kid Pix
involves the study of animals.  The kids have studied nonfiction books
about animals and the culminating acitivity is to have each child draw
his/her animal with Kid Pix and write a sentence or two about its
characteristics.  One time we had the 3rd grade book buddies do the typing
to help things along.  Then we printed each picture and bound them
together into a class book.
Sorry this is sketchy, but I'm relying on memory - all my notes on this
project are at school.  Hope this helps.

Hi,
Just a suggestion record sound on the individual slide and save that way.
Then when you switch to slide show just drag the slides into sequence and
all is ready.  Once you add transitions that is.  If you are able to use
Hyper Studio this will be a piece of cake.  I like the not-linear
potential of Hyper Studio so kids can develop relationships etc.  Kid Pix
is linear start to finish one sequence.  Another thing I didn't mention
was to divide a project among a group of kids and then sequence finished
slides.  For example rather than have one student do 26 slides for an
alphabet of Weather or whatever have individuals do 3 or 4 and then put
together.  Much more time efficient when related to learning involved.
Also big long projects do take up a lot of space so need to be saved to
server or Zip not a disc.  Be sure to save all pieces to the same place so
they can be found (by the computer) when compiling and running the slide
show.

Hi. For some ideas, try our "Teaching Through Technology" web site:
http://www.ecb.org/ttt/tech.htm
Click on "browse by technology' and choose "Multimedia." I believe most of
these teachers actually used Hyperstudio, but you could do many of these
projects using KidPix too.

A few I did:
Mapping
With a 3rd grade class that was learning how to read maps, and also about
the different agricultural products, s had them use an outline map of the
state (we imported it) and create their own key (using stamps) and stamp
those symbols in the appropriate area of the state to show what agricultural
products come from different parts of the state.

With a 4th grade class who were also learning map reading skills, I had them
create an imaginary country and draw a map of it. They had to make a key and
include a certain number of required features (capital, major cities,
geogaphic features such as rivers, mountains, lakes, etc....) At the end we
put them together in a slide show of imaginary countries which was pretty
fun. The students were very creative with their naming and drawing.

Math
With 3rd grade classes we did a number of stack graphs. They could choose
the stamps they wanted to use to show different things (usually the results
of surveys they took in class, like how many of each color of M$M's are in
the bag...)

Another 3rd grade project was a math slide show. We did a shapes page,
addition and subtraction pages and story problem pages. Students made up
their own problems, illustrated them, then gave a verbal explanation
recorded in the slide show mode (a friend who is a math educator had just
been telling me that the most important thing is for students to be able to
explain their math reasoning, so that is why we did it this way.)

Language arts
The alphabet book. First we read a lot of alphabet books in the library, and
talked about themes, and styles, etc.. We did this to go along with major
units they were doing in class (one class was studying oceans, another rain
forests) so that was our theme. I created a template in KidPix (basically a
half page with a blank square in the top outside corner for the letter).
Each student was assigned a letter to create a page for. They had to put the
letter in the template, then do an illustration and a sentence.



Wanda Nall
Library Media Specialist
Northwest Primary School
400 Moreman
Hereford, TX 79045
wnall@tenet.edu

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