Using KidPix and KidPix Companion

1. Double click on the KidPix icon to start the program.

You should see a blank "paper" in front of you.

2. Click the pencil icon (in the top-left corner) and let go of the button.

3. Choose the color green from the color palette on the row of tools.

Your mouse controls your pencil strokes - holding the mouse button and moving creates lines. When you lift your finger off the mouse button, you stop drawing.

4. Draw a line across the bottom of the page where you might want some grass. Be sure your line goes all the way across both sides or the paint will "leak".

5. Now click the paint bucket and leave the color as green.

6. Move the cursor, which now looks like a paint bucket, to the area you drew in for grass and click. That whole area should have turn green.

If the whole page turned green, that means you left an open area when you drew your first line. The paint "spilled" into the rest of the picture.
If this happened, click the "Oh no!" man. That last action will be undone.

(Note: It is the very tip of the spilling paint that determines where the paint will be "dumped".)

7. Using the paint bucket again, choose sky blue as the color. Place the cursor above the grass and dump the bucket so the sky turns blue.

8. Now go to the stamp icon and click.

You should see a row of small stamps appear at the bottom of the screen. Find one you like. If you don't like any of these, click the arrow at the end of the row, and you'll see more.

9. When you see a stamp you like, click it. The image will become your cursor.

10. Move the stamp to the desired location and try this:

• Push the option key (the stamp gets big)

• Push the shift key (the stamp gets bigger)

• Push the option and shift key together ( the stamp gets the biggest!)

11. Choose the location and size you want and then click the mouse.

12. Now save this picture. Go to the File menu and choose Save As. Name this work of art picture1.
 
 

For Picture 2

1. Go to the File menu and choose New.

2. Choose the circle tool and the color black.

Across the bottom of the screen you should see some new choices on how your shape will be filled (or not filled). Play around. Click and drag. As you drag, you pull a circle. The same premise works with the square tool. Fill you page with shapes.

3. Choose the paint bucket and a bright color, such as red. Dump it for your background.

4. Go to the File menu and Save this masterpiece as picture 2.

For Picture 3

1. Go to File and choose New.

2. Click the paintbrush and choose a color.

Across the bottom of the page you see a variety of choices for your brush strokes. Try each one of them. Alternate colors between your tries. Go ahead - fill the page!

3. If you decide you want to erase part of this work, go to the eraser icon and click.

At the bottom of the screen some new choices appear once more. The first four are eraser sizes and shapes. Choose one and erase part of your masterpiece by clicking and dragging over what you want to get rid of.

The dynamite explodes the whole picture. The other icons, with the exception of the question mark, also clear your entire page.

4. Choose the dynamite, move it to the center of your picture, and click.

5. Now go back and use all of your newfound talents to create another masterpiece. This time you are going to add some words before saving it.
Go to the letter A icon and click.

You should see some letters across the bottom of the screen.

6. Hold down the Option key and click the letter A icon again.

Those letters are replaced with letter styles. In the first view, you could have chosen on a letter at a time and placed it on your screen. In this view, you can choose the style of letter you'd like and then click where you want to begin typing on the screen. (Don't forget you have a choice in color as well!)

7. Type The End on your picture.

8. Go to the File menu and Save this picture as picture 3.
 

Creating a Slide Show!

Depending on the version of KidPix you are using, select the slide show option as follows:

In KidPix2, go to the Switcheroo menu and choose Switch to SlideShow.

In KidPix with the Companion added, quit KidPix and look inside the KidPix folder on your hard drive. You should see the SlideShow icon within the folder. Double-click the icon. The SlideShow program should open.

When you've opened the SlideShow program, you should see a bunch of empty trucks staring at you. You will now fill three of these trucks with the pictures you've created.

1. Click the picture frame at the base of the first truck.

A screen pops up telling you to "Pick a Picture". You should see your saved KidPix pictures (if not, you will need to point to where they are saved).

2. Choose "picture 1" and click Select.

The picture should now be loaded on the first truck. Go ahead and load your other pictures on trucks 2 and 3.

3. Let's add sound. There is a musical note at the base of the trucks. Click the note on the first truck.

You should see another dialog box asking you to "Pick a Sound". Play around. Choose a few and select Preview. You can press Select when you find one you like - or choose the microphone and record your own voice as narration. Add sounds to each of your pictures.

4. Click the last square to select a transition choice. The transition (a fade or dissolve) takes you from one slide or picture to another.

If you choose the scissors icon in the "Pick a Transition" dialog box, the transition is quick. Choose any of the others for some really neat special effects. Go ahead and pick a transition for each truck.

5. Good job. Your show is complete. To view the slideshow, press the arrow at the bottom of the page. The square arrow will play your show in a loop (over and over again). Enjoy!

6. You can Save your show, or simply Quit from the File menu.
 
 

Language Arts

Title: Publish a Book

Target audience: Grades 1-4

Activity: Have students write a story on paper. Then have them create pages in KidPix that illustrate the story. Have them write their story using the keyboard feature in KidPix. Have them print it out and bind it into a book. Share it with the class by putting it in the reading center.

Title: A Pictorial classroom journal or timeline.

Target audience: pre-K - 2nd grade

Activity: At the end of each week, have a student draw a picture in KidPix that shows a few of the activities that have taken place over the last week.
Encourage the inclusion of academic and nonacademic activities. Then print and post it on the wall or bulletin board. Add a new image each week;
soon you'll have your own visual record of your classroom activities.

Title: Letter recognition

Target audience: pre-K - 2nd grade

Activity: Have the students create their own alphabet book. Assign each student a letter of the alphabet. Then have them draw or stamp the letter
in the center of the page. The next step would be to draw or stamp images around the page that begin with that letter. Finally, you could print each
page and bind the book, or you could create a slide show and add their voices describing the pictures.

Title: Class poem

Target audience: Grades 1-5

Activity: Create an original class poem. Write the poem together and then have each student be responsible for one line or phrase from the poem
(and create a slide for a KidPix slide show). Add recorded student voices and compile the pictures to create a slide show of the poem.

Title: Acrostic Poem

Target audience: Grades 2-5

Activity: Have the students create an acrostic poem using their name. Use the large letters going down the page and a word for each letter  in their name going across. Have them illustrate using the drawing tools or stamps.

Title: Rebus story

Target audience: Grades 1-5

Activity: Have students use a specific number of stamps to create a rebus story for a younger student.

Title: Story map

Target audience: Grades 3-5

Activity: Have students create a story map to show that they understand the setting of a story (with a legend explaining the pictures).

Title: Geometric-shapes list

Target audience: Grades 1-5

Activity: Give each student a geometric shapes list: 3 ovals, 5 rectangles, 8 circles, 1 diamond, etc. Challenge the students to create a real or
imaginary figure using only these shapes. If time permits, they could write descriptive sentences to accompany the picture.

Title: Estimating

Target audience: Grades 1-4

Activity: Give each student a package of M&Ms candy. Practice estimation skills by having students guess how many are in the package.
Then create a graph showing how many of each color there are in the package. Allow the students to draw a bar graph or a pictograph
(little drawings of the M&Ms) , and then print. Compare the results with other students.

Title: Shapes

Target audience: Grades pre-K-2 (or 2-5)

Activity: Make a shapes booklet or slide show. Assign each student a shape and the task of filling their page with as many variations of that shape as they can think of. Encourage the use of a variety of tools, colors, sizes, and fills.

Older students might enjoy doing something like this as a more professional-looking presentation for younger students in the school. They could even write an accompanying story or set of questions too along with each slide. ("What color is the largest circle on the page?" "How many squares are red?")

Title: Number recognition

Target audience: pre-K - K

Activity: This activity is similar to the letter recognition in the Language Arts section. Assign children a number and have them create a page depicting that number and a picture illustrating that amount. Then print the pictures and create a book - or create a slide show.

Title: Pattern strings

Target audience: pre-K - 1st

Activity: Patterns are fun to create and are important for students to detect. Allow the students to use any of the tools, shapes, or stamps to
create pattern strings. After they've created a few, print the pictures - or if possible, have them switch seats with someone and see if they can
add the next picture on each of the strings.

Title: Size relationships

Target audience: pre-K- 1st

Activity: Size relationships are easy to create in KidPix. Give the students a list of relationships to depict on their page (ex. large, larger, largest).
 
 

Title: Fractions

Target audience: Grades 1-4

Activity: Give the students a list of fractions and then ask them to create illustrations of each fraction in the list.

Title: Shapes

Target audience: Grades K-3rd

Activity: Have students draw a "hidden picture" using shapes. Then have them create a list of questions to challenge another student:
Find six squares in the picture. How many circles are there? and so on.

Title: Word problems

Target audience: All

Activity: Create illustrated word problems with math facts. Print and exchange with a friend.
 
 

Title: Layers of the earth's atmosphere

Target audience: Grades 2-5

Activity: Have students illustrate the layers of the earth's atmosphere. Label and briefly describe each layer.

Title: States of matter

Target audience: Grades 3-5

Activity: Have students use a variety of tools in KidPix to illustrate and label the three states of matter. Add voice clips describing examples of each state, or divide your class into thirds and assign each group a state of matter to research. Then students could create a slide illustrating the state of matter they studied.

Title: Cloud types

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Have students start with a black or dark blue screen and then use the various types of paintbrush tools to create the different cloud types.
Label each type. In groups students could put their pictures together to make a slide show presentation including narration.

Title: Invention

Target audience: Grades 1-6

Activity: Students could create an invention. Have each student think of a machine or appliance that might make their life easier. Name the invention,
draw it, label it, and then add text telling why someone might want to buy the invention.
 

Title: Cross section of the earth

Target audience: Grades 3-6

Activity: Have students draw a cross-section of the earth and label each part. The colors and textures in the paint bucket make for great variations.

Title: Water cycle

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Draw a chart showing the steps in the water cycle, or turn each step into a slide show frame and create a looping presentation.

Title: Volcanoes

Target audience: Grades 3-6

Activity: Create a slide show on volcanoes. Incorporate the use of animation (the volcano erupting) by choosing no transition between
frames and changing the picture slightly each time.

Title: Solar system

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Draw an accurate depiction of a planet and add text labels or information, or draw a diagram of the solar system.
 
 

Title: Student Pets

Target audience: Grades 1-3

Activity: Use the stamps to make a picture graph representing different pets that students have at home. Have each child make a page with their
favorite pet and put them into a slide show.

Title: A bill into law

Target audience: Grades 3-6

Activity: Create a slide show to explain the process of how a bill becomes a law. Each slide could illustrate a step in the process. Students could narrate.

Title: Flags

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: After studying a state or country, have the students create a flag for that country based on what they've learned about the area.
Then show them the actual flag and compare the two creations.

Title: Maps

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Have students use KidPix to draw detailed maps of their classroom, bedroom or neighborhood.

Title: States Fair

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Have each child study a state (or country). They can make a slide depicting their state. Put them together in a slide show and have it run continuously for a States Fair.

Title: Explorer's Routes

Target audience: Grades 4-6

Activity: Copy the world map from the Scrapbook (under the Apple menu on the top left of your screen) into a KidPix document. Then use the pencil tool and different colors to draw the various explorer's routes.

Title: Human Body

Target audience: Grades 1-3

Have students use stamps of a body. Have them label the body parts.

Title: Dental care

Target audience: Grades 2-6

Activity: Use the tools and draw a diagram of a tooth. Label each part of the tooth and type in a list of dental care tips.

Title: Food pyramid

Target audience: Grades K-3

Activity: Draw a food pyramid on the page and then insert stamps of food items in their proper position on the pyramid.
 

Adapted from Robinette, M. (1995). Macs for Teachers. Dallas, TX: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.