Kidspiration

Imagine a writing prompt about your favorite place.

We’re going to start planning using pictures and then words.

	Open Kidspiration
	Click on Picture
	Change First Idea to Favorite Place
	Click on the blue bubble so it gets the red handles on the corners
	Use the red and blue arrows on the library side-bar to pick a favorite place
	Click on it to put it onto your page

	Click on the white part of your page (Notice the cross that appears)
	Use the library to pick a person you like to be with
	Click on the picture of the person, and it will go where the cross is
	Try again to add things from the library (animals & plants and everyday work
	You can click and drag your pictures to reorganize them.

	Put a cross in the white part of the page
	On the library side-bar click on the A in a rectangle
	Now just type in the box

	Click on the paper and pencil (Go to writing)
	Click back on the web (Go to pictures). You’ll see that the names of the pictures have been added.
	Pick one of the names to change. Click on the word and backspace or highlight and delete to get rid of it. Type in you new word or words.
	Click on Go to writing again, and the new words are in the paper view.

There are many ways to do this

1. Link Symbol Icon (in picture view)

	Click on Favorite Place.
	Click on the chain (Link symbols)
	Click on another picture
	Click on the chain again to turn off the linking tool
	This method gives you a text box to type a comment, transition, reason, connection, etc.

2. Add symbol (in picture view)

	Click on the Favorite Place
	Click on the Sun-looking thing (Add symbol)
	Click on the blue bubble
	You can write in the bubble or put a picture from the library into it

3. In Paper View

	Click over to paper view
	Ideas that are linked are indented
	Click on a box and then on the left and right arrows. This changes the indent and the links. (Click back to picture view to see what it does.)
	You can also click and drag a text box to change the order and the links.

	When the text boxes are highlighted you can write in them.
	Writing above the red line appears in the picture view
	Writing below the red line doesn’t show in picture view.

Names on Paper

	Click on the little person (Student Name)
	A box comes up that looks like a header box.
	Type in each space to put names, date, whatever across the top of the page.

Sound

	In Picture View click on the ear (Listen) and then on the picture.
	In Paper View, click on the ear and then on a text box. It reads everything in the box.

Templates

	Click on More and then find My Place. Use their directions, or write your own, or delete.
	Click on Writing and find Tell a Story and About Me. They are both places to collect picture ideas.

Saving Activities—Super Grouper (Word Sort)

	Open a new Kidspiration page
	Delete the First Idea box
	Click on the jar of gumballs (Super Grouper)
	Choose two shapes. They can be moved or sized like a picture (Stars on the corners for resizing).
	If you want to name the grouper shapes now, click on one and type. The words should appear above the shape. If you want to name them later, that works too.
	Click in the white to put a cross in the white.
	Click on the add text symbol from the library and type in your words. Add all your words to the activity.
	Go to Teacher and Enable Teacher Menu.
	Go to Teacher and Save as Activity.
	This opens a wizard to help you save this for kids to use later.
	When saved, you can find it by going to the opening page. Click Activities. Click More. Scroll to find your activity.

Links