Tips & Ideas Using Technology to Create Literacy Centers & Activities Creating Computer Based Centers Creating Word Walls Traditional Centers & Class Activities Copying & Pasting from the Web Computer Based Activities Using Kid Pix use the "moving truck" to match pictures and words (click here for step by step directions) create Venn Diagrams using phonemic or phonetic labels extend a rhyme, Word Families (cat, hat, at , at) word ladders (in, ink, rink, shrink, shrinks) Make Functional Reading or Following Directions activities Graph the number of phonemes heard in the names of stamps Create a slide show, mix it up and have groups sequence Rebus stories Create simple text in a slide show and have pairs do shared reading Make "Draw Me" sentences for students to illustrate. Sample Activities Remember- lock your files so that many students can do the same activity. To Lock files: Save the file Quit Kid Pix (or whatever application you are using) Click on the At Ease panel where you saved the document (Blue for teacher panel, green for a disk) Go to the File menu and choose Get Info Find the file you want to lock and click on it Click ok You will see a box with information about the file In the bottom left, click the box next to Locked Now the file is locked. Hyperstudio is another Software package that is easy to use to create your own computer based literacy centers.   Go to Top Traditional Centers & Class Activities That can be Created with Kid Pix Matching activities or card games (Memory or Concentration) Lotto or Bingo boards Rebus stories or Poems for Poetry Box "Foot Books" (Books taped to the floor students can walk on and read) Templates for class books. Each child completes a page. (Our Class, Our favorite , Variations of books read in class)   Go to Top Creating Word Walls Using The Writing Center Open the Writing Center Choose Report and No Heading From the top menu, choose Text In the box labeled Font, highlight a font appropriate for your children In the box labeled Size highlight 72 Click on OK Click on File and choose Page Setup-click on the landscape view This will change the page orientation Type your words If you want to change the color of a word or part of a word: highlight the letters you would like to change the color of choose Text, then Color click on the color you want and click OK ClarisImpact and Print Shop Deluxe can also be used to create word walls and poster size print materials.   Go to Top Copying and Pasting Images from the Web   Connect to the Web (Open Netscape or another browser) Find an image that you would like to copy and paste Click on the picture and hold the mouse button down Highlight Copy this Image In the upper right hand corner of the screen, click the application menu (It will be the application icon, a lighthouse for Netscape Communicator) Hold the mouse button and drag to At Ease You will see the brown At Ease menu panel Open the program you want to paste into Go to Edit and choose Paste To return to your Internet browser, go back to the application menu in the upper left corner, click and hold down until you highlight the program you want to return to. You can continue to switch back and forth between programs in this way.   Go to Top

Early Literacy Institute Technology Connections	Early Childhood Technology Literacy Grant Page