Kerpoof closed down April 15, 2014. A staple in thousands of classrooms across the country, it is sorely missed by not just students, but teachers who relied upon it to guide students through writing, spelling, and a mixture and text and pictures to communicate ideas.
It’s pretty much a given that no one site could replace all the experiences Kerpoof provided, educators can cobble together a collection to satisfy the hole left by Kerpoof’s demise. Here are some ideas:
Mix Art and Text
- KidPix (fee-based)
- Paint (available through Windows)
- Tuxpaint (free software download)
Drawing
Writing–Comics
- Comic Creator–Boy’s Life
- Comic creator–Bubblr
- Comic creator–Garfield
- Comic creator–ReadWriteThink
- Comics, newspapers, posters—learn to create
- Make Believe Comix
- Writing with comics
Stories
- Bookr—create stories from photos
- Create a story
- Little Bird Tales–upload drawings, add student voice to them–K, 1 best
- StoryBird—-storytelling with art–beautiful
- StoryJumper–build a book
Words
- Spelling practice—use with spelling words
- TagCrowd
- Visuwords
- Vocabulary Fun
- Word Central—from Merriam
One more–visit this crowd-sourced Symbaloo of options for Kerpoof.
That’s a start. None of those above do everything Kerpoof does, but teachers are resilient. We’ll figure a way to make this work.
Here’s a collection of drawings done using some of the sites above:
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
updated 12-23-18
I have been using http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm which allows students to write stories without having to set-up an account. It does have some pre-sets but does give students plenty of opportunities for creativity.
Yes–I love that program. We use it every year in 2nd grade (and others) to celebrate all they’ve learned about story telling. I have a bit of trouble with the saving, but I think that’s me.
Little Bird Tales is great for kids K-4th. They can record their voice to each page, draw on the art pad, add text or use thier own photos or digital images from the web. And has free teacher accounts! There’s a super simple “how to” video on the website. Also, they offer Common Core aligned lesson plans, for teachers looking for easy lesson integration.
Thanks for sharing this information. What a great replacement!
Please also consider adding Pixton to your list.
Thanks, guys/gals. Will do.
If you’re looking for an animated video creation tool, please check out GoAnimate for Schools too! https://goanimate4schools.com. Please feel free to add us to this list as well. Thanks!
Thanks, Stephanie. Love your product #goanimate
I still am in mourning that they cut off Kerpoof.
I’m pretty surprised someone didn’t simply take it over. Sigh.
Kefpoof! was a game changer for our high-challenge kids in our elementary school when I taught computer lab. I think the reason it wasn’t taken over is that Disney saw it as an obstacle to their commercial path for their products – so it’s my understanding they bought them out – and probably for a pretty penny. Good for the creators and owners of Kerpoof? Bad for teachers and kids…
I didn’t know that. It’s the only reason that makes sense. I’ve managed to cobble together an alternative package of tools, but the one-stop-shop was so darn convenient.