Search Results for: kidpix

#7: Fifth Grade Cropping in Photoshop

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Here are the basic skills fifth graders can learn in Photoshop if you’ve prepared them with basic computer skills. I’ve provided links but they aren’t live until publication:

Photoshop artwork–live
Photoshop actions–live
Photoshop basics #5 live
Photoshop filter and rendering tools
Photoshop starters–auto-correct with the auto-correction — live quick fixes that make a photo look cleaner #6
Photoshop crop tool–Live
Photoshop clone tool– within a picture and to another picture #8
Photoshop–change the background–live
Photoshop tools–add custom shapes–live
Photoshop–start with Word –live (a little dated but still useful)

Before trying this lesson, start here. Don’t worry. It’s not hard–just the basics.

Getting Started

Ready? Let’s start with what Adobe Photoshop is–a grown-up KidPix, and the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.

There are three ways to crop in Photoshop:

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14 Holiday Websites and 5 Projects

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Need a few websites to fill in free minutes? Here are holiday websites that will keep students busy while teaching them (click for updates to list):

12 Days of Christmas
55 Christmas Project Ideas for Elementary Schoolage Students
Christmas Celebrations Across the World (video)
Christmas puzzles and games
Christmas—history—fun video
Christmas Traditions Around the World (video)
Gift Hunt–updated version of 12 Days of Christmas–just as much fun
Holiday Crossword
Holiday Elf Games
Holiday—Math Facts
Holiday—North Pole Academy
Holiday STEM Activities
Phone call from Santa
Santa Tracker

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#9: How to Look Like a Photoshop Pro–in Fifth Grade

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Before trying this lesson, start with Photoshop for Fifth Graders: The First Step is Word, Autofixes, cloning, and cropping. Don’t worry. It’s not hard–just the basics.

Ready? Let’s start with what Adobe Photoshop is–a grown-up KidPix, and the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.

Adobe Photoshop has an impressive collection of tools to add pizazz to pics. You might have students open their school picture for this project. They love working with their own image.

#1: Artistic Renderings—artistic overlays that add flair to pictures. Go to Filter—artistic and it brings up dozens of choices. Try some (it gives a preview of the result) and select a favorite.

[gallery columns="2" ids="68588,68589"]

#2: blur and smudge tools on left tool bar to soften the background, and sharpen a focal point.

[gallery columns="2" ids="68590,68591"]

#3: Use Filter-render-clouds to create a cloudy background (the colors of your foreground and background tool)

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Troubleshooting Tips

I can’t get the right colors for the clouds (check your foreground and background tools. That’s where Photoshop takes the colors)

I’m trying to drag the picture but I get an error message (Check your layers. Do the have the correct layer highlighted?)

I don’t have Photoshop. (Try GIMP–it’s free)

Do you have questions? Please add a comment and I’ll answer. Thanks.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

“The content presented in this blog is the result of my creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

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, 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.

What You Might Have Missed in February–What’s up in March

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Here are the most-read posts for the past month: (more…)

#34: How to Teach Dolch Words with Graphic Art Tools

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Before you start this project, you might want to visit How to KidPix I and How to KidPix II.

There are a lot of graphic art options for youngers. We choose KidPix because it is user friendly, easily understood, and doesn’t clutter up the screen with anything other than what new graphic artists need.

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What You Might Have Missed in January–What’s up in February

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Here are the most-read posts for the past month:

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up:

Online resources about puzzles
Online video resources for math
How to check your math in a spreadsheet
Tech Tip: My keyboard doesn’t work
100th Day of School
16 Tech Problems every 5th grader can solve
Engineering Week
Online graphic resources
13 tips to solve unusual problems
Dr. Seuss–Techie style

–image credit to Deposit Photo (more…)

What You Might Have Missed in December–What’s up in January

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Here are the most-read posts for the month of December:

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up this month:

Top articles, tips, reviews for 2023
Free Lesson Plan: Holiday Memory in Word or KidPix
Subscriber Special
Free Lesson Plan: MLK Day
Tech Tips
Tons of online resources about classroom management
14 Websites About Landforms
13 Online Resources About Farms
National Handwriting Day
11 Online Resources About Puzzles

–image credit to Deposit Photo

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

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.

How to Create a Paperless Classroom

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Every Earth Day (April 22, 2023 this year–see our previous article on Earth Day Class Activities) someone in your school, maybe the parent group, raises the question of WHY NOT a paperless classroom? Everyone nods their heads, agrees this is a revolutionary idea, and moves on as Earth Day passes.

Really, though: Why not? There are benefits to adopting alternatives to paper:

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Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts

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I’ve posted this before but it’s worth repeating. Then share it with friends, colleagues, parents, even older students.

When I teach professional development classes, by far the topic that surprises teachers the most is the legal use of online images. And they’re not alone. On my blog, in educator forums, and in the virtual meetings I moderate, there’s lots of confusion about what can be grabbed for free from online sites and what must be cited with a linkback, credit, author’s name, public domain reference, or even as little as an email from the creator giving you permission. When I receive guest posts that include pictures, many contributors tell me the photo can be used because they include the linkback.

Not always true. In fact, the answer to the question…

“What online images can I use?”

typically starts with…

It depends…

Luckily, teaching it to K-8 students is simpler because most of them haven’t yet established the bad habits or misinformation we as adults operate under. But, to try to teach this topic in a thirty-minute set-aside dug out of the daily class inquiry is a prescription for failure. The only way to communicate the proper use of online images is exactly the way you teach kids not to take items from a store shelves just because they think they can get away with it: Say it often, in different ways, with the buy-in of stakeholders, and with logical consequence. Discuss online images with students every time it comes up in their online activities.

There are five topics to be reviewed when exploring the use of online images:

digital privacy
copyrights
digital law and plagiarism
hoaxes
writing with graphics

Here are suggestions on how to teach these to your students.

Plagiarism

Discuss plagiarism. What are the repercussions of ‘plagiarism’? When must you credit material found online? In general terms, you must cite sources for:

facts not commonly known or accepted
exact words and/or unique phrase
reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials
opinions that support research

Digital privacy

Have a discussion about privacy on the Internet—how rare it is in a world where people post everything they do onto Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Expand your discussion by watching and then discussing this video on Online Reputations.

Discuss the use of avatars to protect online privacy. If students have online accounts (through blogs, Twitter, or a class website), have them create an avatar for their profile. Here’s a list of great avatar-creation sites.

Wrap up with a discussion on the impact of hacking on privacy. Talk with students about how kids ‘hack’ game codes. Should they do it? Is it a victimless crime? What issues should they consider? What is the difference between ‘hacking’ and ‘cracking’?

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