Kidspiration 3.0

Kidspiration 3: The visual way to explore and understand words, numbers and concepts!

Created for K-5 learners, Kidspiration® develops thinking, literacy and numeracy skills using proven visual learning principles. In reading and writing, Kidspiration strengthens word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension and written expression. With new visual math tools, students build reasoning and problem solving skills.

Kidspiration helps students:

• Develop strong thinking skills
• Strengthen reading and writing skills
• Build conceptual understanding in math

Use Kidspiration's Picture View to build graphic organizers including concept maps, webs, bubble diagrams and Venn diagrams. In Writing View, students expand their ideas into written expression. In Math View, students use math manipulatives such as color tiles, pattern blocks, base ten blocks, fraction tiles and fraction boxes to build essential math skills. Research shows that visual learning is one of the best methods for teaching thinking skills. Visual learning techniques - graphical ways of working with ideas and presenting information - teach students to clarify their thinking and to process, organize and prioritize new information.

Develop thinking skills
With Kidspiration, students use graphic organizers to express thoughts and explore ideas and relationships. They create graphic organizers including webs, concept maps and Venn diagrams to clarify thoughts, organize information, apply new knowledge and build critical thinking skills.
 

• 3,000+ symbols in Kidspiration's Symbol Library provide visual support for concepts taught in K-5 language arts, social studies and science. Students can also import symbols from other sources.
• Symbol Search helps students search and find just the right symbols to express their thoughts and ideas. *
• Symbol Maker sparks creativity and anchors meaning. Students use familiar paint tools to create and personalize their own symbols to use in their graphic organizers.

• The Link tool connects ideas and shows relationships.
• Hyperlinks enrich Kidspiration activities and projects. Students and teachers can hyperlink to web pages from symbols, notes and links.
• Kidspiration's SuperGrouper® supports students as they sort, group and classify objects and ideas. A favorite for students and teachers alike, SuperGrouper containers are used to synthesize and analyze ideas.

Strengthen Reading and Writing Skills

With Kidspiration, students create, organize and explain ideas and information visually. They develop stories and descriptions using engaging visual tools and explore new ideas with thought webs and maps. Using Kidspiration, students combine pictures, text and audio to develop comprehension, organize ideas and create stories.

• Integrated Picture and Writing Views
• Visual continuity between Picture View and Writing View
• Kidspiration pairs symbols and words
• Kidspiration Word Guide

• Audio support
• Ready-made reading and writing activities
• One-click transfer

Build Conceptual Understanding in Math

Kidspiration extends the proven principles of visual learning to mathematics with visual math tools. Combining the hands-on learning power of manipulatives with all the added benefits of computer interactivity, Kidspiration's math tools help K-5 learners grasp essential and sometimes challenging math concepts.

• Visual Math Tools
• Kidspiration Color Tiles

• Kidspiration Pattern Blocks
• Kidspiration Base Ten Blocks
• Kidspiration Fraction Tiles
• Kidspiration Fraction Boxes

Educator Developed Resources Support Curriculum Integration Kidspiration includes curriculum content, teacher tools and standards-aligned lesson plans in language arts, math, science and social studies developed specifically for grades K-5, along with 150+ activity templates.

Easy Navigation and Simple Operations Support Every K-5 Learner Sophisticated technology makes Kidspiration's capabilities easy and barrier-free for K-5 learners. Kidspiration's visual workspace invites students to explore, think and create naturally, intuitively and independently.

Teacher Options Keep Students Focused on Learning When creating or modifying templates, teachers have options to keep student learning on task. Password-protected controls on the Teacher menu prevent students from changing teacher preferences.

Support for ELL and ESL Students: For ELL and ESL learners in grades K-5, vocabulary building is critical for reading and writing proficiency, the core of academic success. Kidspiration uses proven visual learning strategies to build students' vocabulary and English comprehension with the integrated Picture and Writing Views, the Word Guide, longer audio recording capacity and expanded symbol search and libraries. ELL and ESL students will also benefit from Kidspiration's emphasis on developing and using independent strategies such as pictorial representation of thoughts and concepts, and sight vocabulary lists in Word Guide which align with Fry's Instant Word List, Dolch Word List and TESL vocabulary.

Kidspiration Keeps Up with the Latest Technology Kidspiration now supports higher-resolution monitors with a larger visual workspace and is compatible with Windows Vista. Shape and handwriting recognition in Kidspiration make it possible to sketch symbols and links as well as write text directly on whiteboards such as Promethean® ACTIV boards® and SMART Technologies SMART Boards™. Toolbars may be moved to the bottom of the screen for easy access by all students.