Visual Learning For K-5 Students

Kidspiration^® builds thinking, literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. K-5 students use visual tools combining pictures, text, numbers and spoken words to develop vocabulary, word recognition, comprehension, reasoning and problem solving skills.

Develop strong thinking skills
Students use Kidspiration's visual tools to express thoughts and explore ideas and concepts.

Enhanced! 3,000+ symbols in Kidspiration's Symbol Library provide visual support for concepts taught in K-5 Language Arts, Social Studies and Science, making Kidspiration a valuable cross-curricular tool. Students can also import symbols from other sources.

New! 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 combine pictures, text and audio to develop comprehension, organize ideas and create stories.

Integrated Picture and Writing Views connect students' visual thoughts with written expression in a single click. In Picture View, students develop thought webs and other graphic organizers. In Writing View, they expand their ideas into written expression. As they visualize, plan and organize, students build essential skills and confidence in reading and writing.

Kidspiration pairs symbols and words to build and strengthen literacy. Emerging readers and early learners use Kidspiration symbols and graphic organizers to communicate stories they've heard and ideas they develop. Older students use symbols to explain more complex ideas, show relationships and demonstrate understanding.

Visual continuity between Picture View and Writing View links images with written expression. When students click from Picture View to Writing View, they see symbols from their graphic organizers, reinforcing the connection between words and their meaning.

New! Kidspiration Word Guide supports vocabulary and reading comprehension with easy access to nearly 13,000 words. It includes sight vocabulary from the Dolch and Fry's word lists and aligns with TESL vocabulary to support ELL and ESL students. Each entry includes definitions, recorded speech for pronunciation, synonyms and antonyms, parts of speech and sample sentences. Word Guide pairs 1,400 words with images to enhance word recognition and comprehension.

Enhanced! Audio support includes longer recording time to encourage students to express and document their ideas. Teachers enjoy greater flexibility when recording instructions and comments. For ESL and ELL learners, teachers can record instructions in native languages to enhance student understanding. With the Listen tool students can hear any text read aloud, strengthening word recognition and comprehension.

Ready-made reading and writing activities support phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, word recognition and comprehension as they build students' writing and literacy skills.

One-click transfer to word processors lets students easily export their work to applications such as Microsoft^® Word, Scholastic Keys^® and Appleworks® to expand upon projects and assignments.

Build conceptual understanding in math
Students build number sense and spatial reasoning and understand the meaning behind the four basic operations while communicating their thinking with words, numbers and math symbols.

New! Visual Math Tools
Kidspiration's five visual math tools focus on the core conceptual foundations of counting, place value, computation and geometric thinking. They combine the hands-on learning power of manipulatives with all the added benefits of computer interactivity, helping students grasp essential math concepts.

Kidspiration Color Tiles™
Students use Kidspiration Color Tiles to count and compare, explore properties of number and operations and develop computation strategies. With Kidspiration Color Tiles, students learn to solve area and perimeter problems and model number patterns and the four basic operations.

Kidspiration Pattern Blocks™
Students use Kidspiration Pattern Blocks to investigate the properties and attributes of shapes through composition and decomposition. They produce patterns and tessellations, explore similarity and congruence, experiment with symmetry and represent fractions.

Kidspiration Base Ten Blocks™
Students use Kidspiration Base Ten Blocks to understand place value and strengthen number sense. With Kidspiration Base Ten Blocks, they count, compare, group, partition and create equivalent representations of whole numbers and decimals. Kidspiration Base Ten Blocks also introduce students to procedures for operations on multi-digit numbers.

Kidspiration Fraction Tiles™
Students use Kidspiration Fraction Tiles to compare and order fractions and to understand equivalent fractions. They find common denominators, translate between improper fractions and mixed numbers and model basic operations with fractions.

Kidspiration Fraction Boxes™
Students use Kidspiration Fraction Boxes to represent fractions visually to build a strong conceptual foundation for future work with fractions. Students compare, order, simplify and find equivalent fractions. They use Kidspiration Fraction Boxes to model basic operations with like and unlike denominators. Kidspiration Fraction Boxes also introduce students to improper fractions, mixed numbers and representing word problems.

New! The right features and functions make Kidspiration math tools easy to use

Kidspiration Math SuperGrouper™ helps students count, sort and show operations visually. Teachers and students label Math SuperGroupers as a conceptual building block for word problems.

Math Text Boxes document math operations using words, numbers and structured frames. The Math Text Box supports writing fractions, division problems and vertical math notations.

Step Workspace shows progression of work with a sequential work area to document steps while problem-solving.

Cross-Out Stamp gives students a visual indicator to use when they mark, take away or remove items.

Multiple pages in a document streamline workspace management.

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.

Enhanced! 150+ quick start activity templates give teachers classroom-ready resources and provide a launching pad to customize and create lessons for individual learners, small groups and the whole class.

New! Tutorials provide a fast effective way to introduce teachers to visual learning with Kidspiration so they're successful from the start.

New! Teacher Resources Online provides additional lesson plans and activities.

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.

Visual Toolbars are colorful and intuitive for easy navigation so students experience success right from the start.

Talking Interface supports each toolbar function with clear audio, so students who are emerging readers can navigate easily and fluidly.

New! Support for Higher Resolution Monitors and Windows^® Vista^®
Kidspiration now supports higher resolution monitors with a larger visual workspace (1024 x 768 resolution). Kidspiration is compatible with Windows Vista.

Support for ELL and ESL Students
Vocabulary building is critical for ELL and ESL learners in grades K-5 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 new 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.