New York City Parks/Parks and Recreation: Things to Do

Techno Turkeys

Subject: Art and Design
Age Level: 5 years and up

Performance Standards Information
Mathematics M2a, M2f
Tools and Techniques for Working with Others A5

Activity Goals

The goal of this project is to encourage the children to be creative and persistent.

Parteners version illustrates the value of teamwork and sharing

Skills children will learn from the activity

Children will learn to follow directions

to concentrate on a project

how to correctly save and print a file

Materials needed

Prerequisites

Children need to be familiar with KidPix;
Children also need to be able to follow instructions and work with other children. (parteners version)
Children need to be able to follow instructions and work quietly by themselves because the project requires concentration. (single version)

Procedure

Single Version:

Having a sample of what they are going to be doing, explain to the children that this project is similar to the hand drawn turkeys they most likely have drawn in school in the past with the exception that instead of putting their hand down on a paper they will be using the computer to do the same task.
Have each child sit at their own computer, placing their hand in the white area of the KidPix screen.
Whichever hand they write with should be on the side with the mouse. Set the pencil tool (thicker is easier) and look at the hand on the screen. Watching carefully, follow the pencil around the outline of the hand.
Make sure all lines are closed and there are no gaps. Draw a straight line across to close the wrist so that the paint bucket tool can be used to color in the Turkey.
At this point, if the child is unhappy with the turkey created, wipe the screen clean and let them restart it.
After decorating the Turkeys, make sure the child's name is on their work and have them save the file to the folder designated for the after school projects.
Have them print out their work for display in the Center or at home

Parteners Version:

Having a sample of what the children will be doing, explain to the children that this project is similar to the hand drawn turkeys they most likely have drawn in school in the past, with the exception that instead of putting their hand down on a piece of paper and tracing it, they will be using the computer do to the same task.
Divide up the children into groups so that there are two children per computer being used. After loading KidPix, Child A will start (it will be up to you as to which children start the project off) by putting her hand on the monitor in the white screen area.
Child B will then take the mouse using whichever hand she writes with and using a thick line for the pencil (thicker is better, but thinner is just as useable), trace Child A's hand while it's on the screen, thereby forming the "turkey".
When Child B is done then they can both decorate and make the turkey's head and body out of the traced hand together. Another variation is they can do two individual turkeys by having Child A trace Child B's hand after Child A is done decorating his/her "turkey" and then having Child B decorate the second turkey.
After they have finished creating their turkeys, have them put their names and ages on their work.
Save turkey drawings in the folder for their afterschool projects, and print out a copy for each child to take home or display around the recreation center.

Extension Activities

After completing the project, a discussion of what the children are most thankful for during the Thanksgiving holiday can be done and written up. You can combine the pictures and what they are thankful for together for a wonderful center display and/or put into the center newsletter.

Points of Consideration

Accessibility and placement of equipment (mouse, monitor, keyboard) so that the children are able to reach both the monitor and mouse at the same time