#2241. A Story About Me

Computer, level: Elementary
Posted Wed May 9 17:03:35 PDT 2001 by Dana Bock (danadiddle@hotmail.com).
God's Bible College/Student, Cincinnati, Ohio
Materials Required: Word Processing Software, Paint Program, Printer, Biography of a famous person for the introduction
Activity Time: 60 minutes
Concepts Taught: Word Processing, Editing Document, Paint Program

Grade Level: 3-4
Background skills required: Basic Typing

Objectives:
1. The student will be able to maneuver within the paint program, correctly using the tools.
2. The student will be able to successfully cut and paste a picture, from paint, to a document.
3. The student will be able to write a story about themselves, and print it out.

Introduction:
In the classroom, hold up a Biography of a famous person (choose a biography that has the
picture of the person it's about, on the front cover). Explain that a biography is a true book,
written about someone's life.

Transition:
"Today, we're going to make our own Biography during computer class, only for the sake of
time, we aren't going to tell our whole life story, but just about what you've done in the past
week. We're also going to draw our picture in the computer paint program and make a front cover
for our story."

Sequence of Events:
1. Commence to computer room, or to specified computers.
2. Have all of teh students open a word document, then go to file and open up the paintbrush
program.
3. Discuss all of the tools and give students a few minutes to experiment with them.
4. Have the students draw a picture of themselves on the paint program.
5. Instruct students to use the scissor icon to cut out their picture. Then click on edit
(on the toolbar @ top of screen) and choose the option "copy". They should then minimize
the paint program, and maximize the word document.
6. The students should then type the title, "A Story About Me", and their name. Explain how
to change the font size so that their title appears dramatically at the top of the page.
To do this, instruct the students to click on format (on the toolbar) and choose the font
option, and change to about 60. Also, the title and autor should be centered, so be sure
discuss this with the students.
7. Now, the student should click on edit again, choosing the paste option, they should arrange
their picture on their cover page by holding down the mouse button, and dragging the picture
to the desired location.
8. Now, the student should type their short story and take turns printing out their stories.

Closure:
Ask the students questions about the different paintbrush tools, how do you change a font,
how do you cut and paste, how do you center a line. Let the students answer while they are
printing, or shutting down their computers.

Evaluation:
1. Did the finished product demonstrate ability to use the paintbrush tools, cut and paste, change
a font, and center a line?
2. Were the students able to answer questions orally, reviewing what was covered in class?

Analysis of Lesson:
How did the lesson go? You may want to provide a hand out with exact instructions on how to
perform the different tasks such as cut and paste, change font, center, etc. What would you do the
same? What would you do differently?