Grades K – 5 Scholastic Keys Unlock the kid power in Microsoft Office! In a few moments, I’ll demonstrate how you can maximize your school’s investment in Microsoft Office and give your elementary students an early introduction to technology.

Kid-friendly Interface MaxWrite for Word MaxShow for PowerPoint® MaxCount for Excel Classroom features designed for elementary students! Drawing & painting tool Clipart gallery Sound recorder Activity files & templates Scholastic Keys is a suite of three Windows-based programs that provides a kid-friendly interface and educational enhancements for Microsoft Office: MaxWrite for Word, MaxShow for PowerPoint, and MaxCount for Excel. It gears the interface towards elementary school students with simplified menus and big toolbar buttons. Since Scholastic Keys was designed for the classroom it also comes with a number of elementary, grade-level appropriate features that you won’t find in Office including: [NOTE: Click to make classroom features appear on screen.] A kid-friendly drawing and painting tool Clipart with curricular themes An audio recorder for non-readers and multimedia learning Curriculum-specific activity files with lesson plans And, because Scholastic Keys works with Microsoft Office, elementary students who use Keys can share files with anyone who owns Office…other students, teachers, or parents!

Grades K – 5 Product Demo Let’s look at how Scholastic Keys works.

MaxWrite for Word MaxPaint and Clipart This screen shows MaxWrite which works with Microsoft Word. Not only have the menu buttons been simplified and enlarged, but the whole toolbar has been modified to make the interface more appropriate for younger students. One of the added buttons opens a Clipart gallery of over 800 educationally-appropriate images. Another launches a program called MaxPaint, which is also displayed in this screen. This painting and drawing tool includes over 70 backgrounds and 300 stamps, making it easy for students to create scenes to complement their writing. These easy-to-use tools get students engaged in their writing and technology use.

Text Effects MaxWrite for Word Students can easily modify the text of their document with intuitive font selection tool. They can personalize their text by universally or selectively applying color effects such as random color letters, random color words, and animated text. And, adding fractions or foreign language symbols is simple using the streamlined ‘Insert Symbol’ function accessible from the toolbar.

Text-to-Speech Reader MaxWrite for Word Text-to-Speech Reader When a document is complete, it can be read by Peedy, the built-in text-to-speech reader. This feature is great for non-readers, students with special needs, and ELL students who could benefit from auditory reinforcement of the text. Students can even adjust the speed and volume as the text is read aloud to them. Let’s look at MaxShow now…

MaxShow Toolbar MaxShow for PowerPoint® MaxShow works with Microsoft PowerPoint, just as MaxWrite works with Word. You’ll immediately notice that the toolbar has been simplified, just as in MaxWrite. There are some additional features. Students can use the Insert Movie button to add short movies to their presentations.

MaxRecorder MaxShow for PowerPoint® And, MaxRecorder enables students to record their own sounds or voices right into their presentations. Again, this feature is handy for young students, particularly those who struggle to express themselves in writing.

Attach Sound MaxShow for PowerPoint® With the Attach Sound feature, students can also add dozens of pre-recorded sounds to their presentations. The sound clips that students have recorded using MaxRecorder will also be accessible here.

Slide Effects MaxShow for PowerPoint® MaxShow also makes setting up a slideshow simple so that the student can concentrate on the content of a presentation rather than the formatting. There are 2 types of slide effects: transitions and text animations. MaxShow allows students to choose from only 4 of each type which is much simpler than PowerPoint. Students can even preview their effects without having to leave their work using the Animation Preview feature.

Play Slideshow MaxShow for PowerPoint® A student can run his slideshow with sound and the built-in text reader reads the text aloud. Students easily and independently navigate through the slideshow using the 3 big buttons in the lower left corner of the screen.

MaxCount Activities MaxCount Activities MaxCount for Excel MaxCount is the 3rd program in the Scholastic Keys suite. It works in conjunction with Microsoft Excel. You’ll notice, again, the change in the toolbar and the increased cell size. MaxCount also comes with activity files. By clicking on the activities button on the toolbar, you’ll find a number of counting and matching exercises such as this one about how students get to school. [NOTE: Motion to the slide.]

Creating Charts MaxCount for Excel Students can easily create graphs on their own as well. Using the same powerful art tools that are in the other 2 Scholastic Keys programs, students can add clipart to make symbols or categories for their graph. Student also have access to simple math functions that are appropriate for elementary students. These functions are: sum, minimum, maximum, median, and mean.

Powerful Management Features Scholastic Keys also includes powerful management features. Teachers can easily customize the program based on their students’ needs. To illustrate this point, take a look at this log-in box [NOTE: Motion to the 1st log-in graphic that shows only the two pictures of teachers]. No matter which computer a student is using, he can easily log into his own version of Scholastic Keys by first selecting his teacher and then [NOTE: click the mouse to advance the next log-in graphic] selecting himself. Or, the teacher can set up the student to log-in with a traditional username and password. Students then gain access to features and files that were selected specifically for them or their class. Let’s talk about those features now…

Easily Customize Toolbar Here’s an example of those features on the MaxWrite toolbar…As I said, teachers can easily customize their students’ Scholastic Keys’ toolbar depending on their individual needs. For instance, some students might need less distraction and therefore teachers can limit the number of features they have access to. The features they can turn on or off are called out on this slide and include: spell check, text-to-speech, tables, drop-down menus and more!

Turn On and Off Built-in Content Turn content on & off: Activities Backgrounds Clipart Sounds Templates and more! Similarly, a teacher can also turn on or off built-in content for a student, group, or class. For instance, there are over 800 clipart images available through Scholastic Keys. Teachers may only want to turn on the image categories that are relevant to an assignment, so that students aren’t distracted. This applies to the included stamps and activity templates, too.

Easy File Management Students can very easily access their files, no matter where they log in. When Charlie logs into Scholastic Keys, for instance, he will only have access to his files…you see here that he’s not very far along so he has only has one file saved. Emily has access to completely different set of files—her own files. Even non-readers can easily recognize their files through thumbnail images of their work.

Curriculum Integration www.ScholasticKeys.com Lesson Plans Templates Classroom Stories Language Arts Math Social Studies Science In addition to the activity files included in the software, you’ll also find more ideas on our Web site for integrating Scholastic Keys into your Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science curricula. There are a variety of resources for users, including lesson plans, templates, and stories of how other teachers have used Scholastic Keys in their classrooms.

Lesson Plans Here’s an example of some of the lesson plans that you’ll find on the site…many lessons include worksheets and activity files.

Maximize Your School’s Investment in Microsoft Office Technology • Creativity • Drawing • Writing • Reading • Math For more information, contact Tom Snyder Productions: www.tomsnyder.com 800-342-0236 ask@tomsnyder.com So that’s a quick overview of Scholastic Keys! You’ve seen how it transforms Microsoft Office for your classroom and how it can be used as a tool to differentiate instruction. It’s a fantastic way to maximize your investment in Office and give your elementary students an early introduction to technology across the curriculum.