Kidspiration

From what I have been able to experience with Kidspiration, I really have enjoyed the program. I have only played with the part that deals with making mind maps, but I had a great time making mine. For my mind map I had two bubbles in the middle where one was labeled family and the other friends. Then from each of those came five other parts. For family I included my mom, my dad, my sister, and both of my grandmas. For friends I included Kelli Macqueen, Aron Bennett, Heidi Fry, Penny Deacons, and Erica Kobel. It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to add bubbles to the main two bubbles but once I figured it out, I could have kept adding people all day. I think that my most favorite part was picking out the pictures for each person. I was surprised that there were so many options that were already in the program. For my dad I did a picture of the world because he has traveled several times, mostly to Africa. For my mom I put some child's blocks because she is a daycare provider. I put a picture of mountains and trees for my sister because she works at a camp in Georgia. I put a book for my Grandma West because she likes to read, and I put a question mark for my Grandma Ogden because she has alzheimers and can't remember very well. For Aron I put a heart because he is my boyfriend and I love him a lot. For Kelli I put a picture of a skirt because she always wears skirts. I knew that a squirrel would be for Erica because that is her favorite animal. For Penny I chose a horse because she has one and just to show that she just likes animals overall. Last but not least I put a pencil for Heidi because she is a very studious person and always works hard to get her work done. Then for the writing view part, I mostly just wrote short prayers for each of the people. Well, for as much fun as I have had using the Kidspiration I think it would be a great program to use in the classroom. It would be great for "get to know you" activities. It would help in tremendous ways with creativity of the kids. I am sure the program can be incorporated into lessons for almost any subject. With little training or instruction, the kids can easily make presentations because the program is simple and easy to use. I could definitely see this being used in my classroom, especially as time goes by and technology changes.