1. If I Could Be Anything… This project will take a few days to complete. It can be used with students from grade 1 to 6. When teaching the younger students, make sure to do step-by-step instructions with them on a projector when using the Paint Program. It will also be beneficial to resize the photos for them. Older students will be able to complete all the steps on their own with guidance and demonstration. Project Intentions / Learning Objective - To write a story with imagination, detail and appropriate conventions. - To use technology in the classroom to promote technological skills and graphic development. - To learn how to open, close and save projects on the computer.

2. Writing Process With your students you start with the question, “If you could be anything or anyone, what would you be?” Provide your students with time to write about what they would want to be. Probe for details like, “How would you look or what would you wear? Where would you be? What would you be doing? What could you do that you cannot do now?” These details make writing more interesting and will provide support in adding specific details in their pictures. When doing this with my students, they transformed themselves into characters like Tinker Bell, Scooby Doo, and Hagrid (from Harry Potter), and into professions like mountain climber, doctor and detective! When students have finished writing, encourage them to edit their work. Conversations on sentence structure and conventions is necessary.

3. Preparing for the Computer Lab Make sure to take headshots of your students prior to going to the computer lab. computer lab. With older students, you can have them take photos of each other. Be sure to use a digital camera and upload the photos beforehand, to a file the students can access. With older students, you can have them take photos of each other. Be sure to use a digital camera and upload the photos beforehand, to a file the students can access. If you are resizing the photos, make sure to save them in a separate file so the students do not accidently use the originals. Their head will be too big! If you are teaching your students to resize their photo themselves, you are ready to start Step 1 on the next slide! If you are resizing the photos, make sure to save them in a separate file so the students do not accidently use the originals. Their head will be too big! If you are teaching your students to resize their photo themselves, you are ready to start Step 1 on the next slide!

4. Step 1 : Resize photo Choose a preferred size that will suit the proportions of the head and drawn in body by resizing photo in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Select Edit Pictures, then Resize and then change Custom Width x Height. Don’t forget to save the resized photo! Using the picture of the Queen, I resized my picture to 300 x 300.

5. Step 2 : Open Photo in Paint Open the program Paint and then select file, open, and choose the resized photo. To give yourself room to edit the photo and draw in a body. To do this you must put your pointer on the bottom right corner dot and pull to expand the white space.

6. Step 3: Using Free-Form Selection Tool Select Free-Form Selection from the tool bar. Now carefully draw a circle around only the head. You may choose to remove hair or leave it. In this case I am removing her hair and hat. After drawing a circle around her head, this box appears. Now drag her head off of the rest of the picture. Place her head in the white space where you would like it to stay.

7. Step 4: Deleting What You Don’t Want Now choose the Rectangular Selection Tool and make a box around the unwanted photo. Right click on your mouse and choose cut. Now it’s time to tidy up the cropped photo. Select the eraser tool and carefully erase all the edges that don’t belong to the face. Hint: Using the Magnifying Glass Tool is helpful in the erasing process! If you make a mistake while erasing, immediately click the Undo button before continuing. This white square is the eraser cleaning up the edges.

8. Step 5: Have fun making yourself into someone, or something else! Use the tools on the tool bar to make perfect circles, lines and other shapes. Use the paintbrush to draw and the paint can to fill in the colour! Don’t forget to save your new hard work!