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Art Wiz |
Art Wiz is a wonderfully fun program for children to create their own artwork on the computer. There are many backgrounds from which to choose and numerous drawing, colouring and stamping tools.
The program has 2 toolbars. Tools and their functions are as follows:
The bottom toolbar consists of 5 tabs:
| Paint pot - fills an area with colour. |
| Pencil - click and drag to draw a line. There are 16 different line styles using a combination of line thickness and solidity. |
| 5 shapes and 1 funny face. Click and drag to determine the size and dimensions of the chosen shape. The active shape will be highlighted red. | |
| Upper and lower case letters, and numbers 0 to 9. Click and drag them onto the screen. | |
| 200 + colourful stickers that can be stamped onto the background. Use the pink left and right arrows to scroll through the sticker sets. There are ten different sets. Use the blue arrows to view the stickers within each set. Click and drag the stickers into place. Stickers match background themes, but can be used with any background. |
| Erasers come in four sizes. Single click or click and drag to erase. The explosion - clears the picture with one click on the screen. |
Other buttons:
| Background picker arrows (left and right). If a background has been "exploded" it will disappear, but can be renewed by scrolling right until it reappears. | |
| Undo - will remove anything drawn or placed with the previous mouse action. It will also undo an "undo" and an "explosion". |
| Exit |
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Outcome 4: Children are involved and confident learners
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
Creativity
Experimentation
Decision-making
Using toolbars
Programme navigation
Scrolling tools
Colour recognition and mixing
Visual perspective
Letters and numbers
Shapes
Printing
Mouse control - single click
Mouse control - click and drag
This art program uses a large range of tools. Encourage children to try them all, experimenting with mixing colours, having a scribble with the many line options and having fun with the stickers. Have a go at dragging some shapes and find the letters of their name. They will enjoy the game more if they know the function of each tool and will amaze you with their creations.
An important tool in this program is the undo tool. As the name implies, it will undo the action of a child's last click. This may sound easy, but is a difficult tool for younger children to master. Usually, when a preschooler makes a mistake, they will want to quickly fix it. They may get excited and accidentally click somewhere else first, and so won't be able to use the undo function for their mistake. They may also not realise that they want to change something until much later. You can help children by explaining the undo function, emphasising that it will only take away what they did with their last click. Explain also that once a sticker has been placed it cannot be moved later on. They will have to erase it or place something else over the top.
Talk to children about healthy eating. Discuss the difference between sometimes and all the time foods. Using the kitchen or blank background, place a variety of the food stickers. Ask children to draw a line around the food that is good for them and can be eaten most of the time. Talk about the effect sugary and fatty foods have on our bodies.
Ask children to place ten different stickers on a background. Ask them to name each one out loud. Help them find the starting letters for each word. Put the letter next to the sticker. Older children can be helped to spell out the whole word.
Place or draw a number on the screen and ask children to put that amount of stickers next to the number. Count with them out loud when they have placed the stickers.