Kerpoof Scholastics™

At-a-Glance

Lesson Plans

Some Ideas for Using Kerpoof in the Classroom

Story Starter

You can use Kerpoof to spark creative writing. How often do you hear your students complain that they don't know what to write about, or that the topic you've provided is "boooooooring"? There are several ways you can use Kerpoof to provide fresh, interesting prompts:

Have students write their own narratives in Kerpoof's Make a Story, using the scenes and characters as inspiration.
Have them create stories and scenes without text for other students to fill in.
Create one story or scene without text for use by the whole class.
Create a library of scenes or stories that students can pick from or be assigned.

Genre Writing

It's also easy to assign different types of writing using Kerpoof scenes:

Have students write a fictional story about a scene.
Have them write a letter to a friend or family member as if they had been part of a scene. (And use Kerpoof's Make a Card to create the stationary!)
Have them write a scientific report on one of the nature scenes. Ask them to describe each type of animal, identify predators and prey, and include detailed observations about what goes on in this habitat during the day and night. Provide two scenes and discuss the difference between "nocturnal and "diurnal."
Have them report on a scene as though they were a newspaper journalist.

Reading Comprehension

You can also use Kerpoof to test reading comprehension. If your students are reading a story or book that fits one of our scenes, have them demonstrate comprehension by creating a scene that illustrates the story. Then have them translate their picture into a summary of the story to complete the progression of skills.

Social Studies

You can use our Mount Fuji scene to address traditional Japanese culture. Create a scene with a traditional home, a temple or a palace; add art and sculptures, including statues of Buddha; and insert various Japanese plants (bonsai, cherry trees, etc). You'll also find a woman in traditional Japanese dress, along with some less authentic ninjas - and Godzilla!

Visit our Japanese scroll screen if you're teaching haiku, and our Iroquois village if your class is learning about Native American history.

Biology

Your class can study the life cycle of a caterpillar using our Butterfly Pavilion scene, sponsored by the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield, Colorado. Create a scene with all of the stages of a caterpillar's life (caterpillar to pupa to butterfly) and ask students to identify them in order. Include bushes and trees where butterflies might lay their eggs.

Is your class learning about the food chain? Our Northwest Territories scene, sponsored by Northwest Trek in Tacoma, Washington, is the perfect place to illustrate it. We have plant life, and deer to eat it; toads, and rattlesnakes to eat them. We have insects, rodents, reptiles, several types of ruminants, and all sorts of animals high in the food chain: bears, wolves and birds of prey, to name a few! And they're all real inhabitants of the Northwest Trek wildlife preserve.

Math

You can use any of our nature scenes to create intricate worlds that will test your students' powers of observation. Can they identify and list the animals they see? Can they find fourteen yellow fish swimming in and around the sunken ship? Turn this sort of exercise into a math lesson by asking your students to categorize and graph different groups of objects.

Get New Ideas!

Our free Kerpoof Scholastics e-newsletter regularly features new ideas for using Kerpoof in the classroom - ideas written by us as well as ones we receive from other educators. We would love to hear about how you are using Kerpoof!