Creating Clicker Paint Activities
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In the Everett school district, Clicker Paint works within Clicker 5.
(There is a “stand alone” version available, but we have both
programs.)
You create Clicker Paint activities by using Clicker
Paint Templates.
There are 3 types of Paint templates:
o Book Making – to create paintings to use in
Talking Books. These include Dynamic Stamp
templates that let you create your own stamps
and add them to background pictures.
o Labeling – paintings that go into picture cells that you then
label.
o Sentence Building – to create paintings for picture cells that
add into a Clicker Writer document.
Some templates have blank picture cells that are set up to open
Clicker Paint. Other templates have a Paint button on the grid
to
open Paint.
When a blank picture cell or the Paint button is selected, Clicker Paint opens
as a pop-up grid. When you close the Paint pop-up window, you return to your
Clicker grid.

If you haven’t already done so, spend a few minutes going through the Quick
Tour Clicker Paint tutorial grid available on the top level of Clicker Explorer:
This tutorial familiarizes you with all of the toolbar options and shows you
many of the possible activities available through Clicker Paint. We will be
focusing on teaching some of the more simple uses of the program.
Creating a Talking Book using Clicker Paint

Open Clicker, choose Create New Grid Set, choose Clicker Paint, and
choose Book Making.
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
You have a new grid set option that you don’t have available in a
regular a Talking Book template – Background. This difference
between a Background book template and a Landscape book template
is:
o With a Landscape book template, you
create a picture and it goes into a
picture cell in the Clicker grid. A text
box is automatically a part of the
grid.
o With a Background book template,
you create a picture and it becomes
the page. A text box would need to
be added to the grid.
We will make a Landscape book about ourselves.
 After choosing the Book Making template, choose Landscape 12, and
choose Create.
 Hold the Shift Key down and left click on the Title cell. Give your
book a name such as, “It’s All About Me”. Then shift + left click the
bottom cell and type “By your name”.
 Click on the Paint toolbar button.
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
You have opened a Clicker Paint pop-up. It automatically opens with
the brush tool selected.

Choose the different Sizes and Brushes tools,
Colors and Stamps to create a painting of
yourself. Have fun!
 When you have finished, click on the
tool.
Your painting will be inserted on your title page.
 Click on the right arrow navigation button to get to the next page.
Okay, that is the simplest form of using Clicker Paint. Now we are going to
get a little tricky. We are going to put a background in your next “painting”.
Technically, the background isn’t a part of your “painting”; it is a part of the
Clicker Paint pop-up. So you need to change the pop-up before you begin
your painting.
 First, go to Edit on the top toolbar and choose Edit Mode.
 Now right click on the paint tool
and choose Clicker
Paint Details…
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
Get to know this window. It
will be a very important
window!

Be sure that the Send to
menu says Cell 2
(That is the default setting).

Then click on Choose Picture

This will give you a browse window. We are going to browse to where
the Clicker Picture Library is located. Choose Local Disk C, then
Program Files, then Crick Software, then Crick Picture Library 2.
Look in the Homes folder to find a picture of a home you would like to
use as your background. (Hint: to see each
picture within this folder, go to the view menu
icon at the top of the window and choose
Thumbnail.)
Close out of the Edit mode (by clicking the X at
the top of the Edit toolbar). Now click on the Paint button. Your home
should be on the background of your Paint pop-up. Add some ground,
sky and details to your painting. Click on the X to see your picture in
the picture cell of your book.
Another tricky part. We want to change the stamps available to you in
your drawing. This is going to be a page about you as a baby. Right
now there are no baby pictures available when you click the Stamps
button in Paint. (Go ahead and try it if you don’t believe me ). We
need to change the stamps available to the Paint pop-up for this grid.
So we need to go back to that important window, the Clicker Paint
Details window.
o Be sure you are in the Edit Mode.
o Right click on the Paint button.
o Choose Clicker Paint Details…
.
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

It opened to the
“General” window,
but now we need the
“Tools” window.
And we need the
Stamp window open.
The left side of the window lets you browse to find pictures to use as
stamps. The right side shows what stamps are currently available for that
grid.
o To clear out all the stamps that are currently available (and are
probably not what you need) click on the double left chevron.
o Then start adding some babies, young children, and adult
pictures to the palette by either double clicking on them or by clicking
on the picture, then on the single right chevron.
o When you are done, click OK.
Close out of the Edit Mode
again (by clicking the X at the
top of the Edit toolbar) and
click on the Paint button. Now
in Paint you can add a picture of
“yourself” as a baby to in the
foreground of the home.
(Remember you can make the
cell Transparent by right
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clicking on it and choosing the Cell Properties. Choose Transparent.
That way you won’t have your cool picture framed by a white cell.)
o Add your text by holding your shift key and Left clicking in the
text box, then typing. This will complete your page:
o Play around making 3-4 more pages in your book. Your pages might
be about your family, your hobbies, an important event in your life,
your career, etc. You know now how to
o Add a background picture to your painting;
o Change the stamps available to you in your painting.
o Individually, let me know if I can help you:
o Make a stamp from a picture in your My Pictures folder.
o Limit the toolbars available to you and your students on any
given grid,
o Create a hidden picture page,
o Create a background picture for the whole grid, rather than
for a cell in the grid.
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Creating a Sentence Building Grid using Clicker Paint
We are going to create a Sentence Building Grid that is set up to use Paint.
In doing so we are going to specifically limit the tools available in the Paint
pop-ups to match the sentence we want our students to write.
o Save and close any active grids and go to
Clicker Explorer.
o Click on Create a New Grid Set.
o Important – Click on Clicker Paint
o Open the Sentence Building folder and
choose the
Sentence
Building Grids.
o Choose the 6X2
grid and click
on Create
o The purpose for this grid is for students to write
“I like/don’t like” sentences that include an
adjective. First we need to make 4 grids for this
sequence. Change to the Edit Mode and click on
Explorer. Add 3 new 6X2 grids to the sequence.
Then click on the first grid in the sequence.
1
2
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o Type “I”, “like”, “don’t like” , “red”, “green” and “apples” in your cells:
o Change the background of the color cells by using shift + right click to
get to the Cell Properties.
o Delete the 2 empty cells by holding down your control key and left
clicking on them, then right clicking on one of them to choose “cut”.
Okay, so we have made the writing part of the template. Now we want to
work on our Paint template so that it reflects the choices we want available
to our students. Basically, for this template we want a variety of apple
stamps (Red and green? Golden delicious?), and we want a limited number of
colors available. We make all of these changes in the edit mode under
“Clicker Paint Details”.
 Go to the edit mode.
 Right click on the Paint tool icon.
 Choose “Clicker Paint Details”.
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
We are making
changes to the Tools
available to students,
so click on Tools at top
of the window.

For this activity, we want the following tools available:
so click on the line, shape, text and picture tools (not selected above) to
“unselect” them. Keep the brush, fill bucket, stamp, eraser, flip/rotate
and undo tools selected.
 Click on the stamp tab
 If there are any stamps currently in the right side of the Stamps
window, click on the double chevron to erase them all.

You will need to browse the library and your computer to find pictures
you want to include as stamps. You can choose the pictures in the
Crick Picture Library 2. I have some additional picture libraries on my
computer and got saved some pictures I found on the internet. If you
find pictures on the internet or in United Streaming and save them,
you can find them on the D drive of the computer you are using in your
My Pictures folder in the folder with your log-in number.
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
Now decide which colors you want
available to your students. Choose
the Colors area of the top of the
Clicker Paint Details window:

If there are any colors currently in the right side of the Colors
window, click on the double chevron to erase them all.
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Then add any colors you want available to your students.
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You can also decide if you want only solid colors or a range of color
palette options. I chose only solid for this activity.
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
Click OK to close the Clicker Paint Details window.
To try out your grid, close out of the edit mode and click on the
Paint button.
Now make 3 more Like/Don’t Like grids. On each one, modify the Paint
Details to change
1) the tools available
2) the colors available
3) the stamps available.
Wow! You are awesome, huh?!
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Brainstorming Session
What activities lend themselves to using a
Clicker Paint grid?
What activities would be better using
an original Clicker 5 grid?
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Creating a Hidden Picture Grid
You create a hidden picture grid using 3 basic steps:
1) Create a picture cell that has a picture imbedded in the cell so it
can’t be altered;
2) “Paint” over that picture so it looks like there is no picture there;
3) Set up the paint tool for your students so that the “erase” tool is
the only option available to your students.
Sound easy? Hmmm… Let’s see…
o Save and close any active grids and go to Clicker
Explorer.
o Click on Create a New Grid Set
o Important - Choose the Clicker Paint folder
o Choose Book Making, then choose Landscape 12
and Create.
o It will be important to follow the following steps
carefully. On the first grid:
o We need to imbed a picture in the cell of the title page. Let’s
title this “Knock Knock Who’s There?” Shift left click in the
title cell to type the text.
o Change to the edit mode, right click on the paint cell and choose
Clicker Paint Details.
o Find the Send to area and select the drop
down arrow to select Cell 2
o We are going to put the picture on the
Assistant Layer. That will imbed it in the cell
so it can’t be erased. Select Choose Picture
and browse to find a picture you would like to
use. (Hint: save a picture onto your Local
Disk:D in your My Pictures folder).
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o Be sure that the “Save assistant
layer with painting” box is
checked and that the Assistant
Layer Position is “Underneath
painting.
o Click OK. You have just completed the first step of this 3 step
process.
o Now we will be “hiding” the picture in the Paint part of the
program. To get to Paint, you have to close out of the edit
mode.
o Click on the Paint tool button.
o To cover up our picture,
 Click on the shape tool,
 then the square shape and solid style
 then choose
white.



Click and drag the shape over the
picture to cover it completely.
Choose the Text
tool
Then
choose the
largest
size,
Character
Sets,
the ?,
Change the
color back
to black,
and drag
the ? onto
the picture.
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
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Close out of the paint tool
You have just completed
the second step of this 3
step process!
Now you need to change the options available to your
students when they choose the Paint button so they only
have the eraser available. To do that you need to go back
to the edit mode, right click on the Paint tool and select
Clicker Paint Details.
Click on the Tools button and then click to “unselect”
every tool except the eraser and the undo tools.
o Click OK, then close out of the Edit mode. Give your page a
try. You have just completed the 3rd and last step.
o Make another hidden picture on the next 3 grids. How can
you see yourself using this in your class?
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