Good planning is the key to success! Before entering the computer lab, the students prepare a set of story problems.

1. We begin by looking at the “icon library“ in the HyperStudio clip art file. Each student selects a graphic from this single page.
2. We set up the pattern for our story problems: The first sentence tells the number of objects we have at the beginning. The second sentence tells what happens to that number. The third sentence asks a question.
3. Students write original story problems following this pattern. They also write corresponding “number sentences.”
4. Spelling and punctuation errors are corrected before the students go into the computer lab. The goal for the HyperStudio stack is a set of six problems. Students who do not have time to write six story problems write number sentences, which can later be expanded into story problems.

It helpful to spend at least fifteen minutes reviewing the steps of a computer procedure BEFORE going into the lab. We do this in the classroom, using a question and answer format. Since the group is small, we make a little "amphitheater" in front of our classroom computer, and students take turns performing the necessary steps.

1. What program are we using? Select and open HyperStudio.
2. When we see the opening screen, what do we want? Click: new stack.
3. A gray box appears asking us if we want to leave the Home Stack. Click YES. (The students quickly learn that in HyperStudio, we often get asked TWICE, or even THREE TIMES what we want!)
4. The next screen tells us have a new stack. Is that what we really want? (Click OK)
5. We have a blank page before us. What do we want to do? (We want to type a number sentence.) In Hyperstudio, the things we want to put on each page are called objects, so we find Objects on the menu bar. Computers call letters and words and numerals TEXT, so we pull down from Objects to “add a text object.”
6. Yet another dialogue box appears, telling us that we will be able to change the position of our text. Click another OK!
7. Next the “red box” appears. Students have worked with handlebars on previous projects, so they remember how to change the size of the box. Whenever possible, we use THE VERY SIMPLEST option, so students are instructed to drag the lower portion of the box upward to create a smaller box. “Click off” is our term for clicking on another portion of the page to open the next dialogue box.
8. The next dialogue box offers text options. We don’t want any “extras” on the page, so we have to remove the checked options. Click the check mark (PC) or X (Mac) for each of the selected options at the bottom of the box. (The second graders like to recite “Don’t want THAT....don’t want THAT... don’t want THAT) Once the extras have been eliminated, click OK
9. Type in the number sentence.
10. To add a button: (it’s an object) Pull down from Object to “Add a Button. “ Simply type in the answer to the problem and click OK. Once again, a gray dialogue box appears and needs an OK.
11. When the red answer button appears, click off of it and leave it right where it has been placed on the page. (We’ll move buttons later!)
12. When the gray dialogue box appears, we will select only one action: click on “next card.” Another dialogue box appears and we OK the default option. (click OK) Finally, we click on “DONE.” We have a working button.
13. Now we want a new page. Go to Edit on the menu bar and pull down to “New Card.”
14. Repeat the procedure until there are six cards in the stack.
15. Save the work. (How this is done will depend on your school situation. Our classes save to a desktop folder which has the student’s name.)

Session three: Classroom/ lab
Add graphics.

Again, we practice in the classroom BEFORE we go to the computer lab.

1. What program do we open? (Hyperstudio)
2. When Hyperstudio is opened, what do we want? (Some will automatically answer “New Stack” and I remind them, DO we really want a new stack?) We want to open a stack. Students have previously labeled their project with their initials and the simple label MATH 1.
3. Once we open the stack, we are on the first page. Today, we will need to use tools. Go to Tools on the menu bar. Pull down and drag the tool box into the lower right corner of the screen. Note: You will need to explain that any time we are changing the HyperStudio card, the toolbox has the ARROW highlighted. Any time we want to make the buttons work, the hand should be highlighted.
4. We want to add a picture today. Computers call pictures “graphics.” So we pull down from Object to “Add a Graphic Object.”
5. Click OK when the dialogue box appears. The default setting should take the students to the graphics library within HyperStudio.
6. Students select the “icon library“ folder and open it.
7. We select a picture by drawing a box around it. (Again, this is a skill that has been acquired through other programs.)
8. Once we’ve “boxed” our picture, we click OK.
9. The computer is going to remind us that is will be placing our picture on the page with a red blinking box. We tell it again OK.
10. If we want to move an object, move the cursor to the center of the object. The cursor will look like a cross with arrows. Now we can drag the object without changing the shape. (If the cursor changes to a diagonal arrow or a single arrow, we will change the shape of our object. We’ll learn THAT in step 12)
11. Move the picture to a space below the number sentence.
12. Most of the students will need more than one graphic. They need to resize their original graphic in order to fit enough graphics on the page. Resize by holding the cursor over the top right corner until a diagonal arrow appears. Drag to reshape and click when the correct size is achieved. Click off the graphic and click OK when another gray box appears.
13. Once the graphic is resized, we copy and paste using the shortcut procedure. Click on the graphic. Hold down the apple key and the letter C to copy (control + C on a PC) and apple + V to paste it (control + V on a PC) Students need to be reminded that once a graphic has been copied, it can be pasted many times without recopying. However, the computer pastes things one on top of the other, so we need to move each graphic off the top of the original.
14. Save.

Note: The students may "loose" a graphic by tucking it under the text box. Remind them that we can change or move any object by clicking the arrow in the toolbox, then clicking on the object. A "four-arrow cross" in the center allows us to drag an object to a new location. A black arrow will change the object's size. ALSO: when an object is selected, it has a moving "red dashed line." If we want to, we can get rid of the object while it is selected. Hit the delete key (Mac) or Backspace key. (PC)
Session four: Classroom/lab

Add "Wrong Answer" Buttons.
This was probably the most fun part of the project. Once again, in the classroom, we review the procedures before going to the lab:

1. Open Hyperstudio.
2. Open an existing stack.
3. Drag down the tools.
4. We want to add some wrong answer buttons. Just any wrong answer won’t do. We want a tricky answer. What would the answer be if we added instead of subtracted? If we were off by only one? etc. Choose a tricky wrong answer.
5. Add a second button. It is an object, so go to Object on the menu bar, pull down to “Add a Button.”
6. Once again, type the answer (a wrong answer) and clicking OK. Drag the wrong answer button down to place it in a row across the bottom of the page.
7. This time, we do NOT want a wrong answer button to take us to the next card. So when the Actions gray box appears, leave the default setting, “none of the above” selected on the left hand side of the box. On the right hand side of the Actions gray box, click “Play a sound.”
8. Students can select a sound, click on Play to test it, and then click OK when a selection has been made.
9. Click DONE when the Actions gray box reappears.
10. Test the wrong answer button by going to the toolbox and clicking on the hand. Remember, we use the hand to make the buttons work, and the arrow to make changes to the card.
11. Add at least two wrong answer buttons to each card in the stack.
12. Save your work.

Session five: Classroom/Lab
Edit the text.

1. Open Hyperstudio.
2. Open existing stack.
3. Drag down the tools.Click on the arrow, because we want to change the card.
4. Click on the number sentence. We want to change it from one short number sentence into a "story problem" made of three sentences. (Remember the pattern: The first sentence tells the number of objects we have at the beginning. The second sentence tells what happens to that number. The third sentence asks a question.)
5. Since the story problem is going to be larger than the number sentence, we need to “stretch” the red box so that it will be big enough to contain the text. We might need to move objects around to make enough space for a bigger text box. Remember to watch for the "4-arrow cross" and drag the objects to the right places.
6. Click the arrow in the toolbox. Place the cursor on the edge of the textbox to get a black arrow. Stretch the box to the correct size.
7. Go back to to the toolbox and click on on the capital T . Using the cursor, highlight the number sentence. Type in the story problem sentences.
8. For each card in the stack, change the "number sentence" to a "story problem made of words."