Wouldn’t it be great if you could make gingerbread houses without all the messy clean-up? Well, you can with the Gingerbread House activity, in either the Annie’s Books Online or the IntelliTools Classroom Suite® versions. Bonus: Gingerbread house clip art collection!

The Haunted Castle is a highly interactive Halloween adventure. The story starts with trick or treaters deciding to try out a spooky-looking castle. Once inside, they are informed that they are trapped until they locate the front door key!

This IntelliTools Classroom Suite® activity has a toolbar with buttons containing four new frame animations to use in creating IntelliMation® in your activities. Meet Gary, Emily, Todd, and Rita, four detailed walking kids who are eager see what adventures and learning experiences you can design for them! Bonus: Tips on how to get the most out of any frame animation in Classroom Suite!

I’ve found an excellent source of free photos and clip art. The free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net are of high quality and fairly small (400 x 260, for example), ideal for including in activities. The site specifically states that the images may be used for educational work and included in software.

Page buttons make handy graphics placeholders in IntelliTools Classroom Suite®. The placeholder determines the position of the graphic and its maximum width or height. If you are setting up a template page for an activity, something you plan to duplicate and perhaps share with others, this is a great time-saver, and it relieves the user of the task of sizing and positioning graphics.

Someone recently asked me how I was able to set the trademark light blue color you see for the border and page color in the IntelliTools Classroom Suite® activities you download from the Attic. The answer involves using some built-in settings, plus putting buttons to uses for which they were never designed. Here’s how to do it! Bonus: PDF version of this tip to use as a hand-out!

Have you ever wished you could get IntelliTools Classroom Suite® to read out a text box while the activity is in Paint mode? It certainly would be handy for giving instructions in a coloring activity. Here’s a trick to make a button read out a text box in Paint mode.

For the easiest tree decorating experience of your life, try the Holiday Tree activity. I’ve created twenty-one beautiful ornaments to put on your virtual tree. It only takes four steps at most to complete a tree, and you don’t even need a step stool! Bonus: Holiday Tree clip art!

Mayan Jungle Adventure gives readers a chance to determine the outcome by the choices they make. Students get lots of reading practice with this activity, while having exciting encounters with the various perils of the jungle. The complete activity set also includes a supporting book, writing activities and a comprehension test, plus extra materials for teachers. Bonus: Photos, clip art, and printable puzzles!

Making A Pumpkin Pie carries a reader through all the steps in this enjoyable task. The dialog is much like what you would hear if you were helping Grandma with her baking, so this story can be read by students in Grades 1-3 and those in Pre-K with a little help from the read aloud option. Older students with limited reading ability will also enjoy the story. Bonus: Photo collection and pumpkin pie recipe!