Picture Frame
The picture frame contains an image that may be a child's photograph, an icon, or a picture drawn by a child. The user can choose his/her own photograph to access his/her individual desktop and accessories.

Icons or images drawn by children can also be represented in the picture frame. Children click on the picture frame and use the drawing tools and a palette of colors to make an image.

Card File
Children have been observed using the KidDesk address card file to record their name and classmates names along with special notes written using invented spellings and mark making.

Phone/Voice Mail
This can be used to record messages when a microphone is attached to the computer. Voice mail messages can be relayed between children in the classroom.

Oral language is as much a part of early literacy skills as reading and writing and is thought to develop concurrently.

By offering children access to communication tools such as those used by adults, KidDesk promotes oral language in a purposeful context.

The Notepad
The notepad contains stationery that can be customised with icons, pictures, and photographs.

The child's name appears on the stationery, and a child typing a note can select from four different font sizes. A printer icon offers a 'print' choice and an 'erase' or 'unerase' option.

Although children use the notepad to communicate with peers, we often see children compose and print a message and then want to take them home.

This type of writing and communication with family members is often seen in classrooms where teachers use the computer for communication between school and home.

Mailbox and E-mail
Enables children to write and send e-mail messages within the classroom environment.

Other children's photographs and names appear when a child prepares (and receives) electronic messages. Children select the photo icon of the intended recipient then, after composing a message, click on a 'send' button to mail the message and, just like any e-mail program, the message is gone!

Providing such opportunities for written communication is important, especially when it offers a ‘real’ meaningful context. It offers children exposure to literacy-stimulating experiences.

Calendar
Many adults consult a calendar at least once a day. Providing children the same type of tool, KidDesk offers an easy-to-use calendar that can be printed.

Clicking the calendar icon takes a child to a screen that offers icon choices for illustrating a calendar and a message box for typing a corresponding message.

Some children visit the calendar each day to choose an icon to place on the calendar; others add a few letters of invented spelling, while others begin to type names onto the calendar.

The Name Icon
This is found on KidDesk is a form of environmental print. Children who do not recognise their names begin to associate the spoken name with the written word.

Children who recognize their names but do not know how to spell them have a resource to come back to as they match the letters of their names with the letters of the keyboard.

Calculator
There is a calculator on the KidDesk desktop, so the children can mimic adult activities in their play, such as in a role play office.

Clock
There is also a speaking digital clock.