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This tutorial will take you through all of the steps involved in setting up and taking attendance.

The first time that you use the attendance program you will:

1. Enter Your Students' Names
2. Choose Settings
3. Take Attendance

Simply type your class list into the student editor and you will be ready to take attendance. You can use the same class list in all of the attendance themes, so if you purchased more than one theme, you only have to enter students once.

The student editor is accessed from the Tools Home page. Click on STUDENTS to enter the student editor.


Type in your students' names and then click the Save button. The Last Name and Assigned Groups fields are optional. Note: You can use Groups to define different classes if you have more than one class. Please see the How to Create Groups instructions for more details.

Now that you have entered your students, you are ready to go to the attendance program and choose your settings.

First you must choose your attendance theme. Go to the Tools Home page and click on CHOOSE TOOL. Next click on Attendance to enter the theme selection page and now choose your theme. In this example I have chosen the Monsters theme.


You will be taken to the settings screen for the monsters theme.


Here you will select your students, optionally change their characters and optionally set up lunch count.

How to Change Characters
On the settings page in each attendance theme, you have the option to choose the characters for your students. A default character is automatically assigned to each student but you can change the characters by clicking on the Change Characters button on the settings screen.


A screen will pop up that will show you which character is assigned to each student. To change a character for a student, simply click on a student and then choose a new character from the options that are given. Click the Done button when you are finished and you will be taken back to the settings page. The characters that you choose will be remembered so you only have to do this one time.

How to Set Up Lunch Count
On the settings page, click on the box for lunch count and then choose the number of options that you would like. You can create up to 6 lunch count options.


Enter a name for each option. You can optionally chose a picture by clicking on the picture icon that appears when your cursor is in the name edit box. To remove a picture, click the delete icon that appears when your cursor is in the name edit box. To choose a color for the option box, click on the color circle and choose a new color from the options given.

You are now ready to take attendance!

Click the Start button to start the attendance program. Your settings will be saved so that the next time you use this theme you won't have to choose settings again unless you want to make a change.

How to Take Attendance with a Lunch Count
Each student drags their character to their lunch choice. When the character is dropped, the student’s name appears in the box. A running total is displayed at the bottom of each box.



For students that have trouble dragging, they can touch their character and then touch the lunch choice box and the character will automatically move to the lunch choice box.

To remove a student from a lunch choice box, click on the student name and their character will reappear at its starting position. The student can then be moved to a different lunch choice box.

How to Take Attendance without Lunch Count
Each student touches their character and the character exits the screen. Depending on the theme, the characters exit in different ways such as waddling, jumping, swimming or flying. The students that remain on the screen are away that day.


If a student accidentally touches the wrong character, you can press the undo button at the bottom left of the screen.

This is the end of the tutorial. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at melissa@pinkcatstudio.com.

Use the Groups option if you have more than one class. From the Tools Home page, click on Groups.


Click on the Add Group box to create a new group.


Give the group a name and change the picture if you like. Click the Done button when you are finished.


To assign students to a group, from the Tools Home page, click on STUDENTS. Enter your students’ names if you haven’t already done so and then choose a group from the Assigned Groups drop down for each student. Click the Save button when you are finished assigning groups. When you take attendance, you will be able to choose a group on the settings page.

To gain access to a product that you downloaded from TPT School Access, first create an account on pinkcatstudio.com if you don't already have one.
Next copy the text below, paste it into an email and fill in the required information. Then send the email to info@pinkcatstudio.com and we will give you access to the product within 24 hours. If you have downloaded multiple products, be sure to list all of the Item IDs for the products that you downloaded.

Hello,
I downloaded a product through TPT School Access. Here is the information you need in order to grant me access to the product.
Item ID:
First Name:
Last Name:
School Name:

To gain access to your purchase from TPT you must do the following:

1. Get the Order ID and the Item ID from your TPT Invoice.
2. Log in to your Pink Cat Studio account or create a new account.
3. Add the item that you purchased to your Pink Cat Studio account.

• Log in to the Teachers Pay Teachers website.
• Click on your name in the top right corner and then choose My Purchases.



• Find the product in the list of your purchases. Click on the words Printable Receipt to see your receipt.



• Your receipt will look similar to this picture. Take note of your Order ID and Item ID.

You will see a thank you page that asks you to log in or create a new account. If you do not already have a Pink Cat Studio or a Pink Cat Games account, click on the Create Account button. It only takes a minute to create an account.

On the Add a Product page, enter the Order ID and the Item ID from your TPT invoice.

If you have purchased multiple licenses, each person should create their own account on PinkCatStudio.com and then each person should add the product to their account using the same Order ID and Item ID that is on the TPT invoice.

After the product is added, you can find it on your My Purchases page. Simply click on the attendance picture to start the program and take attendance.

If you have purchased multiple licenses for an attendance theme, tool, or subscription, each person should create their own account on PinkCatStudio.com and then each person should add the product to their account using the same Order ID and Item ID that is on the TPT invoice.
Have each person follow the steps outlined in the answer to the question "How do I access a product that I purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers?".

The main benefit of an attendance subscription is that you will have access to all current attendance themes on the website as well as new themes as we add them.
A subscription can be purchased through our Teachers Pay Teachers store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pink-Cat-Studio/Search:Int-Att.

We sell our attendance themes and subscriptions in our Teachers Pay Teachers store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pink-Cat-Studio/Search:Int-Att.

Run the attendance or tool on the Pink Cat Studio website and then project your screen onto your whiteboard.

If touch or drag and drop are not working on your interactive whiteboard, the most likely cause is that the settings for your board are not correct. Note: If you board comes with a pen, try using the pen to interact with the screen.

The first thing to do is to check if touch works on any other websites. Go to a website other than pinkcatstudio.com and try using touch and drag and drop on your interactive whiteboard to determine if it is working. If it is not, please contact your technical support person and let them know about the issue so they can try to resolve it. Be sure that your technician checks that you have the latest software update for your board.

If touch and drag and drop are working on other websites but not pinkcatstudio.com, then there are a few other things you can try.

If you are using Chrome, please try the following:
Close the Chrome browser, be sure all instances of Chrome are closed. Disconnect your interactive whiteboard from your computer. Restart your computer and then connect your interactive whiteboard. Then open Chrome, only after you have connected your interactive whiteboard to your computer.

If Chrome still doesn't work with touch, please try using Microsoft Edge if you have a PC or Safari if you have a Mac.

If touch still doesn't work after you have tried everything above, please contact me at melissa@pinkcatstudio.com and I will try to help further. In your email please state if it is touch or drag and drop that is not working or both. Please also list all of the solutions you have tried.

The ability to upload images for lunch count is a feature of the Teacher Tools Subscription. If you have purchased a single theme from our TPT store, then it does not have the ability to upload images.

If you have purchased a subscription, do the following to upload images into lunch count:
On the attendance settings page where you set up your lunch count, click the picture icon to add a picture for a lunch choice. The image gallery will appear and in the top right corner, the words "Add Image" will appear. Click on Add Image and choose a picture from your computer.

Some schools/districts block access to new websites by default and require approval to unblock them. If you are unable to access the www.pinkcatstudio.com website from your classroom computer, you will need to put in a request for access with your administration. This process typically takes a few days. If you think that you may also play the educational games offered on the PinkCatGames.com website, it would be best to request that both pinkcatstudio.com and pinkcatgames.com be unblocked. While you are waiting for the website to be approved you can use your home computer to add your class list to your account and choose the settings for the theme that you plan to use. Then when the website is available at your school, you will be ready to take attendance without any further setup.

We welcome all suggestions! Please email us with your ideas or requests at info@pinkcatstudio.com. We’d love to hear suggestions for how to make the website work better for your classroom needs. Or if you have a request for a type of game, clip art pictures, audio words or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

There are many benefits to having the attendance on a website over the old downloadable Flash format:

1. The attendance will work on any device including computers, interactive whiteboards and tablets.
2. You only have to enter your student list one time and it will be available in all of the themes that you have purchased.
3. You will have immediate access to any updates or new features that we add to the program.
4. Your account is shared between PinkCatStudio.com and PinkCatGames.com so you only have to enter your student list one time.
5. Attendance settings are automatically saved so that you can quickly get started taking attendance each day.
6. It is much easier to get started as there is no unzipping and installing required. The downloadable files were difficult to open for some people as unzipping and enabling Flash were often required and were sometimes confusing.
7. Flash will soon no longer be supported by browsers as the new HTML5 format has become the standard. Our new HTML5 attendance program is keeping up with technology.

Yes! If you have purchased an attendance product from our TPT store, you can add it to your PinkCatStudio.com account and start enjoying the new features right away.