Q: my screen is locked and i cannot slide to unlock. Please help

Click on the sleep key in the top of iPad 10sec

First click on the slide 2click

Do a hard restart:   

hold the power button and the home button down together until the device shows the apple symbol again (hold it past the actual red slider and black screen).   When you see the Apple symbol come up, release both buttons.

where is the sleep key?

where is the homme button?

The home button is the button on the front of the iPad below the screen, the sleep button (also known as on/off or sleep/wake) is on the top edge of the iPad.

cant find it KP I am looking at a blank sceen right now on the top in the middle it says slide to turn off and at the bottom it says cancel ut I see no home button

Below the screen, not on the screen :

Many thanks for the advice.

thank you king penquin! you are the only one who has explained this properly,i have searched the internet for an answer, i was holding down the wrong buttons! you made it so easy to understand even for an old lady like me ...thank you. jenny

thank you for your post Soto

Thank u king_penguin u helped me also in solving my ipad2 problem....

i did this and it doesn't unlock.  I can't turn it off or force quit. Nothing is working.

After doing the soft-reset/ reboot and the iPad has rebooted, what do you see on the iPad's screen ?