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Rules and Tools 1. Go to: http://www.crews.org/curriculum/ex/compsci/keyboarding/questions.htm 2. Read the information about the keyboard and correct typing techniques. 3. When you are finished reading the information, answer the following questions on a sheet of paper. 1. Why are the keys all mixed up?
2.
What letters are associated with the home row keys? 4. When was the first keyboard invented? 5. List 2 tips for better posture/technique at the computer. 6. List 1 of the less intense postures/technique positions.
7.
What is the magic behind good typing ability? |
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Twenty-five Read the list of words below. Combine any three, or more, words into a phrase. Make as many phrases as you can, but try for at least 20. You can use the words more than once. In each phrase, underline the words from the list.
Aqua
Example: The
giraffe’s neck is a polka-dotted icicle. |
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Alphabet Antics For each letter of the alphabet, type a word that fits into the given category. You have four categories to choose from, you must choose two categories and create two lists. Categories:
Names of Animals |
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Newspaper Headlines For each letter of your first and last name, create a newspaper headline, story title or advertisement sign. Then, make a headline or title using the first names of all of your classmates. Make the first letter of each word BOLD.
Example:
An
Unusual Dog Ran Early Yesterday |
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Sounds Listen carefully. Type all of the sounds you hear. Go! Examples:
Click, boom, shhhh, buzz |
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Alphabet Soup Assignment Directions Create an alphabet listing about something that you like or someone who is important to you. Type the first letter of each section in parenthesis ( ) and then type the sentence or phrase that goes with it. For the title use a nice font that matches your topic, size 20. For the rest, use size 14 in the font of your choice. Make sure it is readable. Do not allow any sentence to be more than one line of type. Be creative and have fun!!
Example: |
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Dinosaur Endurance Exercise
The names of dinosaurs are very long
and will give you a chance to test your endurance in keying long
words without hesitating between letters.
Adapted from: http://lessonplans.btskinner.com/kbdino.html |
Story Starters
INSTRUCTIONS STORY
STARTER ONE STORY
STARTER TWO STORY
STARTER THREE Sitting close to Mother was Miranda, a tomboy. Miranda was a spry six year old who loved running and skipping jump rope, baseball, soccer and collecting rocks. She knew no fear. Wherever there was any excitement around the school or neighborhood, Miranda was in on it. Miranda was sitting close to her mother because that was the only condition under which Mrs. James would agree to get in the boat. "I'm not going to get turned over with you horsing around," Mother firmly explained. "If I go, you have to promise that you'll sit quietly the whole time we're on the lake." Father chuckled. Miranda agreed and so the family tried out the new boat. It was a pleasant day. The sky was almost cloudless and the spring sun was still far away from the earth to give comfortable warmth. "What's that long snake doing in the water?" Little Joe pointed as he asked. "A snake, let me see!" Miranda jumped up at the same time she squealed the words. Mother had no time to stop her. Miranda ran to Joe and leaning over the side of the boat pushed her hand into the water. The sudden movement made the boat wobble throwing Miranda overboard.
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Story Marathon Students start typing a story about a crazy situation. I give them two minutes to type what they can. At that time, when the bell goes off, they have to switch (like musical chairs) to a different computer and read the story started by their classmate (give them about a minutes to read at least the preceding paragraph or two) and then I time again for two minutes. We continue this several times. Then, have the students assigned to each computer return to their starting station, complete the story, and proofread for errors.
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Stop the Music
Purpose
Procedure
Students should have their computer set for double-spacing and understand that since they are composing, format is not important. Proper spelling and grammar are, however, so allow backspace for correction. At the same time the teacher gives the signal to begin, music on a tape or CD should be turned on. At the teacher's discretion, the music will be stopped. When the music stops, each student should move from his/her machine to the machine next to him/her (on the same row). When the music starts again, students should continue the stories. This process continues for as long as the teacher desires, but is suggested that a minimum of two minutes be given for composing. Before the last time, the teacher should warn the students that this will be the last time and they must effectively terminate the story that is on their computers before the music stops again. The winning team is the one, which, in the teacher's opinion, submits the most entertaining and interesting story. It is recommended that the winning story either be posted on the bulletin board or be read to the class by the teacher.
Variations |
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Think or Sink
Purpose
Procedure
Essays should be written in the student's own words with no outside assistance (other people, internet, etc.) and should be proofread before they are printed.
Variations |
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Typing Football Purpose:
Preparation:
Procedure: You are now ready to play. It is suggested that the game by played in lieu of speed or accuracy timings on a daily basis, five to seven minutes each day, and continued for several weeks, or as long as interest remains high. However, if desired, the game may be played completely within one class period. This is an excellent activity on the last day before Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation. Play begins with students taking a timed writing on paragraph material selected by the teacher from the text, and then computing their speeds. Both teams begin on the 50-yard line facing their goal post. Their objective is to carry the ball to their goal post area and score a touchdown. They will "tackle" each other on the basis of their typing speed (or speed and accuracy if the teacher desires). The use of one-minute timings is suggested; but if the teacher is accustomed to giving longer timed writings, these may also be used. If you wish to use a sentence rather than a paragraph (and to speed the game along), then it may be wise to use a shorter time period (30 seconds, for example). Students are selected randomly and, depending on the goal of the teacher, compete on the basis of speed or speed and accuracy. Students do not know when they will be called upon to "tackle" the other team, and therefore, always try to do their best on each timing. To keep students "on their toes" and to insure random selection, it is suggested that the teacher use numbers as a guide to selecting the players who will be called upon. Write on slips of paper the numbers corresponding to the numbers assigned to each player. Place these slips of paper in two piles representing the two teams. At the end of each timing the teacher will draw a number from each pile and call out the names of those players whose number corresponds to the number drawn. Should one of the players called be absent, redraw. After each drawing, the number is placed again in the pile. If the game is being played for speed, at the end of each timed writing, the teacher calls out a number of Team A. The player responds with his computed speed. This is repeated for a player on the opposing team. The lower score is subtracted from the higher score and the difference is the number of yards one team can advance from the 50 yard line. For example, if team member A had a speed of 65 and team member B had a speed of 50, Team A would advance on the grid 15 yards toward their goal post. The teacher would show this on the diagram projected on the screen by marking a small x on the diagram and writing the number 35 below the x to indicate the position of the ball. Another timing is then given, and two new players are selected randomly by the teacher. A comparison of typing speeds is made, and the appropriate team advances or retreats from the position in which the ball was during the last play. For example, if team member A has a speed of 20 and team member B has a speed of 30, Team B would advance 10 yards in the direction of its goal post which, in this case, means the ball is now on the 45 yard line. Should both players report the same speed, the ball does not move. Whenever one team scores a touchdown by reaching its goal post, it receives six points on the scoreboard and play resumes with both teams facing each other on the 50 yard line.
Variation: Another variation is to set an accuracy requirement. For example, if the error limit is 2 and one team reports 20 wpm as speed and 1 error and the other team 45 wpm as speed and 4 errors, then the first team would win the faceoff and get their full 20 yards as a reward. Depending on whether you are using a particular software program or not, you may wish to set an accuracy percentage requirement (90%, for example).
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Skills Relay Relay Instructions: Even though this is meant to be a fun contest, you still must be careful when using the computers. Any roughness or carelessness will not be tolerated. Your job will be to follow the instructions attached to your number. You must sit completely in the chair and then type. Then stand up and move as quickly and carefully as possible so that the next student can complete his/her work. The cow jumped OVER the moon. *Note “the” can be any font size but the default, and “moon” can be any font type but the default. THE dish ran away with THE spoon last week. *Note “with” can be any font size but the default, and “away” can be any font type but the default. |
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Partner Typing Pair up the students. Have them sit next to their partner, or even share a chair if they prefer. One person is the right hand and the other is the left and they have to type sentences in a book together. |
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Switch Hands The students cross their left and right hands over each other and try to type sentences in a book. They realize this is very awkward, and then it seems the regular way isn't so bad after all. |
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Type that Tune Play a Christmas CD or just turn on the radio and the students type as much of the song as they can as it is being played. This is pretty hard to do, but the chorus gets easier. |
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Grocery List In a timed typing activity, the students type a grocery list. They may type as many items as they can think of that would be found on a typical grocery list. There must be a line break after each word. The words must be correctly spelled to count. |
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How To... Write directions for how to...(choose from these topics of make up your own topic) Make sure to number each step. Be as detailed as possible. Topics: |
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Row Races We pick sentences in the book and they get in teams of 4-5. They all decide what row they want to type in advance and when I say "go" the person from each team that picked line 1 begins typing. The people who picked line 2 are not allowed to start until they "high five" each other. This goes on until they all have typed a line. Then what ever team gets through the allotted lines the fastest is the winner. |
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Search Quiz
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Typing Poetry
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Making Stationary in Word You are going to make stationary for a holiday or to fit your personality. Format the border of the word document by going to Format, Borders and Shading, click page border tab at top, click down arrow on art and choose a graphic to go around your page, also choose a color then click ok. Now click in the top center of the page, insert a table that is 2 columns, one row. Click table, table properties, borders and shading and click none on lines around the table. Insert a picture from clip art of from the Internet in the first cell of your table. Reduce the size by clicking on the picture then click the corner boxes to drag it down. Rest on the center line of your table until you get a side to side arrow and drag the line as close to your picture as it will go. In the second cell type your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc. ALMOST anything you want to identify you. Now highlight this text and format the font and color to match your text or personal taste. Center your table on the page by using the 4 way arrow in the top left corner of the table. Save this document as “Personal Stationary”. Print this document. |
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Formatting Make this text bold. Make this text italic. Underline this text. Align this text to center. Align this text to right. Make this text red. Change the font style of this text to Arial. Change this text to 18 points. A word in this sentence is spelled rong. Use spell check to fix it. Insert the date and time here: Copy this text: “Microsoft Word is a lot of fun!” Paste the copy here: Cut this text: “Proficiency in Word is just a matter of time!” Paste it here: Change the quote below to 18 points and justify the text. (Justify will make slight alterations to the space between the letters and words, so that all lines are the same length.) It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Highlight this text. Insert a table on the line below this. The table should have 5 columns and 20 rows. The AutoFit behavior should be “Fixed Column Width”. |
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Course Evaluation Please answer the following questions honestly. I want your feedback so that I can continually improve my teaching. I appreciate your opinions. You do not need to put your name on this form.
Thank you! I enjoyed having you in class! |
Word Search
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