Lesson Plan - Keyboarding For The Very Young

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http://www.nailitnow.com.au/typingtutorlicence/previewlessonplans/childrenprint.html

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4


	Lesson 1	<< Back

In this lesson, students learn the LEFT side Home keys and G, backspace key and space bar

Time: 30 minutes (can be split into two 15-minute lessons)

Materials (Lessons 1 and 2)

Procedure

Seat the students in a semi-circle around the LEFT side keyboard on the floor

Have a short discussion about the four color keys. What are the letters? What row are they on? How many fingers do you have on your LEFT hand and how many color keys are there on the LEFT side of the keyboard? OK, so what finger types A? S? D? F?

The ASDF keys are so important they have a name. Why are they called the Home keys? You leave home to come to school and, then, you go back home. Your four fingers leave ASDF to type a letter and, then, come back home to ASDF

The F key is special. It has a little something extra to help you place your fingers on the Home keys. Here, you could pass around a laptop and let the students feel the "bump" on the F key

Replace ASDF on the keyboard with Animals, Snow, Dig and Food. ASDF is hard to remember, so we are going to say aloud "Animals in the Snow Dig for Food". You could say here that many animals eat grass and, in the snow, they would have to dig for food

Choose four students to be the first four "fingers" and stand on ASDF, with the F finger leading the way. Choose two more students to be the backspace key and space bar, to be called upon when needed

Have the class say aloud "Animals in the Snow Dig for Food" and, this time, have each of the four "fingers" jump when they say their association word. The rest of the class can tap out the keys on cardboard or laminated keyboards. Do this 10 times. You will be amazed at how quickly they remember the keys

NOW, WE START "TYPING". The first word is "add". When you call out A, the A finger jumps and you write A on the whiteboard. Then, call out D and D. If a finger makes a mistake, call on the backspace finger to jump on the backspace key and, then, sit down

In turn, choose four more sets of four fingers to type the words: as dad fad sad. At the end of each word, have the space bar finger jump on the space bar and, then, sit down

AT THIS POINT, you can end this lesson and, in the next lesson, refresh the above and, then, finish the lesson below

But, wait, there's another letter in the middle row and we don't have any more fingers on our LEFT hand. So, how do we type G? The special Food finger does double the work (groan) and moves over to G

Replace G on the keyboard with Grass. Have the class say aloud "Animals in the Snow Dig for Food like Grass" and have each finger jump when they say their association word. The Food finger moves over to G and, then, back to F. Do this 10 times. It would be good to give the Food finger a reward because he/she is doing double the work

NOW, WE START "TYPING". The first word is "gag". When you call out G, the Food finger moves over to G and, then, back to F. You write G on the whiteboard and, then, call out A and G

In turn, choose two more sets of four fingers to type the words: gas sag

Suggested homework:

Give the students a sheet of paper with the words A...... in the S... D.. for F... like G.... and have them fill in the blanks. If they have a computer at home, they could use the F "bump" key to place their fingers on the Home keys and, then, type ASDFG 10 times

For all computer work, we strongly recommend placing removable adhesive dots on the alpha keys to prevent students looking at the keys. The added advantage is that teachers and parents don't need to continually monitor students' keyboard work. The "bump" F and J keys should be colored to help students place their fingers correctly

Comments:

In Lesson 2, students learn the top and bottom rows of the LEFT side of the keyboard using quirky association words

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