Easy Typing Lesson

I stole borrowed this idea from a fellow computer teacher in the district.  She was trying to come up with a fun lesson that had the kids utilize their typing skills. 

I used this lesson during assessment times with my third, fourth and fifth graders.  They had all been sitting at a computer for two hours already and I didn't want them to have to sit through a typing lesson.  I also didn't want to lose the class period to games so this was a good solution.

I had all the students sit at their computers and open a document in Word.

I had them increase their font size to 16 and pick a font that is readable (no wing-dings!).

I set a timer for six minutes and had them start a story.  If they couldn't think of anything, I told them to recap a television show, movie or book but to change the names so the other students didn't know who they were talking about.

After six minutes, we switched computers.  Students added to the story.

We switched again after six minutes to new computers.

The fourth person to write on a story finished it up.

The rules were that the stories had to be appropriate (no guns, nothing mean about other students), that you couldn't change anything anyone else wrote and it had to make sense.

For the most part, the students really enjoyed it.  I have a few students who were upset that their story was "ruined" by other students but, other than that handful, my kids loved this project.  I had many requests to do it the following week.

In a few of my classes that didn't need the supervision, I joined in.  I started a story and then rotated to three other people's stories.

Students were able to print out their stories and take them home.  I found out later that most of the classroom teachers let the students exchange their papers to share their stories since the kids were very curious about other students' stories.

It was a fun way to practice our typing skills.  It also helped make a point about WHY we should learn to type faster and more accurate. . . some kids took six minutes to write a sentence and others were able to complete a paragraph.  I saw the light dawning on a few kids!

~Jennifer~

Two Quick Bulletin Boards

I have two very quick bulletin boards that I have made.

The first is my FYI bulletin board.  It's quick and simple.  Right now I have cyberbullying posters that the kids made inside it.

 

The other bulletin board is my "Internet Safety Pledge" bulletin board.  I borrowed ideas from several different sources and put them all together on this one.  The rules are basic safe internet rules. 

 

I also have these printed on paper to send home with kids.   They, and their parents, sign it and send it back to school.

~J~

 

Another Typing Bulletin Board

Typing is a huge part of my curriculum and I require the kids to do it right.  We practice with the home row and I have become somewhat of a tyrant, walking the rows and correcting posture and finger placement.  A week hasn't gone by without someone asking me WHY they need to learn how to type.  I came up with this bulletin board for the last quarter of this year.

Most of the clip art is from word and I had our school's copy center enlarge these to 18 inches wide.  There is one piece of clip art that I found on Google Images under the "free" heading.

I don't have pdf's to offer of these (yet. . .)  The lighting in my room is bad so they are hard to read in this photograph.  You have:

1.  Most teachers require papers to be typed
2.  It's easy to make your writing more interesting with WORD.
3.  Proofreading is easier.  Editing is much faster.
4.  Many businesses require resumes to be submitted online.
5.  Most careers require typing skills
6.  Spell check and Grammar Check
7.  Social networking is much more fun if you can type.
8.  The average handwriting speed is 22 words per minute.  The average typing speed is 40 words per minute.
9.  Some teachers require assignments to be submitted online.
10.  Colleges offer online courses.  You will have to type your assignments, submit them and interact with others online.

I changed my bulletin boards over spring break and was too lazy to increase my bulletin board borders so that's why there are four outside the bulletin board and six inside. 

If I did it again, I wouldn't enlarge these quite as much.  Smaller would be better and they would all fit!

Computer Lab Rules

I had a hard time finding a list of rules that included all that I was looking for.  I ended up making my own poster.  I used Word to do it and had the UPS Store enlarge it for me.

 

The red background to the bulletin board is fabric. . . doesn't it look nice?!?!  It's a trick I got from another teacher.  It's reusable, doesn't fade and the pattern is awfully cool!

Here is the pdf for this poster:  https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B16-yXQgUQ7hV2NIWlNLN2RDWHc/edit   Feel free to use it but please don't sell it!  I got a lot of the rule ideas online and the clip art is all from Word.  The "Bits and Bytes" theme I also found online and borrowed.  I wish I could say it was mine but I'm not that smart!

~J~

Extra Large Keyboard Bulletin Board

I found this idea online but put my personal twist on it.

The letters are made with take out boxes.  I bought a sleeve of 100 on Amazon and cut them.  To make the keys longer, I cut the edges off the boxes and used electrical tape to tape them together.  The colors are just colored cardstock.  I bought a pack of paper at Michaels for $3.33 and sent the cardstock through the printer with a font that I liked (Segoe).  I cut to fit and glued to the top of the boxes.

I glued the keys to a large piece of black paper with hot glue.  I then used push pins between the keys to hold the paper to the wall.

I have received so many compliments on this!  There are a few things I would change. . . first, I would NOT use hot glue to glue the paper to the top of the keys.  It is bumpy and you can tell that I had to layer the paper to get it to cover the larger keys.  Second, I would be a bit more careful gluing the keys to the paper.  The keyboard is a bit wavy and it bothers me.

It has been very helpful.  I'm currently teaching second graders how to type and I'm working on finding letters on the keyboard with first and kindergarteners.

I'd love to see yours when it's done!

~J~

Storing Your Letters

Now that you have all these fantastic letters, how are you going to store them?  I plan on reusing my bulletin boards so I wanted a way to organize them.

This is what I came up with:

This is a large three ring binder.  This is how the letters are stored inside:

I have taken a clear page cover and slipped a piece of paper with the phrase the letters spell out written on it.  I slide the letters inside and they are safe and sound until I want to organize them again.  It's compact, neat and organized.

~J~

Make Your Own Bulletin Board Letters

This is an almost duplicate post from my other blog, Creative Thriftiness.  I had originally posted it there thinking it would be great for scrapbooking or sign making.  I use it for bulletin boards so I am putting it here, where it belongs!
  
I love making my own bulletin board letters.  I also love using the same techniques to make letters for crafting purposes.  I've done this technique for my kiddos and for my Sunday School class.  There's a ton of great uses for this trick!

There are some really great fonts out there.  My favorite site for free fonts is http://www.1001freefonts.com/  The fonts are absolutely free and they have some really cute ones.  They do have outline fonts but I don't like being limited so I look for fonts that would look good outlined.  Pick one and download it.

First step is to type your message in a Microsoft Word Document.  Highlight the entire message and increase your font size to what you want.  If you want to go bigger than 72 (the highest "preselected" choice), click on the font size ribbon and type the number you want.  Hit ENTER and it will be increased to that size.

To outline your letters  highlight them.  (Put your cursor on one side, click with the mouse and drag it to the other side.  It will be  highlighted in blue. )  Select  FONT in the Font Group.  Click where the red arrow is showing.

Click on TEXT EFFECTS in the pop up menu.

On the TEXT FILL menu, select NO FILL.  (Red Arrow).  Click TEXT OUTLINE (blue arrow).

Click SOLID LINE (red arrow).  Select the color you want (blue arrow).  I chose black.

Click on OUTLINE STYLE (red arrow).  I like to pick the line type (blue arrow).  I chose the double line this time.  I also like my lines to be a little thicker. . . I increased the width to 4 pt for this example (green arrow).
Click OK at the bottom of the screen.  Click OK again.

Your letters are outlined!  It depends on what font you use as to how big you have to go.  I start with 200 and have had to go up to 600 for some fonts.  I adjust my margins to NARROW on all sides and print out the letters on cardstock or colored paper.  If your school has a laminating machine, send it through before cutting them out.