// Langwitches Blog

I had a great lesson with our Kindergarten kids (5 year olds) yesterday. Their teachers wanted them to use Microsoft Word in order to type words that belong to the same word family, such as cat, hat, mat, sat, bat, etc.

From my end, I wanted them to:

• Familiarize themselves with the layout of the keyboard
• Familiarize themselves with computer related vocabulary
• Work specifically on the Shift and Enter keys
• Become aware the importance of the position and changes of the cursor

Since my life as a Spanish teacher is not so long gone, I of course am drawing on the power of TPR (Total Physical Response) when I want to introduce new vocabulary. It does not matter if it is in the students’ first or a foreign language.

The Kindergarteners were sitting on the floor watching on the projector screen as I showed them all the ICONS on the screen. I explained to them that these are the little pictures that represent all the different programs. In order to open the programs we needed to DOUBLE CLICK. I had all of them stretch out their hand and then grab it with the other , just as they would a mouse. We then practiced “click, click” with the index finger. Fine motor skills…

All of them had a ball and we doubleclicked high up in the air, on the floor, left, right, on someone’s head, behind the door, under a chair, etc.

So after that we put it to practice and double clicked Word and “miraculously” it opened up. WOWs from all the Kindergarteners.

So now we went on to see what we could find on the empty document. Answers ranged from nothing to arrow to letters. I showed them how to arrow changed when we moved it to an “I” and to a “hand”, depending on where it was pointing to on a screen. I also made them aware of our “BLINKING CURSOR“, someone that they had to keep their eye out for at all times!!!

I then typed in my name “Mrs. Tolisano” and had them keep their eye on the cursor on the screen. Right now it was behind “Mrs. Tolisano”. I picked one of the students to come up front and be our “Blinking Cursor”. He was to use both hands to make a blinking motion and be jumping up and down. Since the blinking cursor was behind “Mrs. Tolisano” he had to stand behind my chair. I then swiveled the chair around and he kept up with me by staying behind me at all times. The kids had a lot of fun with this. I then appointed their classroom teacher to be the “ENTER” key. I pushed her gently and she then automatically moved the “Blinking Cursor”student away from “Mrs. Tolisano” and to the next line.

After that everyone went to their own computers and double clicked happily away…

I wonder if someone already has come up with a play or a skit for introducing computer terms and keyboard shortcuts to lower elementary school students? Anyone up for it?