Brief Description

Introduce the younger student to the "home row" position of the keyboard with a "special phrase".

Objectives

To introduce the primary student to the basics of keyboarding.

Keywords

Keyboarding

Materials Needed

Computer with keyboard
Paper Keyboard handout - optional

Lesson Plan

1. Introduce the concept of "keyboarding" and the rationale for learning to use the keyboard correctly.

2. Have students place their left hand fingers on "home row" position with the following phrase to help them remember the placement:

   A Silly Dancing Frog

3. Have students place their right hand fingers on the "home row" position with the following phrase:

   Jazzy Kangaroo's Little Semi
   (use semi-truck photo or hot-wheel-type car for describing purposes)

4. After ASDF and JKL; are mastered an option would be to add the pointer finger movement with these words:

   For the f to g movement: A Silly Dancing Frog Giggles
   For the j to h movement:Hits Jazzy Kangaroo's Little Semi

5. Handout - Give students a paper keyboard with the ASDFGHJKL; letters marked. Have students trace their two hands on the bottom of the page. Using crayons, have them color in a letter to match the correct finger for keyboarding technique.

6. Extension - Have the students draw Giggles (the silly dancing frog) and Jazzy (the kangaroo with the little semi-truck) to reinforce the letters.

7. Extension - Bulletin board display of Giggles (A Silly Dancing Frog) and Jazzy (Kangaroo with the Little Semi-truck) pictures drawn by the students

8. Creative Extension - Have students create their own ASDF and JKL; phrases.

9. Continue to reinforce the "home row" positions by having students place their fingers on the keys each time they prepare to do "stories", etc. on the computer.

Assessment

Teacher Observation of students using the ASDF and JKL; placement when typing with the keyboard.

Lesson Plan Source