This book is dedicated to keyboarding and typing teachers everywhere.For it is you who teach our students the most important computer skill

they will ever learn––the ability to type!

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MORE GAMES KEYBOARDING TEACHERS PLAYISBN 0-9721331-9-4

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A Collection of More Creative Games, Activities, and Instructional Strategies to Liven Any Keyboarding

Classroom

Michael Gecawich, Editor

Published byBusiness Education Publishing, Inc.P.O. Box 8558, Warwick, RI 02888

U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

This book, More Games Keyboarding Teachers Play, is a follow-up to the #1 selling keyboarding reference book, Games Keyboarding Teachers Play. With over 10,000 copies in print, Games Keyboarding Teachers Play has inspired and motivated thousands of keyboarding teachers and their students alike.

More Games Keyboarding Teachers Play includes even more games, activities, and strategies that will make teaching and learning keyboarding an interactive, fun experience for classrooms across America. This book will help keyboarding teachers take the day-to-day monotony out of learning how to type. The ideas in this book will spark new energy and spirit in your classroom. The games and activities have been carefully selected to offer students a variety of methods in which to learn. From keyboarding clocks to hang gliders, students will be creatively challenged to improve their keyboarding speed and accuracy skills.

So dive right in and start using the ideas found in this book in your keyboarding classroom today!

KEYBOARDING GAMESHow to Turn Your Keyboarding Classroom into a Bingo Hall ....................2The Name Game ..........................................................................................5The Keyboarding Triple Challenge ..............................................................6It’s Trivial Things that Make Keyboarding Fun ..........................................8The Jumbled Keys Game ...........................................................................10A Keyboarding Wiz-Quiz ..........................................................................11Keyboarding with Cryptograms .................................................................13Words from Words .....................................................................................15The Keyboarding Spelling Bee ..................................................................16Sidewalk Chalk ..........................................................................................17Game Show Letters ....................................................................................19School Staff Typing Contest ......................................................................21Name-That-Tune ........................................................................................23Making the Slate With Proofreader’s Marks .............................................24The Guessing Game ...................................................................................26ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIESOh Henry! ..................................................................................................28Key to Your Imagination ............................................................................31“Keying in” to American Patriotism ..........................................................33A “Pen” and a “Pal” ...................................................................................35Proof-Reeds and Spell-Chequers ...............................................................36How Do You Say, “I Love You?” ...............................................................38Keyboarding to Support Our Armed Forces ..............................................40Hinky Pinky Rhymes .................................................................................41Keyboarding Word Association .................................................................43Video Game Keyboarding ..........................................................................45Do You Know Your Name? .......................................................................46Christmas Keyboarding .............................................................................47A Keyboarding “Gem” ...............................................................................48

CONTENTS

CONTENTS CONTINUED

IDEAS THAT ACTIVATE & MOTIVATEGood Hands Go Home ...............................................................................52How to Use T-accounts in Keyboarding ....................................................53Make Your Own Timed Writing Stopwatchusing Microsoft PowerPoint® ....................................................................54What’s Your Resolution? ...........................................................................57Typing Stand Motivators ............................................................................59Pop Your Keyboarding Skills .....................................................................61Most Improved Keyboarder .......................................................................62Start Your Engines .....................................................................................63Bonus Bytes ...............................................................................................64BULLETIN BOARDSAnother Keyboarding Brick in the Wall ....................................................68Bloopers Bulletin Board Encourages Proofreading ...................................70A Pudding Keyboard ..................................................................................71Use “My” & “I” for Good Keyboarding Techniques .................................72Falling into Good Keyboarding Habits ......................................................73How Far Can You Soar?.............................................................................74The Keyboarding Letter Clock ..................................................................76Be a Keyboarding Star ...............................................................................77A PowerPointfully Keyboard .....................................................................79DRILL & PRACTICE ACTIVITIESUse Word Count for a Quick Progress Monitor .........................................82Doing the Twist ..........................................................................................83Lefty Righty ...............................................................................................85Decoding the Symbols ...............................................................................87“Spread” the Words ....................................................................................88How to Get to Sesame Street .....................................................................90POSTURE, TECHNIQUE & FINGER PLACEMENT ACTIVITIESTouchy-Feely Backspacing ........................................................................92Fishing for Number Keys ...........................................................................93Non-Slipping Keyboards ...........................................................................94Keyboarding Technique Test ......................................................................95Box Tops for Covers ..................................................................................97Team Techniques ........................................................................................98Keyboarding Self-Evaluation .....................................................................99Keyboarding Technique Picture Cubes ....................................................101

16

Objective:To give students additional keyboarding reinforcement by conducting a spelling bee

Materials Needed:A list of spelling words

Time Required:Approximately one class period

Procedure:

A spelling bee is a great way to add excitement and variety to a keyboarding class. Note: Prior to using this activity, the students need to have learned all the letter keys.

Here’s how it works:

Before holding your keyboarding spelling bee, prepare a list of words that the students will spell and type. The list should begin with easy spelling words and progressively get more diffi cult (as is the case with traditional spelling bees). Announce to the class that they will participate in a keyboarding spelling bee. Before the class begins the spelling bee, be sure that the auto-correct feature, found in most word processing programs, is turned off. To start the spelling bee, the teacher reads the fi rst word in the list. The students must type and spell the dictated word correctly within a designated timeframe such as fi ve seconds. After reading the fi rst word, have students run their spell checkers. Any student who did not spell the word correctly is eliminated from the spelling bee competition. Continue this pattern until a keyboarding spelling bee champion is crowned.

Contributor:The editors of Teaching Business Education Newsletter

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The Keyboarding Spelling Bee

28

Objective:To give students practice in using the formatting features of word processing software and to add some sugar-sweet fun to any keyboarding classroom

Materials Needed:Copies of the “Oh Henry!” story shown on page 30A variety of bite-size candy bars

Time Required:Approximately one class period

Procedure:

Distribute a copy of the “Oh Henry!” story on page 30 to each student in your keyboarding or word processing class. Have each student key the story into a blank word processing document. After the story has been keyed, have students apply the following formatting changes to their documents:

1. Center, bold, and underline the title 2. Bold all words that are the names of candy bars (Hint: There are 12) 3. Change the font of the second paragraph to Comic Sans (you can substitute a different font if Comic Sans is not available on your computer) 4. Center and italicize the last line (“The End” is the last line) 5. Change the font size of the last line to 18 points 6. Underline the words “computer” and “computers”

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Oh Henry!

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7. Add a header to the document that includes the student’s name and the current date 8. Proofread the document making sure that there are no typing or spelling errors 9. Save the fi le

Contributor:Danielle Gee, Clearlake Middle School, Cocoa, FL

48

Objective:To provide students with additional keying practice by using birthstone names

Materials Needed:A list of the 12 months and their coordinating birthstone names (provided on the next page)

Time Required:Approximately 20-30 minutes

Procedure:

To break up the day-to-day monotony of textbook drill and practice exercises, try this fun lesson with your keyboarding students. Start the activity by saying a month of the year (start with January) aloud to your students. Ask students whose birthday falls in the month called to stand up. At this point, identify that month’s birthstone name and meaning. Continue this pattern until you have called all 12 months of the year. Then, distribute copies of the handout shown on the next page and have students (using word processing software) key in each month, the birthstone name, and its meaning. For additional fun, have students format the coordinating color of the stone.

Contributor:Sue Hoffman, Business Teacher, Morrisville-Eaton Middle/High School, Morrisville, NY

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A Keyboarding “Gem”

49

Month Birthstone Meaning

January Garnet Constancy

February Amethyst Sincerity

March Aquamarine, Bloodstone Courage

April Diamond, White Sapphire Innocence

May Emerald Love, Success

June Pearl, Moonstone, Alexandrite

Health andLongevity

July Ruby Contentment

August Peridot, Sardonyx Married Happiness

September Sapphire Clear Thinking

October Opal, Tourmaline, Pink Sapphire

Hope

November Topaz, Citrine Fidelity

December Turquoise, Zircon Prosperity

54

Objective:To create an alternate timed writing stopwatch using Microsoft PowerPoint®

Materials Needed:Microsoft PowerPoint® software

Time Required:Approximately 30-60 minutes to create the timed writing stopwatch

Procedure:

It’s happened to every keyboarding teacher––you’re ready to begin a timed writing test only to discover that your stopwatch or timing clock is either missing or not working! Thanks to Microsoft PowerPoint®, you’ll never lose your timed writing stopwatch again. With a little time and effort, you can turn a basic slide show presentation into a visual timed writing stopwatch you’ll use over and over again, and you’ll never misplace it because it sits on your computer hard drive (assuming that your hard drive doesn’t crash). Using PowerPoint® for your timed writing tests allows you to move freely around your classroom and keep your eyes on your students––not your stopwatch.

Steps to create your PowerPoint® Timed Writing Stopwatch:

In this example, the timing test slide show is designed to be used to administer one-minute timed writing tests. However, the time interval can be changed to whatever you desire.

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Make Your Own Timed Writing Stopwatch using Microsoft PowerPoint

55

Step 1:Using Microsoft PowerPoint®, create a new fi le that contains three blank slides.

Step 2:On slide 1, add text that reads “Get ready…” and a clipart image of a stopwatch. See fi gure 1.

Step 3:On slide 2, add text that reads “GO!” and a clipart image of a traffi c light. See fi gure 2.

Step 4:On slide 3, add a clipart image of a stop sign. See fi gure 3.

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Step 5:For slide one, go to the slide transition option and set the advance slide option to automatically after fi ve seconds. This will give students fi ve seconds before each timing test begins. See fi gure 1.

Step 6:For slide two, go to the slide transition option and set the advance slide option to automatically after one minute (or however long you want the timing test to last). See fi gure 2.

Step 7:Now you are ready to run your PowerPoint® timed writing test slide show. When you run the show, slide 1 (the “Get Ready...” slide) screen should appear for fi ve seconds. Then slide 2 (the “Go” slide) should appear. At this point, students begin their timed writing test. After one-minute, slide 3 (the “Stop” screen) will appear signaling you to announce “stop” to conclude the timed writing test.

Simply run the slide presentation show again when you’re ready to give your next timing test.

Variation: You can add a sound to the third slide, such as a bell ringing, to signify the conclusion of each timing test.

Contributor:The editors of Teaching Business Education Newsletter