K



Becoming familiar with the keyboard and being able to quickly find and indentify letters and numbers are essential technology skills for kindergarten students. For the next couple of weeks, we will focus on just that. We will look at images of different types of keyboards and look for similiarities among them. We will also put those keyboards to work as we begin to really develop our typing skills. A wonderful and fun Internet Site called __Dance Mat Typing__ will challenge us to not only become quicker at finding the letters on a keyboard, but we will also begin to learn how to place our hands on the keyboard as well. This will help us to start using two hands, which is a first grade skill.

Pixie is a software program that really allows for student creativity to shine. Students can create pictures by using drawing tools, stickers, and even templates already created. To add even more, students can add text, voice, sound, and transitions to give their projects a multimedia effect.

For this unit, you will first learn how to navigate and use the drawing tools to complete a "color me" template featuring a pond environment. We will first watch a BrainPOP Jr. Movie on freshwater habitats so that we can observe the surroundings around a pond, including plants and animals. Then, we will go to Pixie and show off what we learned about ponds using our imaginations and technology skills.





In kindergarten, the first unit of technology will focus on the different parts of the computer. You will identify the five main parts by their name. You will also learn what each of their jobs are. The links below will help us to learn more about the computer and how to use it safely.

The mouse...



The monitor...

We will learn how to turn the monitor on and off by locating the power button. We will also learn that we can insert our headphones into the monitor and adjust the volume by finding the volume button located on the monitor.

The keyboard...

We will examine the keyboard and pay special attention to the letters and numbers. The letters are not in ABC order, so we will need to use our eyes carefully so that we can learn to find them quickly. Our first task will be to find the letters in our names so that we can log-in to our new software program.

The CPU...

...or the brain of the computer. We will learn how to open up the CD-rom so that we can insert a CD into it. The brain reads the instructions or the program on the CD which then allows us to play the game to help us with our reading skills.

The printer...

We will combine all of the skills that we learned by using the different parts of the computer with this activity. First, we will use our mouse to double-click and open up our work. Second, we will again use our mouse to click and drag an images of each part of the computer to match it's name. Third, we will use our keyboarding skills to type our names and class number on our work. Finally, we will print our work so that we have a paper copy of what we see on our monitor!