Keyboard Awareness Activities

Keyboard Awareness Keyboard Exploratory Example File:  Ms. Mason - abc Smilies (;-) What does the emoticon :-) mean? Example File:  Ms. Mason - smilies Instructions Interested in learning more about smilies?  More Microsoft Word Exercises

Keyboard Awareness

The following link has a good overview to help your child learn the keyboard and important keys.  This website is not a game, nor is it a self-directed activity.  Please work through the examples and information with your child.

• Keyboard Layout and Familiarity

Keyboard Exploratory

This activity introduces the various parts of the keyboard and has the student complete a Microsoft Word document using various parts of the keyboard.  It is appropriate for grades 1 -3.

1. Open Microsoft Word on the Desktop.
2. Shift Key: Type your first and last name on the first line.  Capitalize your name using the SHIFT key.
3. Enter Key: Press the Enter Key once to get to the next line.
4. Hyphens "-" or Slashes "/":  Type the Date on the next line including the Month, Day and Year with slashes or hyphens between the numbers, for example: 1-31-2008 or 2/1/2008.
5. Enter Key:  Press the Enter Key twice; once to start a new line, the second to skip a line.
6. Lowercase Letters:  type all letters in alphabetical order from a to z, press the Enter Key after the "z" to skip a line for the next set of letters.
7. CAPS LOCK:  Press the Caps Lock Key.  Did you notice the light on your keyboard.  Press the Caps Lock key a couple of times.  What other keys do you think cause lights to show up?  Press them if you can find them?
8. Uppercase Letters:  Press the Caps Lock key and type all the letters in alphabetical order from A to Z.  Turn Caps Lock off at the end and press Enter twice.
9. Symbols and Shift Key:  Find and type as many symbols as you can on the keyboard.  You may need to press the SHIFT key to type some of the symbols.  How many symbols did you find?  Do you know the names for all of them?
10. Period:  Type a short declarative sentence.  (Hint:  A declarative sentence uses a "period" at the end of the sentence.  Press the Enter key twice to skip a line.
11. Exclamation Point:  Type an exclamatory sentence! Then press Enter twice.
12. Question Mark:  What is an interogatory statement?  Can you write one?  Can you guess what it ends with?
13. Commas:  Now, write a short declarative, interogatory or exclamatory statement using at least one comma.
14. Apostrophe's:  Find the "apostrophe" key on the keyboard, and write a statement where the apostrophe can't be left out.
15. Save your file in your teacher's folder.  Check the filename.  It should by your name.  Add a hyphen after your name and the project name of "abc", then click the "Save" button..  For example:  Ms. Mason - abc

Smilies (;-)

The Smilies activity continues to introduce symbols and punctuation keys. It is fun for the kids to see these "funny symbols" in text.

What does the emoticon :-) mean?

The notation :-) is known as a smiley, and means that the statement it follows was intended as humor. Tilt your head to the side if you don't see the smiling face; the  :  is the eyes, the  -  the optional nose, and the  )  the mouth. 

Instructions

Pick at least 5 simlies :-)  (emoticons) and create a short story (one paragraph long) using the smilies.

Interested in learning more about smilies? 

• The First Smiley
• Wikipedia: Emoticon
• Get Writing by BBC: Graphical and Text Versions explained.
• And finally, proper use of smilies or emoticons in written and online communication....

More Microsoft Word Exercises

• Font Race
• ABC in Word