Keys to computing the alphabet

This lesson gives the students practice in locating the alphabet on the computer keyboard, using the space bar, printing their product, and finally, using these printed letters to make words.

A lesson plan for grade K Computer/Technology Skills, English Language Arts, and Information Skills

By Jessie Smith

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Related topics

• Learn more about alphabet, keyboarding, language arts, phonemic awareness, technology skills, and word processing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• demonstrate an understanding of the location of the letters on the keyboard by typing all 26 letters of the alphabet in correct order.
• show an understanding of the space bar on the keyboard by putting at least one space between each letter of the alphabet.
• demonstrate the relationship of letters to words by cutting out the letters that they have printed and placing these in correct order to spell at least three color words.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 minutes

Materials/resources

• paper
• scissors
• glue
• crayons

Technology resources

computers with a word processor and a printer

Pre-activities

Give students time to play with the keyboard by allowing them time to locate the letters in their names and then type them.

Activities

1. Teacher should lead a discussion to determine the knowledge level of the students. She/he should ask questions such as: “What is the name of this computer part? What does it do? What will you find located on the keyboard? Is the alphabet in order on the keyboard? Does anyone know why not? Are all the letters on the keyboard? Can anyone find the letter a? How about b? c?” etc.
2. Ask, “Does anyone know what the long bar at the bottom does?” Have the students push this bar a few times to see what happens. Explain that this is a space bar and that we should use our thumbs to push it. Every time we hit it with our thumbs it moves over a space just like in writing when we put a space between letters.
3. The teacher next explains that today we will practice locating the alphabet in the correct order and we will practice typing these. What do I mean by correct order? If it is necessary allow the students to say the alphabet orally and remind them that these letters are posted on the wall, but they should try to do these without looking. We also want to use our spacing key today. Every time you type a letter, push the space bar with your thumb. This will make a space between your letters. (Show the students a printed copy). Explain that we need the space between the letters because we are going to cut out these letters after we print them and make words.
4. The students should type their alphabet several times and then print them. I would not do any capital letters today.
5. The teacher should assist the students as they need help. This means that the teacher will probably have to do all of the printing, but she should show the students what she is doing as she prints each one.
6. After the students print their pages, give them scissors, glue, and a piece of construction paper.
7. Discuss how words are made. Tell them that you would like for them to make at least three color words for you. What are color words? Can you tell me the letters in one of the color words? Is it important to put the letters in a particular order? Somewhere in the room the color words should be posted for children that are not ready to do this on their own, but encourage all students to try without this assistance.
8. After the students have formed their words, ask them to use their crayons to color the word whatever the color is. For example, color the word red with a red crayon. You could vary this by getting the children to draw an object that is usually that color.

Assessment

• The teacher will assess each child’s alphabet for correct alphabetical order and also for at least one space between each letter. If any are incorrect, the student must redo the activity. This assessment must be made immediately after the page is printed because the students will be cutting up these pages.
• The students will also be assessed by the number of color words they have written correctly and the understanding that they show by coloring these words with the correct color.

Supplemental information

Comments

In our school, all grades display things that they have produced on the computer. We feel that it is important for our kindergarten students to use the keyboard to produce stories but that they need to work up to this process.
We also have a keyboarding device called Dreamwriters in our school. With this system, we have 30 keyboards and a printer. The keyboards are battery operated and much smaller. These are taken into the classroom and seem to work better for some of our younger classes. This is the keyboarding process that we used for this activity.