Using the Mouse

For young children, the mouse will be the primary interface they use with the computer. Although most do not have any difficulty correlating the movement of the mouse with the movement of the cursor on the monitor (unlike adults!), they do often get confused with clicking, double clicking, and click and drag. This is the introductory lesson in mouse use for a Kindergarten class. It is spread over three days to accomodate short attention spans.

A lesson plan for grade K

By Ralph Wagner

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Learning outcomes

Students will use the mouse to draw lines and shapes in varying colors with a draw/paint program.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1.5 hours

Materials/resources

• White paper (enough for each individual in the class)
• Black, red, green markers (enough for each individual)
• Prepared posters or transparencies of pencil icon and color menu from the draw/paint program you will be using.
• Picture books on mice, shapes, letters, numbers (teacher’s choice--optional)

Technology resources

Computer with mouse

Draw/paint program (KidPix preferred but ClarisWorks, MECC Easy Painter, etc. will be fine)

LCD display, EIKI, or any monitor projection device.

Pre-activities

(See activities below for tie-in)

Day 1 (in classroom) Classroom teacher reads appropriate “mouse” book of his/her choice. Any book is acceptable. The choice is dependent upon whether the teacher would like to extend the computer mouse lesson into a classroom biological or story mouse lesson.

Day 3 (in classroom) Classroom teacher will read counting book, shape book, or alphabet book appropriate to his/her curriculum goals of the moment.

Activities

Day 1 (in lab) Hold up computer mouse and elicit discussion on similarities/differences with a real mouse. Some sample questions might be: “How is this mouse like the one in your story? How is it different?”. Pass the mouse for students to examine. Gauge pre-knowledge by asking if students know what a computer mouse is used for. Demonstrate mouse/cursor correspondence using monitor projection (or with students gathered around monitor). Let several students handle the mouse. Other students can provide directions--i.e. “Make the cursor go up, down, left, right, etc.”. If time permits, let each student practice moving a mouse on the mouse pad with the computers turned off. Stress that the mouse pad is the mouse’s “home,” and that he never leaves his house. (Note: while demonstrating mouse movement, you may wish to show how to make a movement across the screen by picking up the mouse and placing it down.

Adults, who often equate the pad with the monitor screen, have difficulty with this, but children usually do not. It is not a central part of this lesson, however, and I have found that most children will intuitively reposition the mouse)

Day 2 (in lab) Preload KidPix (or your draw/paint) program on a computer with screen projection capability and have paper and markers available for each student. Demonstrate making a line using the mouse. Important: verbalize each step and use correct terminology. “Use the mouse to put the cursor on the pencil icon. Click the mouse button to select the pencil. Let go of the mouse button. Move the pencil cursor to the middle of the screen.”
Demonstrate drawing a line. Again, verbalize the steps: “Click and hold down the mouse button. Make a line. Let go of the button and put the pencil cursor somewhere else. Click and hold the button. Make a line.” Repeat the above steps and have the children explain what you are doing at each step.

Demonstrate changing color. Do not forget to verbalize!

Pass out markers and paper to students. Post the blow-ups of the pencil icon and the color menu in front of the room. Direct the students in the activity. As the instructor points to the pencil icon, students are to hold up a black marker. As the instructor (and students) say, “Click,” students are to uncap the markers. As instructor and students say, “Let go,” they move the markers over the papers. As instructor and students say, “Click and drag,” they are to make a line on the paper. When the instructor points to a new color, students are to exchange markers (”Click” cap the current marker and uncap the new marker). Continue activity and circulate through room to observe that students are following directions.

Day 3 (in lab) Load each computer with KidPix or draw/paint program and have the application running when students arrive. As students sit at the computers, give them time to practice moving the mouse and watching the corresponding cursor movement. Emphasize “no clicking” at this time, just moving and watching. You may wish to give them some directions, i.e. “Move the cursor in a circle. Make it go back and forth.”

Finally, guide children as in the previous activity, except that this time they will have a mouse instead of a marker. Again, use the blow-ups and verbalizations. As children gain confidence and facility with the mouse, instructions can become more complex and individualized, “Draw a red circle. Make a blue square. Draw a yellow 2. Make an orange s.” This will depend upon the book the classroom teacher has read in class and should reinforce his/her curricular objectives.

An added bonus: As children become proficient, their “exercises” can be saved and put together in a slide show for parents; i.e., one child could make squares of various colors, another could make different sized and different colored letters, etc.

Assessment

Students produce lines of various colors by moving the mouse in a draw/paint program.

Supplemental information

None

Related websites

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Comments

I realize that this lesson plan is probably longer and more detailed than most for such a simple skill. However, not all students are familiar with a mouse/computer interface, and for most kindergartners, the mouse will be their main interface. I feel that giving them a solid base in this simple manipulative skill will give them the confidence necessary to tackle more complex skills later on. And it will certainly give them the ability to navigate the icon-driven programs of early childhood software.