For two weeks, grades 1-6 have been learning the basics of word processing–from understanding how to go about telling the computer what they want their text to look like, to what options they have for formatting.  The students really did a great job.

Week One:

I created Jing presentations, showcasing the various options for formatting.  Grades 1-3 watched an OK Writer Jing, and 4-6 watched a Jing for Word.  After that introduction, we got into the assignment.

Primary students typed certain things in OK Writer following an example on the Smartboard.  They typed basic things such as their name, teacher’s name, grade/section, and a sentence telling their favorite color.  Formatting was fairly optional–they could choose the font, color, and style, but they did have to make capital letters using the shift key, use the space bar, and use the return key.  Some third graders were able to type the Pledge of Allegiance as an enrichment.

Intermediate students completed a more challenging activity.  Fourth graders typed the Pledge of Allegiance in Word and formated using fonts, color, alignment, line spacing, and/or borders.  Fifth and sixth graders typed the Preamble to the Constitution.  In addition to the formatting that fourth grade used, these classes also were shown how to select and insert clip art.  Those who successfully typed the Preamble and formatted were able to add graphics to their documents.

Week Two:

Primary students had a more challenging assignment this week.  Using OK Writer, they had to use exact formatting based on examples.  The theme was to type words and format them in a way that they visually represented the meaning.  The two examples included typing and formatting the word “rainbow” (making each letter a different color of the rainbow) and the word “grow” (making each letter bigger than the next).  When finished with this activity, student were to type and format words like high, low, stairs, and ghost, making them look like what they mean.

Intermediate students first participated in a Powerpoint slide show and discussion about acronyms and the thesaurus.  Their assignment was to create an acronym of their name using positive words to describe themselves.  Then, the students had to use the built in thesaurus in Word to find synonyms for the descriptive words in the acronym.  They were able to be creative in the formatting of their acronyms; however, students also had to find ways to make their name, descriptive words, and synonyms all stand out from each other by the way they chose to format.  Early finishers were able to take a self-portrait of themselves using PhotoBooth and insert it into their document.