Teaching Mouse and Typing Skills

My district has told us that our students are weak in basic computer skills (keyboard and mouse skills).  I don't want my students' true academic abilities to not shine through because they don't have computer skills, so I set out to remedy this problem!

First up, a packet I read about on Kickin' It In Kindergarten.  I loved that the kids had to use the mouse to click in each box then used their typing skills to write (type) each word in the box. I asked students to name the picture for me to make sure they knew what each thing was called, then I let them loose to type each word.  The only downfall was that my student computers don't have and won't support Adobe.  My kiddos, on the other hand, find this to be fantastic because they get to use my laptop with a mouse plugged in.

My computer is on a tiny table, so my kiddos pulled over a Little Tykes chair from my Dramatic Play center.  Whatever works!

Their favorite thing after typing was being able to print it to take it home.  We don't let them print much, so this was a big deal.  You can find the packet here.

My personal favorite is "eggcorn".  When you listen to her say it, that is totally how she says it!  It seems to be cutting the tops of the letters off..."lef" actually ends in an "f".

Deedee Wills (Mrs. Wills Kindergarten) posted some free websites with typing practice recently as well.

For mouse skills, I found the following site: MiniMouse  My kiddos haven't used this one yet, but I played a couple of them, and I think they will really like them!

For basic mouse control, I found a game on ABCya.  I had a difficult time navigating this with my laptop touchpad, but I think it would be doable with an actual mouse.

Lastly, I found a Symbaloo page with various mouse skills on it.  This will be added to our bookmarks ASAP.

How do you practice these skills (typing and mouse skills) with your kiddos?