Ready to get started? Let's go get those fingers flying across the home-row--- NOW!
While there is a plethora of great keyboarding software out there to buy, there are times when you’d just like to go online for some quick and easy practice. Below are some great sites that will get your fingers flying across the home-row in no time.
Dance Mat Typing, from the BBC, is a great program for beginning typers. There are different levels that focus on specific keys and after each successful level, students are rewarded with a song and dance.
PowerTyping is a free online typing tutor for Qwerty – US standard 101 keyboard and Dvorak keyboard. There are typing games, tests, stories, and more!
E-Learning for Kids has a space theme that makes it fun for kids to practice their keyboarding skills. Games can be unlocked as typists move on to higher levels.
Great graphics, a map, killer sharks attacking you. What’s not to like about Typershark? You can play it free online, or download a free version to unlock all of the levels. The free deluxe version allows you to play 60 minutes of game time. After that, you can either go back to the free online version, or pay $6.99usd for complete ownership of the full version.
12 different keyboarding games can be found at Learning Games for Kids that are all high-interest and get kids motivated about becoming better typists. My personal favorite is Typing Tide-pool, where you race your dolphin against others.
Fun to Type is a game-based keyboarding site that is high interest and allows students to practice individual letters. While not a strong tutorial program, it would be a fun place to stop by for a break.
Sense-Lang has a nice tutorial interface with an interactive keyboard that highlights the keys you missed. WPM and accuracy are calculated as you type. There are also some fun and entertaining games.
Typing Master is a site to go to for 3 great games, including, my favorite, KeyMan Typing. There is also a great 1-3 minute typing test that I give to my students throughout the year for a quick analysis of their current keyboarding skills.
FreeTypingGame.net has a nice selection of about 10 games, over 40 lessons, and several different types of tests to choose from.
Typing Chef is a fun game from Sense-Lang where students type what they see in the kitchen. You start out as a dish washer, then move up to vegetable chopper, on your way to head chef. Great Italian restaurant music plays while you type and the chef gives a not so subtle, “Ahem” when you make a mistake.
While not a full-fledged typing game per se (you only practice 7 keys), there is no doubt that UpBeat is the favorite typing game of many students. It’s a bit like guitar hero in that you chose a song and then type the letters at the appropriate time.
Here are some 2 point perspective cities that are all finished!
Basic art students are starting the year learning about 2 point perspective drawing and the 7 elements of art. Take a look at their cities in progress.
We switched things up and began tessellations. The students learned about M.C. Escher and the art of creating tessellations. See the process and the final product!
Students are now studying how to draw hands. They learned about a value scale and how to shade an object to make it look 3D. Here is a start to their hand project.
Basic art students got a tutorial on the pottery wheel. Here are some shots of students trying their hand at the wheel for the first time.
Here are some 2 point perspective cities that are all finished!
Basic art students are starting the year learning about 2 point perspective drawing and the 7 elements of art. Take a look at their cities in progress.