SUBJECT: Language Arts
GRADE: Kindergarten
TECHNOLOGY: Keyboarding
BY: Rachel Steele

Name Tracing and Letter Identification: Using the Keyboard

Rationale This lesson is designed to give kindergarteners the practice they need in forming the letters in their name. Throughout the kindergarten year, students need to work on their fine motor skills. One way to do this is to develop their handwriting by tracing letters.

Students at this level often enter the classroom without the ability to recognize many letters. This lesson will allow them to develop letter recognition by locating letters on a keyboard. They will also become familiar with typing these letters and seeing them appear on the screen.

Objective Students will trace and copy the letters of their name in order to improve their handwriting and develop fine motor skills.
Students will recognize letters in their own name and locate them on a keyboard.

Procedure
Have lined paper at each student’s seat with their name written on it. Have them trace their name, working on the skills appropriate for their level (upper and lower case, tall and small, or letters with tails, etc.). Then have them write it on the next line, trying to put the letters directly under each other and copy their shape as you have written it. Have them copy their name three to four times.
As they finish, or throughout the day, depending on the student/computer ratio have the students bring their paper to the computer. Have a word processing program ready with a large font size (18 is good) and set to double space. Help the student locate and type the letters of their name. Have them press return and type it again. Let each student type their name two to four times. They can print this out and trace what they have typed for extra practice.
* be certain that you select a font that resembles the way you want the students to form their letters.

Assessment
Observe students writing. Observe them finding letters on the keyboard. Collect all papers to examine later in the year to note improvement.

Materials
Paper with large dotted lines
at least one computer