All third graders in Troy are provided with their first experience with touch typing.  To make typing instruction more fun for the students, we pretend that we are going to "Typing Camp."  While we really go no further than the computer lab in our media center, we create a camp atmosphere in our classroom with a tent, a campfire, and matching camp T-shirts.  Parents signed up to send in camp snacks for us to enjoy during typing breaks.

  Click here to View all of the Camp Pictures!

Before going to the computer lab, students watched a typing video that showed them which fingers were responsible for specific keys on the keyboard.  They used "Type-Right" keyboards to follow along with the video.
Students filled in a blank keyboard worksheet with the correct letters, and they wrote down the corresponding letters on a finger chart.  They later used the worksheets to assist them when typing in the computer lab.
We took breaks from typing to hold campfires where we sang a song written by our teacher called, "The Typing Camp Chant."  Students also hung out in the camp tent.  During each break, one group got to eat their snack in the tent.  What a privilege!
On each day of camp, our parents signed up to send in camp snacks for us to eat during breaks.  We had amazing snacks this year including smores, trail mix, ice cream, rice krispy treats, cookies, popcorn, and more.
Students first practiced typing sentences and phrases from Almena typing books into a Microsoft Word Document.  They found that typing with the correct fingers certainly takes lots of practice!
Soon students practiced typing with a software program called Type to Learn 3.  By the end of the week, students were even able to type with "Speed Skins" covering the keys.
On the last day of Typing Camp, students brought home camp books.  Inside the books were photos of the students at camp, a keyboarding chart for them to use at home, an autograph page, lyrics to the Typing Camp Chant, and a CD of the background music used for the Typing Camp Chant to sing along with at home.

Click on the camp flag to check out MANY more pictures of us at Typing Camp!

To ALL parents who sent snacks for us to enjoy during our typing breaks, everybody on Team Newingham wants to say.......

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