K

WELCOME TO KINDERGARTEN COMPUTERS!

As a parent of a 4-5-year-old child in kindergarten, the first question you most likely have is what computer skills will my child be taught at Ascension Catholic School?  To best answer this question, it is very important to understand that children are born into a world of technology and thus they at an early age become aware of and how to use various kinds of technologies almost from the time they can walk and speak. Thus, our children do not have the fear of technology that is common among the older generations and so the first term as a parent you will need to become familiar with is the word – Digital Native.

The curriculum we use here at Ascension is written to include both the Common Core and ISTE standards.  For more information about these standards please follow me on my blog – Chronicles of Common Core: The Journey of a Teacher Leader (TL) – CLICK HERE

TRIMESTER ONE

WHAT IS A COMPUTER? 

This lesson will take the first month of school and will review all the parts and terminology the students will need to know to build a firm foundation within their technology education.  The motto all students at all ages will learn and will become familiar with is… “The computer is a tool for all lifelong learners!”  This core belief is the starting point of building an appreciation for the computer and all that it can do to help students throughout their educational career and beyond to be successful in all they take on.  With that said, student will be shown the following internal computer components:

• Mother Board
• CPU
• Cooling Fan
• Hard drive
• Video card
• Sound Card
• Network Card
• Memory (RAM)
• Power Supply

Students will learn the functions of each part and how they are connected to each other.  They learn the computer model known as IPO – Input/Process/Output. This is important as it will become the very basis of helping the students think critically and scientifically.

Students once showing the ability to identify each part will begin learning the external parts of the computer. They will learn to categorize the external parts of the computer into two classifications: Input Devices vs. Output devices.  Students will be shown the following external devices that work with the computer.

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Scanner
• Printer
• Video Cam
• Flash drive
• Monitor
• Projector
• Speakers

Again all these terminologies will become part of the student vernacular as they begin to use the computer to type each word out in Microsoft Word. (Connected Lesson – Year Long) This also allows students to become familiar with the keyboard as the year progresses. 

KEYBOARDING 101 – BASICS

In this course, students begin to understand the proper finger placement they are to have on the keyboard. In addition, students learn to log into the computers using the Password, for this, we use the SPIDERMAN (CTRL + ALT) & IRONMAN (Delete Key) finger placement.  During these lessons, student are taught to recognize such icons as Microsoft Word / Open Office.  The Touch Typing Rules will be taught in an interactive way and for the remainder of the year will be practiced every time the student is in the computer lab or at a computer.

Free typing software student can use at home to practice typing is ENSE-LANG.

Online Literacy Center for Kinder – CLICK HERE

PLEASE LOG INTO GRADELINK FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL LESSONS INSTRUCTIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS.