Listed here are some websites that will help you prepare for teaching anyone the basics of Excel charts, PowerPoint, movie editing and basic computer hardware.  If you click on the “Resource links” category tag at the bottom of this entry, you will find more links that can help you with teaching computer classes, including links to photo editing sites and online safety information for kids, parents and information and education professionals.

Excel Charts

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/documentation/excel/charts.html

Explains how to use Excel’s chart wizard to make simple charts and graphs.

PowerPoint

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/documentation/powerpoint/index.html

Covers all the basics of making PowerPoint presentations.

Windows Movie Maker

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/video/moviemaker/index.html

If you have an XP machine, Movie Maker is installed on it! Use it to create and edit videos.

Basic Computer Hardware

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/computing_fundamentals/troubleshootingxp/hardware.html

Crack a case open and have a look inside!

(click on thumbnail to see larger image)

Re-purpose a plastic drink bottle into a fun “noise shaker”

I came up with this project for a children’s New Year celebration program that featured stories, poems, games and this craft. This “noise shaker” is handy for welcoming the new year or for accompanying your favorite song!

See the noise shaker in action by viewing the New Year’s Program photo show!

What You Need for each shaker:

*one cleaned and dried plastic bottle with twist cap

*small amounts of dried pasta, dried beans and/or uncooked rice (to make the noise)

*small amount of shredded scrap paper–a few different colors looks nice

*4 18 inch lengths of paper streamers

*4 pieces of regular transparent tape

*small amount of colored duct tape to secure bottle cap (OPTIONAL)

What You Do:

*have the kids take a small handful of the dried pasta or beans and put it in the bottle followed by a few handfuls of the shredded paper

*screw on the cap tightly– you might want to also secure with duct tape, but we found that this was not necessary

*have the kids tape the 4 streamers somewhere near the bottom of the bottle

*that’s it–they can shake and wave away! Works equally well without the streamers, but they loved seeing the streamers fly, too!

Variations:

*for a different noise, try coins and/or small jingle bells in the bottles

*also add shiny confetti inside the bottle

*decorate with stickers on the outside of the bottle

Previously I wrote about a computer class exercise in which kids wrote and then designed and printed out their own acrostic poems in order to get practice with basic word processing. I posted a few examples, but I have found several more from a group of enthusiastic young poets!

These files are pdf documents–enjoy! 

Cat by Maria

Dog by Justen

Sharks by Brian

Star by Elizabeth

Using Excel to Make Candy Charts

(recommended for ages 7 through 11; one 1 hr. class period)

This class teaches kids how to make computerized graphs of their data. The original exercise used Microsoft’s Excel, but you can substitute any software with graph making capabilities. See note below about other graph making software.
(click image to enlarge)This chart was made by Nataly during the Excel class; the 3D pie charts seemed to be a favorite with the kids!

What you will need:

*1 computer per 1 or 2 children

*spreadsheet program such as Excel

*printer (black and white or color, if available)

*plain computer paper for printing charts; pre-printed tally sheet or scrap paper for tallying data; pencils

*1 regular sized bag of colorful candies per child (we used Skittles–or jelly beans or M&Ms work, too)–these will be the data! If you prefer, substitute non-food items (multi-colored rubberbands or paperclips; a mixture of dried beans; etc.).

What you do:

Pre-computing–approx. 20 to 25 mins.:

*Explain what graphs are and show some examples; tell kids that they will be using the candies as their data to make a graph using Excel.

*Everyone must count and categorize their data and then keep a tally on paper. With younger kids, I made a simple tally chart as a handout; older kids can probably come up with their own using scap paper. Some children will be more comfortable with this than others–circulate to give assistance, but also encourage peer assistance.

*Once the raw data has been collected, move to the computers and the Excel program.

For an excellent explanation of how to make simple charts using Excel, please see this page from the University of Washington Office of Learning Technologies:

Excel Charts

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/documentation/excel
/charts.html

NOTE: Other graph making software
If you do not have Excel on your children’s machines, look for the word processing software on your machines; there will probably be an equivalent program. Online software such as Google spreadsheets can also be substituted.

Example of a bar graph made using Google spreadsheets:

(click to enlarge)

Make a Dream Catcher

I’ve made this with young elementary aged children for a Native American crafts program. The materials are inexpensive and readily available.

What you need

*paper plate (the studier kind work the best)
*small amount of yarn to weave the “web”
*paper hole punch
*about 6 to 10 plastic or wooden pony-type beads
*small amount of plastic lacing (or use yarn or string) to hang beads and feathers from
*a few feathers

What you do

*Cut the middle part of the paper plate out so that you only have the rim remaining. (You can save the inside for another project.)

*Punch approximately 12 holes evenly spaced around the plate rim.

*Using the yarn, randomly string across the inside of the dream catcher. For smaller kids, you might want to put some tape on the yarn ends to make threading through the holes easier for them.

*Tie off the ends, saving some for a hanging loop at the top of the plate.

*Thread the plastic lacing throught the bottom hole, fold in half, knot and add beads and feathers to each tail. If you string the beads first, you can make a knot at the end of the lacing and then just insert the end of the feather into the last bead. If it doesn’t hold, you can use some hot glue or tacky glue.

For some ideas about using the theme of Native Americans, try this article:

Native Americans and Children’s Literature
(from Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site)
http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/nativeamericans.html

The following is the basic outline for a kids computer class that uses poetry to help kids practice word processing skills.

UPDATE: Here are two examples of poems that kids wrote:Crow by Courtney and Dog by Adriana

(recommended for ages 7 through 11; one 1-1.5 hr. class period)
In this class children will practice using word processing software (such as Microsoft Word) by creating acrostic poems. Students will also illustrate their poems with pencil sketches. If a scanner is available, they can learn how to scan their drawings and add them to their document; otherwise, they can cut out and glue their pictures to their printed poems.
What you will need:

*1 computer per 1 or 2 children

*word processing program

*printer (black and white or color, if available)

*plain computer paper for printing poems and for drawing picture(s); plain paper for kids to do rough draft on, if they wish

*colored pencils

*scanner (optional)

*scissors; glue sticks (if not scanning drawings)

What you do:
*Pre-computing–approx. 15-20 minutes:

Invite the kids to an area away from the computers so that you can explain what they will be doing, and so that you can read and discuss some poetry. Talk about what an acrostic poem is (the first letter of each line forms a word, name or phrase) and then read some poetry to them. Books to share include Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli or an acrostic poetry book by Stephen Schnur.

* After the kids understand what the activity is, they can go to their computer. If they do not know how to get to the word processing program from the computer start-up screen, this would be a good time to show them how to do that. Point out to them what the program’s icon looks like; if the program is accessible from the Start > Programs path, show them that, too.

*It is a good idea to have students practice saving a document and appropriately naming a document BEFORE they actually start to create anything. Showing them how to create a folder to keep their document(s) in and how to save to removable media (flashdrive, CD, floppy) is an ideal lesson at this point, too.

*You might have a class of students with very mixed skills when it comes to using your word processing software. When they all have their programs open, you can point out the basics tools of the program, including:

1. the File menu: Save/Save As (what the difference is); Print and Print Preview; New, Open, Close
2. the Format menu: especially Font>font; style; size; color. Kids are often very curious about all the different font styles available. Show them how to change the font variables and let them explore. Encourage them to choose a font that is readable, of course.
3. the Tools menu: show them how to spell check if they want. Since typing skills at this age is variable, too, this might cause a bit of frustration since their spacing might not be very good.

*Before the kids print their poem, encourage them to have a few other people read it. Use any style for the acrostic poems that you wish, but making the first letter of each phrase stand out–through size or color–is helpful. Also, leaving some space between the lines of the poem makes it easier to read, as well.

*After the kids have written their poem, they can draw their picture. I found that having them draw the picture on a separate piece of paper that is then cut out and glued to the final copy of the poem works better than drawing the picture directly on the “final” copy of the poem. If you have a scanner and the time, scanning the picture and then showing the kids how to insert them into their poems is also an excellent lesson.

Remember, this exercise is supposed to be fun; poetry and computers are both fun–enjoy the experience and the kids will, too!

More fun for kids on their own:

Online acrostic creation:

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/acrostic/

This photo was “framed” using the Framer tool at the Flickr Fun website. (Photo courtesy of Miss Debbie of the Round Lake Area Library youth department.)

One of the fun, easy and very inexpensive computer classes that you can share with kids is digital imaging. You can use digital images from cameras or portable media (such as CDs, flashdrives or floppy disks) that the kids bring with them. Or, some kids might have their images on a photo sharing website. If you have a scanner available, you can also scan conventional paper photos into digital format.

So, you have some digital images, but then you need to edit and have some fun by dressing them up a bit. If you do not have access to photo imaging software at your library, school or home, try some of the websites below instead–all you will need is an internet connection.

Online photo editing

These are websites where you can do simple editing on your digital images. Some of the sites also have some extras such as frames, clipart and captions. Most integrate with popular photo sharing and/or social networking sites.

*Phixr - Online Photo Editor
http://www.phixr.com/
Edit and e-mail your photos online for free! Nice selection of tools including some frames and special effects. Integrates with many photo sharing services, too. Easy sign-up!

*Splashup.com - formerly “Fauxto”
http://www.splashup.com/
“Desktop image-editing power in a web browser, going where you go.” Edit many images at once–work with layers, too; has the feel of desktop photo imaging software!

*Picnik
http://www.picnik.com/
Edit photos in your browser! Free and premium versions available. User-friendly interface.

Beyond photo editing…adding some fun to your digital images

The sites below let you play around with your images by making things such as posters and calendars or by giving you tools to jazz up your photos with graphics and text.

*Flickr Toys
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/director.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.picnik.com%2F
“Fun toys for your digital photographs.” Free, online photo fun!

*Graphita
http://www.graphita.com/
Add captions, doodles, graphics and more to your photos.

This photo was embellished using tools from Graphita.

Creating “digital stories” was a theme that I used for many of the multi-day computer workshops that I taught. I usually called this “Computer Camp” and held classes for 3 to 4 days in a row for a one to one and a half hour period at the same time each day. Some of the occasions that this worked best were:

*during the mornings for homeschoolers
*during spring break week
*during summer breaks

There were several times when I held two sessions per day; a lot of work, but well worth it! Having a second adult on hand or one or two teen volunteers is recommended.

Below is the link to a sample story that one of the children created.  Following also are the general directions that the kids were given.  At the time that these stories were done, they had all been posted on the library’s website, which the kids and their families enjoyed very much.

PLEASE NOTE:
There are several ways to do this activity.  At the time that this was initially done, I had the students using Microsoft FrontPage as an editor.   There are a lot of choices for posting content now, including blogging software.  Experiment with what you have available and see what works best for your own situation.

*My Neighbor’s Pet, The Dragon: A Digital Story by Merideth . This was done using FrontPage and also incorporated drawn and scanned pencil sketches.

For the dragon story, students were given the following guidelines:

Our topic for this Computer Camp will be “Digital Dragon Tales.” You can use your imagination to come up with an original story, but it should have these words in it:

1. dragon
2. Round Lake
3. grape juice
4. gold coins
5. happy

Things to remember when you write your story:

· You should try to have three paragrahps–a beginning, a middle and an end.

· Proofread your story for punctuation, spelling and grammar. You can use one of our dictionaries in the lab or you can use an online dictionary. There are links to online dictionaries on the writing help page.

· Ask a friend in the lab to read your story to make sure that you have used all the words and to make sure that your story makes sense!

When you have finished writing your story and planning your pictures, you will:

· Learn how to type your story into one of the html editors

· Learn how to scan your pictures and how to save the pictures files.

· Learn how to add your pictures to your html document

· Learn how to preview, save and view your digital dragon tale!

Please ask questions and let us know if you need any help!

 
Need some fingerplays quick?  Here a handful of web resources to help you out!

Fingerplays Index
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/fingerplayindex.htm

Preschool Fingerplays, Action Poems, Nursery Rhymes and Songs
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-rhymes.htm

NNCC Fingerplays Plus
http://www.nncc.org/Literacy/fingplus.html
Includes some activities and book references.

Fingerplays - Natural Learning
http://www.naturallearning.com/fingerplays.html
Fingerplays from A to Z.

Fingerplays
http://www.childcarelounge.com/Caregivers/fingerplays.htm
Indexed by theme - animals, food and seasons.

Fingerplays for Kids
http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/fingerplays-for-kids.cfm
Indexed alphabetically.

The photo people are a fun way to display the digital images that kids make. Those projects were painted using regular acrylic craft paint; they needed two coats and, of course, drying time.

The wooden photo wreath above was colored using regular washable markers (brand was Crayola). The drying time for the makers is minimal, and you get adequate coverage, too! And, most importantly, less mess and less equipment–no bothering with the paint, water, brushes, clean-up, etc.

The wooden novelty photo frames can be found at chain craft or discount stores for one dollar or less. You probably already have markers on hand; so, another easy, inexpensive way to frame your digital art!