Basic Mouse Skills

Empowered Learner

Overview

Young keyboarders with their small hands have limited skills when it comes to keyboarding. It is important that they learn how to use a mouse as many of the educational games they play will require mousing skills. There are many games available to students to learn how to use a mouse.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Be able to use a mouse.
Be able to single click the mouse.
Be able to drag and drop objects on the screen.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Words:

Mousing: Mousing is moving the cursor (mouse) around on the screen.
Mouse: A mouse is a hand-held pointing device that works with a computing device.

Pre-planning

To prepare for this lesson:

We recommend students have access to a computer and mouse.
We recommend showing this 2-minute video that has a sing-a-long about the mouse and keyboard from the LearnEnglish Kids site. The lyrics, an activity, and answers to the questions are available to download.
Check out the Pop the Bubble Game. The students have 60 seconds to pop bubbles using their mice.
There are additional mousing games under Devices and Resources. You can use any of these in addition to the Bubble Game.

Accommodations

Accessibility Guide for Educators - Microsoft
Accessibility Guide - Apple
Use your settings on your PC or Mac to adjust the accessibility. Go to your System Preferences and choose Accessibility.
There are settings to adjust the mouse on your computer. You can make it move faster or slower.
You can also set the computer up for alternative input devices to use instead of a mouse. (Joysticks and Trackballs)

Additional resource:

See Accommodations Page and charts on the 21things4students. site in the Teacher Resources section.

Steps

Directions for this activity:

This is a script that you can use with your students:

You are going to learn how to use a computer mouse today.
You will use the program https://frontend.letsgolearn.com/practice/bubbles#.
Now, you are going to learn how to move the mouse around the computer screen to click on the bubbles to make them pop. This is how you make things work on your computer screen.
First, let’s click on the mouse buttons. Keep your finger on the left button.
You are going to learn how to do a single click. Gently press down and then release the mouse button.
Click on the START button in the middle of the screen. See how many bubbles you can pop in 60 seconds!

Assessment Options

Different options for assessing the students:

Observations
Check for understanding

MITECS COMPETENCIES & ISTE STANDARDS

MITECS: Michigan adopted the "ISTE Standards for Students" called MITECS (Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students) in 2018.

Empowered Learner
1d. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.