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“BigKeys LX delights and motivates my nursery children AND it holds their attention. They did not get much out of our standard grey keyboard, they just were not interested, but everything changed when they saw BigKeys.”
Julia Simpson – Nursery Teacher
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Read How BigKeys LX works in a Day Nursery School in Hampshire
Getting Children's Attention
Our standard keyboards had so much on them that the children were easily confused.
The Big Keys keyboard has fewer keys and because the children can identify single keys they don’t bang multiple keys, so the computer doesn’t freeze and crash.
The children had tried to use a standard keyboard but they did not really get much out of their time on it. The colours grabbed their attention immediately and made them motivated to have a go.
Teaching
Each nursery teacher has 8 key children to work with. These are children that the nursery teacher gets to know better than the others. She is aware of their individual likes and dislikes and the areas they need to work on and learn about.
Time on the computer is one of the options the children can choose from. The teacher takes 4 of her key children at a time to work with on the computer. If one of the children does not want to join in that activity they carry on playing with the rest of the group and the teacher works with those that do. The teacher will show the whole group something and then let everyone have a go.
Teaching Numbers
The BigKeys keyboard is particularly useful when teaching children numbers from 1 to 10. This is because the number keys are large and bold and are in one row so they stand out quite clearly. The children press the buttons sequentially from left to right and watch them as they appear on the screen in numerical order.
Standard keyboards have a block of number keys at the side of the keyboard set in 3 rows. This confuses children because they are not at a developmental stage to realise that to count sequentially you have to read the numbers left to right on consecutive rows.
To work with numbers we ask a child how old they are and then ask them to press that number and watch it come up on the screen. The child may need the number pointed out to them, but we keep coming back to it until they get it right. We are delighted when they do, but it does not match the delight of the child.
We pick out other random numbers for them to find. Again if they cannot find it we will point it out to them, get them to press it and then come back to it later.
Teaching letters
The children know that the computer time is a different way of writing. It is different from using crayons and pencils. We have pictures of lower case letters up on the walls with animals on and use it to help the children. We get a child to pick out its favourite animal, or its mums favourite animal, and then try and find that letter on the keyboard. We use the colours to help them find the letter quicker. They then press the letter and watch it come up on the screen as they do so.
With older children we will ask them to find a letter, again help them by using the colours and watching what happens on the screen when they press it.
Teaching writing
The BigKeys has made children interested in writing. They will sit at the keyboard and pretend the strings of letters they press are writing. We encourage the children to pick out certain letters from what they have written.
How to use a keyboard
As the children progress they are shown how to use the shift key, the return key and the space bar.
When the teacher is present the older children are shown how to use the drop down menu to print out their work.
As told by the Nursery Teacher.
Read how BigKeys are used in other nursery schools
