1/2 Hour Activity

Need practice typing? Here's a 1/2 hour activity that the students will enjoy!

Baseball typing! Have a line of text on the board that the students must type. Sentences can focus on home row, upper row of letters, lower row of letters, all letters, all letters plus punctuation, symbols, or whatever combination of the above you would like the students to practice. Split the students into two teams. Give them one minute to type the line as many times as they can. Each correct line counts as one base. Three bases counts as one run. Each minute of typing counts as one inning. Play for nine innings, then reward the winning team with free time on the computer. Have the losing team practice their sentences a few more times. Walk around the room and make sure the students are using the proper fingers for this exercise, or it loses its purpose.

Here are some sample sentences:

home row: ask a glad dad

home row plus upper row: i require quiet please

all letters: the fat cat ate the rat and came back to the mat

all letters plus caps: Aunt Lily likes to go to the zoo

all letters plus caps and punctuation: It's time to feed the pigs. Please dump the slop.

*You can play a similar game with spelling words. Have the students type all their spelling words. Typing through the whole list counts as one sentence. The words must not only be typed correctly--with the fingers on the right keys--but all the words must be spelled correctly in order for the base to count. This would be a lower scoring version. For younger grades, each correctly typed & spelled word could count as one base.