Activities

	Here are some lessons and activities that you can use with your students. Most of these activities are best used when your students have learned all the letters and numbers. Exercises for particular letters will be added in the future. Some of these activities are for developing speed and control, others are for learning keys that are not taught in the regular lessons.
Some of these activities have HTML worksheets that can be printed and used in the Free Typing area of Typing Forum. Some contain links to typing tests text files that can be added to your typing tests and Challengers. How to use tests

Symbol Lesson

This lesson teaches symbols not taught in UltraKey's lessons. The lesson provides direction for the instructor and practice material. There is a practice test that can be installed and used in Typing Forum. The symbols should be taught after all the alphabetic and numeric lessons have been completed.

Symbol Lesson

Symbol Lesson PDF

Punctuation Lessons

Punctuation is one of the most important parts of written communication. This lesson is in two parts. The first part reviews punctuation taught in UltraKey's lessons. The punctuation review lesson explains the usage of the particular punctuation marks and provides practice. The punctuation review lesson contains practice material that features symbols taught in the symbol lesson above. Some of the practice material in this lesson features the % key. You may wish to start with the symbol lesson or practice the % key before doing this lesson.

The second punctuation lesson covers marks that are not taught in UltraKey's lessons. The exclamation point, parentheses, colon, question mark, quotation marks and apostrophe, are taught.

Both of these lessons include a practice test that can be downloaded and copied into the typing test area of Typing Forum.

Emoticons and @ther Internet Symbols

Some special symbols have become commonly used on the Internet. This lesson introduces students to these symbols and their uses.

Internet Symbols Lesson

Dinosaur Endurance Exercise

The names of the dinosaurs are very long and will give your students in an opportunity to test their endurance in keying lengthy words without hesitating between letters. The entire alphabet should be taught and practiced before this exercise is used. The goal is to keep eyes on the screen and type the word presented once, followed by an enter stroke. This exercise lends itself to timing. See who can complete the greatest number of dinosaur names in two minutes or more.

Dinosaur Names worksheet for Free Typing area

Dinosaur Names worksheet PDF

Dinosaur Names Typing Test

Color Me Keyboard

Coloring a keyboard helps students learn Homerow and other key locations. Students color in each key on the keyboard with the color that corresponds to the appropriate finger. Students can then use the colored in keyboard as their own personal key chart.

Color Me Keyboard PDF

How to use Tests

The typing tests linked to this page are text files. To add them to your typing tests or Skill Check Challengers follow this procedure:

1. Click on the link to open the text file in your browser.
2. Highlight all of the text with your mouse.
3. Choose Copy from the Edit menu.
4. Open UltraKey if it is not already open.
5. Go to General Management.
6. Click on Typing Tests if you would like to make a new typing test or Skill Checks if you would like to create a Challenger.
7. Click the New button on the Skill Checks or Typing Test dialog. A new Edit box appears.
8. Click in the Text field and strike Control-V (Windows) or Command-V (Macintosh). The text will appear in the box.
9. Enter a name in the Name field.
10. If you are creating a Challenger, select Challenger from the Levels menu.
11. Click Done.
12. If you would like to use the test or skill check with classes, click the Update All Indexes button, choose "Make available" and click Update. This will update the lists in each class. The tests will now appear in the typing test or challenger list for your students.