October Activities for the Computer Lab

By October in the computer lab things are starting to settle down a bit. Most students can get logged in independently. They are finally ready to dig in to some projects that bring other academic content together with tech skills.

How to use this blog post: find the grade level you’re interested in and then read about the activities. Click on any images to go to the product description to learn more about it. You’ll see some activities in multiple grade levels. This either means that differentiation is provided to make the lesson appropriate for multiple grade levels, or it includes multiple grade levels of activities for the tech lab.

Kindergarten: Mouse Practice and Website Navigation

TECHademics is a great activity to work on both academic content and tech skills together. The best part is that it works on any device. The Fall edition of Kindergarten TECHademics has 12 math and ELA activities.

Most Kindergarten students still need serious time practicing the mouse or trackpad. This is a skill we have to keep reviewing and using in order for them to master it. Fall Themed Mouse Practice Work Mats are great for this time of year as a warm up or early finisher activity. Also perfect to leave with a sub.

You’ll see Timely Tech across many grade levels here because there is something for everyone. The Kindergarten activities for October include letters, numbers, patterns, and word families, all while practicing the mouse or trackpad.

First Grade: Keyboard, Website Navigation, Fire Safety

First graders should be ready for more, but we have to go at their pace. I think it is still in the critical time window for establishing procedures (if you also only see them once a week) so I try to stick with the same activity types for the first few months.

These Fall Math and ELA digital activities are great to use whole class, as computer stations, or for early finishers. They are really versatile because students should be able to complete everything independently.

For some fun themed activities, Fire Safety week is a great opportunity to use coding robots. For first grade, I have students program the bot to go to one card at a time. If you want to add a challenge to that you can have them program the bot to go to the spot and back to the start place.

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Second Grade: Pixel Art, Fire Safety

I love using Pixel Art as a main activity in the computer lab. Students have no idea how many skills they are working on all at once! For 2nd grade I use the level 2 or 3 option and do either the Fall designs or the Halloween ones (sometimes I let them choose which they would like to do).

During Fire Safety and Prevention Week we review the important stuff and get out the Code and Go robots. My 2nd graders can handle a challenge, so I have them program their bot to go to up to 5 spots before returning to the start spot. They love it and classroom teachers love that we are reinforcing important topics.

Third Grade: Pixel Art, Timely Tech

I’ll be honest here, I make my 3rd graders work so hard in the computer lab. We don’t make much time for seasonal or holiday activities. But I do always keep these activities in my back pocket for rewards for good behavior. 3rd graders can do the level 2 or 3 option of either the Fall or Halloween Pixel Art.

For the main activity for October in 3rd grade, students work through the slides in Timely Tech. They work on alphabetizing, they make new words out of the October themed words, respond to a typing prompt, and use the shape tools to design a scarecrow.

Fourth Grade: Online Research Skills

Fourth graders are getting a crash course in online research skills in October. I have them do a combo of the activities in Timely Tech related to research, and as many activities as we have time for from the online research unit (not October themed).

Fifth Grade: Technology Vocab and Troubleshooting, Copy and Paste

5th Graders are also working on online research skills in October, but from the perspective of researching technology tips and tricks for troubleshooting.

Something fun we do in 5th grade in either September or October is the Build and Apple Orchard Scene digital glyph. Students really master their copy and paste skills with activities like these.