15 Meaningful Activities for Short Lesson Periods in the Computer Lab

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Short lesson period for technology class? That’s no reason to give up on your students engaging in something meaningful in the computer lab!

Short lesson period for technology class? That’s no reason to give up on your students engaging in something meaningful in the computer lab!

Primary

Trackpad Gestures

  • Students practice moving, clicking, swiping, scrolling, right-clicking, and clicking and dragging on paper work mats before they even get on a computer.

Color by trackpad gestures

Mapping the Way Home

  • In this online activity, students use Google Maps to pinpoint their home address and get directions to and from school.

Exploring Pictographs

  • In this interdisciplinary lesson, students try to interpret what a set of pictographs –pictures that symbolize a word or concept — really mean. They then “write” a few sentences using their own pictograph system.

Middle Elementary

Fill in the Keyboard Letters

  • On each printable worksheet there are 3 keyboards for a total of 15 fill in the letters activities.  With Cut and Paste Keyboard Puzzles it is deceptively tricky for students to cut the puzzle pieces and then find their places to create a completed keyboard.
Fill in the keyboard letters

Create your own Vocabulary Review

  • Students define 4-5 words, create crossword puzzles with a free online tool, and then share their puzzles for review purposes.

Upper Elementary

Technology Vocabulary Word Searches

  • Students can keep their technology vocabulary terms in mind by completing word searches. 

Word Processing Review

  • Review and assess basic word processing skills with this short pre-made assignment.

Middle School

Digital Citizenship Discussion Prompts

  • All Digital Citizenship Standards are addressed with these 42 task card style discussion prompts.

Digital citizenship discussion prompts

TedEd Lessons

  • Pick from over 200 videos about technology. Then use the provided discussion prompts, questions and other resources as time allows.

Programming Practice Writing

  • So much in programming depends on being exact.  Have students write sentences, common phrases, or even single words then change or eliminate one letter to change the meaning (i.e. startling > starting > staring > string > sting > sing > sin > in > I.).  Another version could be punctuating sentences differently in order to change the meaning!

Short lesson period for technology class? That’s no reason to give up on your students engaging in something meaningful in the computer lab!

Early High School

Crack the Code Puzzles

  • Binary Code, Hexadecimal, and Morse Code Encoded Messages with silly phrases as well as technology facts. These are still Tech lessons but on paper!

Hello World

  • A “Hello, World!” program is a computer program that outputs the message “Hello, World!”. Such a program is very simple in most programming languages, and is often used by students learning the basic syntax of a programming language.

Judge a Book by its Cover

  • Students build visual literacy and engage in close reading as they investigate the text and imagery on book covers to make judgments about the content they might contain.

Late High School

Respond to a Podcast

  • Have your students listen to a news podcast and use a graphic organizer to record what they learn.

Introduce Tessellations

  • Students use the drawings of M.C. Escher, as well as online research, to deduce what tessellations are. Then each student creates tessellations from both regular and irregular polygons.
Short lesson period for technology class? That’s no reason to give up on your students engaging in something meaningful in the computer lab!
Brittany Washburn

Brittany Washburn

Hi, I'm Brittany. I'm an educator obsessed with technology and passionate about teaching students 21st century skills. I'm so glad you came to visit my website.

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Hi, I’m Brittany! I’m an educator obsessed with teaching with technology. Check out my free PD for technology teachers!

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