Typing tutors

The BBC lessons are very good, and really funny, but the lessons are very long. I usually use the byteback lessons(second down) with year 6 pupils, as well as the Mr Kent lessons. They are a bit dull, but they are short lessons with good response.

I think it's really important to try to teach touch typing as you can get faster eventually than just tapping with the index finger. It is hard to get the children to do this, but I do think it's important to teach it methodically, rather than just doing games, although there are some links to games there too and I know the children like to do it.

I also think it is an incredibly valuable thing to learn to type, especially for children who struggle to write, and dyslexics - it frees them up to produce neat work and uses less brain power so that they can think about the words they want to use, not about how they will form the words. It also helps with spell checking which makes children more confident to use words they are not sure how to spell, but again, they have to use it intelligently!



BBC Typing Dance Mat https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr 

or start here: https://toybox.tools.bbc.co.uk/activities/id/activity-dance-mat-typing/exitGameUrl/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fguides%2Fz3c6tfr 
 
Very good series of lessons: http://byteback.org/students/typing/

Other good lessons:I'd forgotten, this page has a sound track to choose - it can really help with getting a good rhythm. It's quite fun music too, and you can decide on the pace. http://www.powertyping.com/qwerty/lessonsq.html
http://www.mrkent.com/typingtutor/index.htm

Typing Games
This one is very good for less able children:
http://www.bigbrownbear.co.uk/keyboard/index.htm

These are also fun games:
http://www.freetypinggame.net/play10.asp
http://www.freewebs.com/weddell/findtheletter.htm    
http://www.freetypinggame.net/  
http://www.onlytypinggames.com 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ http://www.nimblefingers.com/j_applet1/WordWackerApplet.html
http://annrymer.com/keyseeker/
http://www.abcya.com/cup_stack_typing_game.htm