B”H TEACHER’S MANUAL Keyboard Town PALS introduces a new program for kindergarten to fifth grade called “LET’S LEAD.” “LET’S LEAD” features the adorable puppets from the innovative “LEARN TO TYPE” computer keyboarding program. This time, the charming puppets from Keyboard Town face new challenges that test their strength of character and their leadership capabilities. Each of the nine puppets teaches one leadership skill. Program Objectives The goal of the “LET’S LEAD” values-based program is for young children to consider multiple solutions to everyday situations, to voice their opinions publicly, to take into consideration the opinions and needs of others, to internalize commonly shared values, and to build inner confidence. FYI: In today’s technologically advanced world, children who type properly at a young age have an academic advantage over children who hunt and peck. Therefore, we highly recommend that the “LEARN TO TYPE,” computer keyboarding program be taught either prior to or in conjunction with the “LET’S LEAD” program. While learning to type, students are also reinforcing basic academic skills in: sound recognition, sound discrimination, sound correspondence, decoding, spelling, rhyming, blending, and letter combinations. To learn more about “LEARN TO TYPE,” visit www.keyboardtownpals.com. Or call 866200-8881. Facts 1. The Teacher’s Edition is delivered in a CD-ROM format and contains a complete Student Edition, a Teacher’s Manual, PDF resources, and optional craft projects. 2. The “LET’S LEAD” program uses the PDF format for its portability, printability, and crossplatform compatibility. 3. The Student Edition of the program is delivered on a USB colorful wristband thumb drive. Each child receives his or her own wristband. The students will save their work, edit their work, and print their “LET’S LEAD” Journal entries. 4. Please make sure students save their work to the thumb drive each time before exiting or the student’s work will be lost. Standards Technology Standards The “LET’S LEAD” program complies with the following standards: Equipment Establish awareness of technology Establish comfort with using technology Locate on/off switches Understands and treats disk and equipment with proper respect Insert CD ROM disks and USB thumb drive Start up and shut down hardware Operating system Communicates using related vocabulary: (i.e. login, file, print, exit, shut down, enter, escape) Recognizes pre-constructed buttons: (i.e.. enter first name, last name, login, next, forward-back arrows) Start up, save, and quit programs Print a document Ethical Use Demonstrate appropriate on-line etiquette Respect for the privacy of other students’ data and workspace Respect for copyright laws Keyboarding Use and control mouse to point and click on screen Function keys: delete/backspace, shift, space bar, enter/return, cursor keys Fingering options: home keys, keyboard, locates keys with correct fingering, touch typing Recognize letter keys Academic Standards In general, the “LET’S LEAD” program strengthens reading, speaking, and listening skills. The Poems address: Hearing proper cadence Auditory perception Communication through speech Critical thinking Appreciation of poetry and rhyme Visual discrimination Cooperative learning Cognitive recall Oral vocabulary Class Discussions address: Rules of conversation Speaking in complete sentences Speaking aloud Responding to questions Repeating story highlights Expressing an opinion Listing facts in a logical sequence Using expanded and descriptive vocabulary The Stories address: The “who,” “where,” and “what” questions Logical predictions Creative solutions The Typing addresses: Letter recognition Letter discrimination Decoding Spelling Rhyming Blending Letter combinations Capital and lower case letters Punctuation Copying skills Eye hand coordination THE PROGRAM Below are screen grabs of the program’s slides and an explanation on how to use each slide. Students follow the program on their computers as the teacher projects slides on the wall or smart board for group participation. The “tickets” alert teachers and students to the action or activity on a slide. “My Skill” ticket indicates that a new leadership concept is being taught. “My Thoughts, My Words, & My Deeds” ticket indicates a class discussion or activity. “My Journal” ticket indicates a student typing activity on the page. TITLE PAGE LOGIN PAGE To login, students enter their first and last name. “SO MANY CHOICES, SO MANY VOICES” PAGE Read aloud and discuss the poem “So Many Choices, So Many Voices.” SPEECH BUBBLE PAGE The illustration from the “So Many Choices, So Many Voices” page has been duplicated and enlarged. Speech bubbles have been added to increase the feeling of confusion. Read and discuss the illustration and the speech bubbles. Then, do the following exercise with the class. Begin by saying to the class: “Everyone may speak at the same time when I give the signal. Can you answer these questions?” “Tell me a food that you think everyone should eat.” “Tell me a food that you think everyone should not eat.” “Tell me a food that you think is healthy.” Now pick one student to repeat his/her answers as you ask each question again. Then do the same with a second and third child. Ask the class to answer the following questions: “When you all answered at once, could you hear any, some, or all of your classmates’ answers?” “When only one classmate answered the questions, could you hear the answers?” “Did all three students answer the questions the same or differently?” “Can you remember the healthy foods mentioned?” “To learn about healthy foods, we could ask a doctor or a nutritionist to visit our class. What if their list of healthy foods was different from your classmates’? Whose advice would you listen to?” “Would you like to meet some puppets who have stories about making choices?” “MAKING CHOICES? TRY THESE VOICES” PAGE Read and discuss, “MAKING CHOICES? TRY THESE VOICES.” The nine puppets on this page can help children make choices and diminish confusion. Ask the students if they would like to meet these puppets. THE OUR NAMES ARE… PAGE On the “OUR NAMES ARE” PAGE introduces the puppet by name only. LET’S TYPE NAMES PAGE On the “LET’S TYPE NAMES” page, students type each of the puppets’ names. THE OUR SKILLS ARE… PAGE The “OUR SKILLS ARE…” PAGE introduces the skills. LET’S TYPE SKILLS PAGE On the “LET’S TYPE SKILLS” page, students type the skill associated with each puppet. Below is a glossary of skill terms. SKILL WORDS GLOSSARY RESPECT: consideration or thoughtfulness; to pay due attention to and refrain from violating something. COURAGE: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action. LOVE: show kindness and charity to somebody. NOT GIVING UP: to keep up an activity or state already begun. USING WORDS WISELY: something said to express praise, approval, respect or honor; avoid conversation about the personal details of other people's lives, whether rumor or fact, especially when malicious. PROBLEM SOLVING: to find a way of dealing successfully with a problem or difficulty. LEARNING: familiarity or understanding gained through experience or study. CONFIDENCE: self assurance or a belief in your ability to succeed; to act in a proper, trustworthy, or reliable manner. AWARENESS: having knowledge of something from having observed it or realize that it is happening; notice what is going on in the world around you. THE PICK A PUPPET PAGE On the “PICK A PUPPET” PAGE both the name and the skill appear. Point out again the skill that is associated with each puppet. Refer to the puppet by name. The children are now becoming familiar with the name of the puppet and its leadership skill. Click on any puppet on the PICK A PUPPET page to begin teaching a skill. Each month teach one leadership skill. We have chosen the “Sam-Courage” skill as our model. These instructions apply to all nine skills. LESSON ONE LET’S LEAD WITH…PAGES (page 1) Read and discuss the poem. LET’S TALK ABOUT… PAGES (page 2) Read and discuss the questions. THE LET’S TYPE IN MY JOURNAL PAGE (page 3) Read the directions on the top of the page aloud. On the board, write an experience chart based on the group’s response to the directions. The younger children copy the experience chart in the “my journal” typing area. Students who are capable may compose and type their personal response to the directions. All students will save their work to the thumb drive before exiting the program, or you may print a hard copy of that day’s work. Please note that a child’s work must be saved each time before exiting the program, or that day’s work will be lost. LESSON TWO STORY TIME (page 4) STORY PAGES (pages 5, 6 and 7) Read the story once. Then read the story again, slowly. Some of the stories are open-ended. Children are to be encouraged to discuss possible endings to the story. LET’S TYPE AGAIN IN MY JOURNAL PAGE (page 8) Read the questions on the top of the page and suggest that as the story is read again, the children think about the answers to the questions. As the students answer in full sentences, write their answers on the board. Students will then copy the answers in the “my journal” typing area. Older students can work independently. All students will save their work to the thumb drive before exiting the program or you may print a hard copy of that day’s work. Please note that a child’s work must be saved each time before exiting the program, or that day’s work will be lost. LESSON THREE LET’S FOCUS ON WORDS PAGE (page 9) This is a vocabulary enrichment activity page. There are topic vocabulary words for each story. Read the story aloud again. This time the students are to focus on identifying topic vocabulary words (baseball). List the words that the students identify as topic words and have them copy the list in the “my journal words” typing area. Students who are capable may do this exercise on their own. You may encourage students to expand the list beyond those in the story. Ask the students to use the topic words in full sentences. You may also point out the synonyms, homonyms, or antonyms of some of these topic words. All students will save their work to the thumb drive before exiting the program, or you may print a hard copy of that day’s work. Please note that a child’s work must be saved each time before exiting the program, or that day’s work will be lost. LET’S JINGLE PAGE (page 10) The final activity in each chapter is an easy to memorize mnemonic jingle. Chant both lines of the jingle to the class so that they hear the lyrical message of the jingle. Then you recite the first line and have the children respond by reciting the second line. Now, ask a student to play the part of the “puppet” that is identified with that skill (Sam in this case) and lead the class in reciting the first line of the jingle. The class responds by reciting the second line of the jingle. Students may take turns being the puppet and leading the class in the recitation of the jingle. Do this until a jingle can be recited automatically. Follow this pattern for each of the jingles. END OF PROGRAM SUGGESTION: By the end of the school year, the children will have read all the poems and stories and will have typed and printed the answers to all the questions. Hopefully they will have also memorized the nine jingles. We suggest that any child who can recite all nine jingles by heart should be presented with a, “I Know My Jingles!” certificate (PDF included on the CD) whose value is to be determined by the teacher and may be redeemed by the student. This coupon could be redeemed for something like a pizza party, a prize or a coveted privilege. The recitation of the nine jingles could be performed at a school assembly, on a parents’ visiting day, or for another class in the school. FYI-You may purchase the Let’s Lead program with a full set of posters to use as a teaching aid for this program. The set has ten posters. There are nine posters with one puppet and skill on each poster and one poster with all nine puppets as seen on the Pick a Puppet page. These illustrations are excellent visual aids for each lesson and may be used to decorate the classroom and bulletin boards. For more information, please call, 1-866-200-8881. In conclusion, we hope that the leadership skills taught in the “LET’S LEAD” program will result in an increase in children’s self confidence as they become aware that either they have the power to affect their surroundings, rather than allowing their surroundings to affect them.