How to Teach Basic MS Word to Elementary Students

A book report can be done as an MS Word document.

Microsoft Word, or MS Word, is a computer program that allows you to write documents and make tables. It is one of the most fundamental products for educational purposes because of its versatility. Elementary students can do book reports, science reports or history essays using MS Word. In order to teach basic MS Word, have the students examine the different fonts and font sizes, allow them to write a paragraph about a certain topic, draw a table on the board and have the students make the table on MS Word, show the students how to save a document and reopen their saved work.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Chalk

Instructions

1. Explain the purpose of MS Word. Before the students create their own documents, tell the students why they will want to learn how to use MS Word. Explain to the students that MS Word will allow them to formally type up their papers, make tables and incorporate pictures into their assignments.

2. Instruct the students to examine the different fonts and font sizes. Tell the students to click on "Format" and then "Font." Explain to the students that all of the fonts have certain styles. The serif fonts have small lines extended from the ends of the letters, and the sans serif fonts do not. Times New Roman is an example of a serif font, and Arial is an example of a sans serif font. Also, tell the students that the lower the number, the smaller the font size, and the larger the number, the larger the font size.

3. Tell the students to write a paragraph about a certain topic. For example, you may have them write a paragraph about what they did over the summer vacation. This will help the students feel comfortable writing with the MS Word program.

4. Draw a table on the board, and then show the students how to make the table using MS Word. For example, you may put a table with two columns and four rows on the board. Tell the students to click on "Table," and then "Insert," and then "Table." The students can then type in the number of rows and the number of columns that the table should have. Also, have the students click on one of the lines of the table, and show how the rows or the columns can either expand or become more narrow.

5. Show the students how to save their documents. Saving the documents is something very basic that the students should learn in order to be able to edit their work later. Tell the students to click on "File," and then "Save As." The students can then create a name for their document, and click on "Save." This will ensure that the student has saved his work.

6. Have the students click the "X" in the corner of the page, and then reopen MS Word. Tell the students to click on "File" and then "Open." The students can then click on the file that they saved and reopen it.

References

• Computer Tech: MS Word Basic
• Merriam-Webster: Serif
• Web AIM: Microsoft Word