Material: Cardboard
computer with mouse and printer, black arrow, printer symbol on an index
card, pens, paper in the printer, scissors, glue, forms for name-tags
Steps:
The nursery school teacher
meets the children at the cardboard computer. The children recall their
previous experiences (components of the computer and their connections) and
describe the newly added parts: the mouse and the printer. The children
describe the connection mouse-CPU by following the string (cable). The
children group around the different stations (see activity How does a
computer work?) and imitate the way a printer operates: A child at the
keyboard types his or her name, the children transport the letters until the
name appears on the cardboard screen.
Can we print the name? The
children think about it and together with the nursery school teacher they
agree that the black arrow has to be moved by the mouse to the symbol
printer on the screen. A child moves the cardboard mouse and the child in
the cardboard monitor moves the black arrow onto the symbol of the printer.
The child moving the mouse clicks the button on the mouse and the child in
the monitor sends an index card with the printer-symbol along the connection
to the CPU. The child in the cardboard CPU copies the name from the screen
and sends the piece of paper along the string (cable) to the printer. The
child in the printer copies the name and pushes the printed piece of paper
out of the printer.
The children swap stations
and print their names.
The children receive
explorer-tags on which they can stick their printed names.
The children draw a picture
of the printer and its connections for the computer manual.
Background information: The mouse
movesthe cursor (black arrow) on the screen. The printer is switched
on. The cursor is moved onto the printer-symbol on the screen, and by
clicking the left button on the mouse, the printer prints the page / text
shown on the screen.
