Ôªø Education World Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
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Education World® Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
By Lorrie Jackson
WHY A TECHTORIAL?
What will I learn today?
You will learn ten easy ways to use Excel in the K-12 classroom.
What hardware and/or software does the techtorial apply to?
The techtorial applies to Microsoft Excel, which usually is included in the Microsoft Office
suite.
Which National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers does the
techtorial address?
The techtorial will help teachers accomplish standards IIA, IVB, and VIB.in particular.
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed a set of National Educational Technology Standards for
Teachers. Standards or Performance Indicators are included for each techtorial to help teachers and administrators improve
technology proficiency. For a complete description of the standards indicated, go to NETS for Teachers, click Standards in the menu
bar on the left, and then click the arrow to the right of Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers.
CREATE A SPREADSHEET TEMPLATE
After you create any of the Excel activities in this techtorial, you'll want to save the
activity template, so students can work on that activity without changing the activity itself.
To create that template:
q
Open the spreadsheet containing the activity you have created.
q
Click File>Save As. Click Template *.xlt in the dropdown menu next to File Type.
q
Click Save to save the template to your Desktop or My Documents folder (not to
your templates folder).
q
Using the school's network or a floppy disk, place a copy of the template on each
student or classroom computer.
Your activity is now saved as an Excel template. Students can use it, but they cannot
change it. They also can save their work; it will be saved as a new file.
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Education World® Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
Note: If you are new to Excel, take a look at last week's techtorial Excel for
Beginners before beginning this session.
USING EXCEL IN PRESCHOOL THROUGH FIRST GRADE
Young students are learning mouse skills, such as clicking, holding, and dragging. You
can reinforce those skills with the following activities:
Activity 1:
q
Open a spreadsheet template in Excel.
q
In the menu bar at the top of the spreadsheet window, click Insert>Picture>Clip Art.
Click an image (duck, cat, star ...) and insert the image into column B of the
spreadsheet. (If the image is the wrong size, click the image, click Format>Picture,
and choose the Size tab to adjust it.)
q
Click Edit>Copy> to create a copy of the image, and then click Edit>Paste to place
the copy to the right of the first image. Click Edit>Paste until you have placed the
desired number of images in that row.
q
Click beneath the first row and create another row of images. Continue creating
rows of images, inserting a different number of images into each row, until you
have the desired number of rows.
q
Follow the directions on the previous screen of this techtorial to create an activity
template.
q
Ask students to count the images in each row and type the correct number in
column A -- to the left of each group of images.
MORE PRE-K-1 ACTIVITIES
Activity 2:
q
Open a spreadsheet template in Excel.
q
Type color words (blue, yellow, red’Ķ), one word to a cell, in several rows in
column A. Leave empty two cells between each word.
q
Follow the directions on the previous screen of this techtorial to create an activity
template.
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Education World® Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
q
Ask students to click in the cell to the right of each color word, and then click the
paint can in the Drawing toolbar to fill each cell with the color that matches the
word. (If the paint can is not visible, have students go to View>Toolbars> Drawing
to open the drawing and painting tools.)
Activity 3:
q
Open a spreadsheet template in Excel.
q
Put in row 1 of the spreadsheet the letter(s) that students are learning, one letter to
a cell. Leave empty a few cells between each word.
q
Click Insert>Picture> Clip Art. Click to insert at the bottom of the spreadsheet
pictures of animals that begin with each of those letters.
q
Follow the directions on the previous screen of this techtorial to create an activity
template.
q
Ask students to drag each image into the column under the first letter of the
animal's name.
USING EXCEL IN GRADES 2-5
Older elementary level students can use Excel spreadsheets to tally data and create
simple graphs. Keep the lessons fun by having students survey silly topics and graph the
results!
q
Invite students to rate the taste of cafeteria food on a scale from 1 to 3 -- from
"Yuk!" to "I love it!" -- and enter the data into a spreadsheet. Have students
highlight the survey results and then click Insert>Chart to make a simple graph of
those results.
q
Encourage students to compare their survey results with results obtained by other
classes.
q
After students have worked as a group to create a spreadsheet and chart, ask
each student to conduct his or her own survey, enter the results into a
spreadsheet, and graph the results.
q
Encourage older students to experiment with the different types of graphs and
charts available in Excel to determine which type best displays their survey results.
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Education World® Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
USING EXCEL IN SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSES
Students in social studies classes can use Excel to
q
compile data about two countries from the CIA's World Factbook, chart their
findings, and then use their charts as a framework for discussions about current or
historical events;
q
use data from Kingwood College Library's American Cultural History site to create
a spreadsheet listing the authors, politicians, singers, architects, and so on of each
decade of the 20th century;
q
research, chart, and compare the cost-of-living and other data from the American
Cultural History site.
Encourage students to experiment with fonts, type size and style, background colors, cell
size, and so on to achieve a more polished look.
USING EXCEL IN PHYS ED AND HEALTH
Students taking physical education or heath classes can use Excel to
q
chart their fitness levels, heart rates, exercise repetitions, and so on, in personal
journals;
q
record changes in that data;
q
plot their progress.
USING EXCEL IN ART
Students in art classes can
q
create art with Excel, using the paint can and other drawing and formatting tools;
q
insert a photograph into Excel, and then use the gridlines and Comment "stickies"
to analyze the photograph. (Go to Insert > Comment to insert comments.)
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Education World® Excel-ent Activities Across the Grades
USING EXCEL TO CREATE STUDY GUIDES
Excel also can be used to create study guides. Students might, for example:
q
Type the word TOPIC into cell A1, the word CAUSE into cell B1, the word EFFECT
into cell C1, and the words CURRENT ISSUE into cell D1.
q
Type an historical event into cell A2, type the cause of that event into cell B2, type
an immediate result of that event into cell C2, and type an example of how that
event affects the world today into cell D2.
Study guides can be created to accommodate information in a number of disciplines. In a
literature class, for example, headings might include Character, Motivation, Action, and
Outcome.
Students could use spreadsheet study guides to review for AP or other tests, or to
organize and synthesize information for their own use.
USING EXCEL FOR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Students aren't the only ones who can benefit from using Excel. Teachers can use the
program to
q
average grades (See Excel for Beginners.);
q
chart individual student progress;
q
keep track of which students have completed individual steps of a major project.
TELL ME MORE!
Where can I find more information about using Excel?
Spreadsheet Magic is probably one of the best Excel resource for teachers. You also
might try Classrooms that Excel Resources for teacher-created tips on using Excel in a
variety of settings.