Typing games for Year 3

Type one row of the keyboard from end to end. The clock starts on your first key, and your best time is kept on this device.

For Year 3 in Australia. In England, Year 3 is in KS2. In Canada, see Grade 3, and in the United States, 3rd grade.

How to play

1. Pick a row. Home row, top row, bottom row, or all three one after another.
2. Type the first key. The clock starts on your first right key, not before.
3. Type along the row. The next key lights up, and the hands show which finger to use. A wrong key waits for the right one.
4. Read the card. You get your time, your slips, and up to three stars for careful typing.

Your best time for each choice is kept in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else. Once you have one, it shows on the game beside the clock, before you press a key. Come back tomorrow and try to beat it.

The three rows

Not sure which finger goes where? The home row keys page shows every key and its finger.

Why rows, in Year 3?

In New South Wales, Year 3 and Year 4 are Stage 2. Under "Software functionalities and typing", the NSW English syllabus for Stage 2 asks students to "Use knowledge of the keyboard layout and functions to type texts" and to "Monitor goals that build on typing accuracy and rate". Its advice to teachers includes "teaching touch typing skills" and "valuing accuracy of typing over speed".

A row race is a small version of all of that. Typing a row from end to end shows where its keys live. The time is the rate, the slips are the accuracy, and the best time gives a child a goal of their own. Take the syllabus's advice and count the slips first: a row with no slips earns three stars, however long it takes.

We read the syllabus for New South Wales, and no other state's. Ask your child's teacher what your school expects.

NAPLAN in Year 3

NAPLAN's writing task is done by hand in Year 3. The National Assessment Program's website says all students write the same kind of text "regardless of whether they are a Year 3 student doing the test on paper or a student in Year 5, 7 or 9 doing the test online" (What's in the tests). So the first NAPLAN writing test done online is in Year 5.

This page is typing practice. It is not NAPLAN practice. The page for Year 5 has a timed check on sentences, numerals and symbols.

Type eleven Australian animals

When the rows feel easy, type some real words. There is no clock on this one. A lap is six of these eleven animals, in a new order each time.

kangaroo koala platypus echidna bandicoot quoll emu kookaburra lorikeet penguin frog

Each one is named on the Australian Museum's page about mammals or on NSW Environment and Heritage's page of native animal facts. The words use 21 of the 26 letters. A lap never asks for J, V, W, X or Z. The longest is "kookaburra", at 10 letters.

What suits a child in Year 3

• One row at a time. Start on the home row and stay there until it is easy.
• Slips before seconds. A careful row beats a quick one with slips.
• Race yourself, nobody else. The only time worth comparing is your own from last week.
• A few minutes is plenty. Stop while it is still fun.

The rows are a starting point for Year 3, not a rule. A child who has never typed can begin with typing for beginners, and a confident one can go on to sentences.

Your keyboard

The game draws a US keyboard. Microsoft's list of default keyboards for Windows gives English (Australia) the US keyboard, so on a Windows computer set up that way the picture on the screen matches the keys. On a Mac, the Unicode keyboard chart for Apple's Australian layout shows every letter in the same place as well.

For teachers

The page runs in a browser on Chromebooks, laptops and iPads, with no accounts and nothing to install, so a whole class can use it at once. Nothing typed is saved or sent. Each device keeps its own best times, so a shared laptop shows the best time typed on it. Teachers can request free classroom codes for the full game.

Questions