This afternoon I received an email from a reader who was looking for some typing games that her elementary school students can play to practice their touch typing skills. I’ve reviewed a lot of online typing practice activities over the years, but it has been more than a year since I updated my list. So this evening I put together an updated list of online typing practice activities for students.

Type Rocket is a free typing game from ABCya. Type Rocket is a sixty
second game in which students make fireworks explode by typing the
letters that appear on the rockets in the games. In the sixty second
span of the game students try to correctly type as many letters as they
possibly can. The rockets speed up as the game progresses.

Z-Type is a
simple and fun typing game. The game
has an easy level and a difficult level. The game is played the same
way on both levels. To play Z-Type all that you have to do is go to the
website and type the words that are falling from the top of the screen.
When you have correctly typed a word a laser shoots it. The object is to
shoot the words before they reach the bottom of the screen.

If you want students to take a break from the games, have them use Typing Speed Monitor for Google Chrome. Typing Speed Monitor
is a Google Chrome extension that will track how fast you type and what
keys you use most frequently. If you do a lot of writing online, Typing Speed Monitor is one way to get accurate feedback on your typing proficiency in real-world settings. The latest version of Typing Speed Monitor
allows you to opt out of having it track your typing on domains you
specify. For example, if you don’t want it to track how fast you type on
Facebook, you can exclude that domain.

Typing Adventure
is a nice little game that young students can use to practice their
typing skills. To play the game students just have to visit the game
site, read the directions, and press start. The game scenario presented
to students is a character leaping from stepping stone to stepping
stone. To move along the path students have to type the letters of the
stones they want to jump to. Students earn points based on speed and
accuracy.

Good Typing is a free online typing skill development program. Good Typing
provides 27 graduated lessons designed to help students learn to use
their entire keyboards correctly. Unlike some free online typing
programs, Good Typing offers support twenty different keyboard styles including US style, Japanese style, and several European languages.

Dance Mat Typing
is a nice little resource from the BBC. Young students (four to eight
years old) can receive clear, informative typing instruction through
Dance Mat Typing. There are four levels for students to work through.
Within each level there are multiple lessons and practice activities.
The very first lesson that students receive is placement of their hands
on the keyboard. Each lesson and practice activity offers instant
feedback in visual and audio form.

Word Games offers a large
collection of online word games and typing games. The word games range
from simple word searches and crosswords to games that require players
to complete sentences and phrases. The typing games are a mix of simple
sentence typing for speed and games that require accuracy to “defend” a
character or move a character through a scene. Some of the games
featured on Word Games can be either downloaded to your computer, see Typing Defense, others can be embedded into your blog or website.

Typing Web is an online typing tutorial that provides instant feedback after every free typing lesson. Typing Web offers beginner through advanced typing lessons for free. You can register to track your progress or you can use Typing Web without registering.

Listen and Write is a
great way for students to improve their typing skills and hear about the
news. Listen and Write plays short audio clips of news stories and
users type what they hear. The audio clips are relatively short, come in
a few different levels, and registered users can track their progress.
 
Power Typing hosts a small collection of five typing games that students can use to develop their typing skills. Power Typing also offers typing lessons for Qwerty and Dvorak keyboards. The two games that I found easiest to access are Alphabetic Rain and See Don’t.