Dance Mat Typing Games

The same four-level path the old dance mat typing game used — home row, top row, bottom row, then numbers and symbols — rebuilt as games you can play right now. One game per level. Free, no login, no ads, nothing to install.

Start Here

If you landed here looking for a dance mat typing game to play, skip to Level 1 and start with Home Row Hero. That is the honest short answer, and the rest of this page is just the order to play things in.

Two things worth clearing up first, because people search for both. There is no physical dance mat — the name came from the dancing animal characters in the lessons, not from a floor pad, so there is no hardware to buy. And the original itself no longer runs: it was built on Flash, which browsers dropped in 2021.

If what you actually want is the backstory — what happened to it, whether the original levels survive anywhere, and how the replacements compare feature by feature — that is a different question and it has its own page: what happened to dance mat typing. This page is only about what to play.

The Four Levels, and What Replaces Each One

The original split the keyboard into four levels and taught them in a fixed order. That order is the part worth keeping — it is why the program worked. Here is each level, the keys it covered, and the game here that drills the same keys.

Level Keys it covered Play instead Ages
Level 1 Home row — A S D F, J K L and semicolon Home Row Hero, then Key Catcher 6-8
Level 2 Top row — Q W E R T Y U I O P Top Row Trek 6-8
Level 3 Bottom row — Z X C V B N M Bottom Row Burrow 6-8
Level 4 Number row, capitals and special characters Number Ninja, then Code Breaker 9-11

On Level 3: the bottom row is the one most typing programs skim, because it carries fewer common letters than the top row and children get less incidental practice on it. Bottom Row Burrow isolates those seven keys the way the original Level 3 did, and it names the correct finger on every prompt — wrong-finger habits are the specific problem this row creates, and they are invisible unless someone points them out.

Level 1 — Home Row (Ages 6-8)

The eight keys your fingers rest on when they are not pressing anything. Every other key on the keyboard is one finger-hop from here, which is why the original spent a whole level on it and why skipping it is the mistake that keeps people at 15 WPM for life.

How to run it: Home Row Hero first — it unlocks a mission at a time so a child cannot race ahead of their fingers. Move to Key Catcher only once the F and J bumps are found without looking. Two weeks here is normal and not slow.

Level 2 — Top Row (Ages 6-8)

Q W E R T Y U I O P, reached by stretching up from home row without moving the wrists. The original taught this second for a reason: most common English words need the top row far more than the bottom one.

How to run it: The goal is returning to home row after every reach. If your child's hands drift up and stay there, go back to Level 1 for a few sessions — the drift is the problem, not the speed.

Level 3 — Bottom Row (Ages 6-8)

Z X C V B N M, reached by curling down from home row. This is the hardest of the three reaches and the one children most often make with the wrong finger, so Bottom Row Burrow names the correct finger under every key.

How to run it: Slow down on Z — the left pinky reaching down and inward is the single hardest motion on the keyboard, and most children quietly substitute the ring finger. If your child swaps B and N, cover the other half of the keyboard with a sheet of paper for a round.

All Three Rows Together (Ages 7-9)

Once each row is covered on its own, the next step is mixing them — which is what real typing is. These games throw letters and words from all three rows at once.

How to run it: Space Typer is still letter-by-letter, so use it first. Word Bubbles and Dino Dash move up to whole words — that is the jump from "I know where the keys are" to "I can type," and it is the point where most children start enjoying it.

Level 4 — Numbers and Symbols (Ages 9-11)

The number row and the punctuation the original saved for last. This is the level most modern typing programs quietly skip, which is why so many fast typists still look down to type a number.

How to run it: Number Ninja handles the digits. Code Breaker mixes letters, numbers and symbols in one string, which is the closest thing here to the original's final level. For commas, periods and apostrophes specifically, use punctuation typing practice.

After Level 4

The original stopped here, and that was always its weakness — a child finished Level 4 knowing where every key lived but still typing slowly. Speed is a separate skill and it needs separate practice.

Once all four levels feel easy, measure once with the free typing test, then find out whether that number is actually good for your child's age on the WPM by age check. A 9-year-old at 20 WPM is doing fine; a 9-year-old at 8 WPM needs more Level 1, not more speed drills.

For speed itself, the racing format works better than drills for most children — typing race games put a finish line on it. Or browse everything by school year on the typing games by grade page.

Running This in a Classroom

The reason the original spread through primary and elementary schools was not the curriculum — it was that a teacher could bookmark one URL and thirty children could use it with no accounts, no ads and no setup. That is the bar, and it is the bar we built to: nothing on this page asks for a login or an email address.

For a full rotation plan, station timings and Chromebook notes, see the classroom games page, or the teacher guide for how the levels map to a term.

Dance Mat Typing — Questions People Ask

Is there a dance mat you have to buy?

No. The dance mat typing game never used a physical dance mat. The name came from the animated dancing characters that guided the lessons, not from a floor pad. Everything on this page is played on a normal keyboard, and there is no hardware to buy.

What were the four levels of dance mat typing?

Level 1 taught the home row (ASDF and JKL semicolon). Level 2 added the top row (QWERTYUIOP). Level 3 added the bottom row (ZXCVBNM). Level 4 covered the number row and special characters. Each level was split into three shorter stages. Every one of those four levels has a game on this page.

Which game replaces Level 1?

Home Row Hero. It drills the same eight home row keys Level 1 covered, one row at a time, with a mission map that unlocks progressively instead of three fixed stages. Key Catcher is the faster follow-up once the finger positions are learned.

Do these dance mat typing games work on a Chromebook?

Yes. Every game here runs in a normal browser on Chromebooks, laptops, desktops and iPads with a keyboard attached. Nothing is built on Flash, so nothing can stop working the way the original did. No login, no download, no ads.

How long does each level take?

Plan five to ten minutes per session rather than one long sitting. Most children need one to two weeks on the home row before the top row feels comfortable. Rushing a level is the single most common reason a child ends up hunting and pecking for years afterwards.

What age is dance mat style typing for?

The original was aimed at 7 to 11 year olds, and this progression matches that. The three row games suit ages 6 to 8, mixed-row play suits ages 7 to 9, and the number and symbol level suits ages 9 to 11. Younger children should start with letter recognition instead.

Start with Level 1

Home row first, everything else after. It is the boring answer and it is the one that works.

Play Home Row Hero