CODING
Several years back, my friend Vicki introduced me to coding. At first, I was quite skeptical. But after seeing students reactions & tutorials and helps from people all over the internet (including Hour Of Code) - coding has become a very anticipated and enjoyed part of our technology curriculum.
Several years back, my friend Vicki introduced me to coding. At first, I was quite skeptical. But after seeing students reactions & tutorials and helps from people all over the internet (including Hour Of Code) - coding has become a very anticipated and enjoyed part of our technology curriculum.
How We Use Hour Of Code in our 3rd - 6th grade lab time
https://code.org/learn
First of all, we expand it to a MONTH OF CODE. There is so much to do and an hour is just not enough time.
WEEK ONE:
We watch the Hour of Code Welcome together and then work through the first few lessons as a group. Students are given their logon/passwords and they begin working through each lesson. I assist as necessary and they are welcome to get up and assist students as well. Once the 40 minutes of classtime is over, they are encouraged to finish the lessons at home. If they do, I can log on and print out certificates which we then post in our WINDOW OF FAME.
https://code.org/learn
First of all, we expand it to a MONTH OF CODE. There is so much to do and an hour is just not enough time.
WEEK ONE:
We watch the Hour of Code Welcome together and then work through the first few lessons as a group. Students are given their logon/passwords and they begin working through each lesson. I assist as necessary and they are welcome to get up and assist students as well. Once the 40 minutes of classtime is over, they are encouraged to finish the lessons at home. If they do, I can log on and print out certificates which we then post in our WINDOW OF FAME.
WEEK TWO:
We watch the PAIRED PROGRAMMING video from Hour Of Code and then break up into teams using the LIGHT BOT program. Last year, we used the website -- this year, we have it on the ipads.
We watch the PAIRED PROGRAMMING video from Hour Of Code and then break up into teams using the LIGHT BOT program. Last year, we used the website -- this year, we have it on the ipads.
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Last year, we were stuck on a LIGHT BOT section and worked on it during recess and lunch. When we finally conquered it, we videoed our success and posted it to YOUTUBE as a TUTORIAL. |
WEEK THREE
Students work independently -- or in groups -- choosing from a variety of coding apps (both on the laptops OR on the ipads.)
We have the following apps on our ipads:
Kodable, Scratch Jr, The Foos, Hopscotch, CargoBot, Daisy the Dinosaur, Move the Turtle, and Floors
We use the following sites on our laptops:
Hour Of Code -- https://code.org/learn
Purple Mash -- http://www.2simple.com/us/trialusa/UK701548
Scratch -- https://scratch.mit.edu/
Tynker -- https://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/
WEEK FOUR
Students share their learning by
a. creating a tutorial
b. working with another student in a program they are not familiar with
c. writing a blog post about what they have learned
d. creating a coding game for someone else to use (via floors, scratch, etc)
Students share their learning by
a. creating a tutorial
b. working with another student in a program they are not familiar with
c. writing a blog post about what they have learned
d. creating a coding game for someone else to use (via floors, scratch, etc)
For our K - 2nd graders -- we code mostly with the ipads.
This year we will be taping up the floor in a grid format and paper coding as well (pictures and info soon)
We also just purchased a DASH robot and are starting to use the apps on the ipad.
This year we will be taping up the floor in a grid format and paper coding as well (pictures and info soon)
We also just purchased a DASH robot and are starting to use the apps on the ipad.
Coding was enjoyed so much that we built a bulletin board around the app
KODABLE and it changed each week of our month of coding.
KODABLE and it changed each week of our month of coding.