School Age: Coding

It's our first week back after taking a break and we talked about coding and computer programming this week!

1. Reading
We read the book "Ada Lovelace: The Poet of Science" by Diane Stanley. It was certainly a longer book but it gave them just enough information about who Ada Lovelace was and what programming a machine means to make it easy for a younger elementary child to understand.

2. Discussion

We had a brief discussion, since the book was so long, about what coding is and how Ada Lovelace, who lived years before what we know as a digital computer existed, was still the first computer programmer. We also talked about coding languages and I showed them examples of binary code.

3. Activity

I explained that, since Ada's first experience was paper code, we were going to do a coding activity on paper as well. I created several different types of mazes (easy, intermediate, and difficult). I had the kids gather around tables and handed them the easy mazes. As a group we used arrows as our 'code' and spent time putting arrows in each block of the maze from start to finish. 

It was a little more difficult for the younger elementary even though my easy coding maze only took 5 steps. However! The parents were pleased at the activity and many of them commented that, although it was harder for their younger kids to do, they loved that it challenged them. 

I offered the more difficult mazes for the kids to take home after the end of the program.

4. Craft

We made keys chains to write the initials of their name in binary code. I created a worksheet that had the kids write each initial of their name in 3 rows. I used the ASCII Binary Alphabet and had the kids fill in the 7 parts of the binary code into the worksheet for each of their initials. I used the ASCII Binary Alphabet from the Little Bins for Little Hands blog.

Then, once the kids wrote their initials in binary code, we made the key chains. I handed them bags that had two different colored beads as well as a key chain ring. The easiest way to get the beads in the correct order was to have the kids place the beads over the binary numbers they wrote on the worksheet. 

After the beads were in order, the kids spent time stringing them onto their key chains. I used blue and white pony beads for them to use as the "1"'s and "0"'s in their binary code. I had red beads left-over from a previous craft that we used to put between the initials to designate where one ended and the next began. 

5. Take Away

As a take-home, since we don't have computers for kids to do digital coding on while they are in the program, I created a list of free websites and/or applications that the kids could learn how to code with. The ones I mentioned were Scratch, Kodable, Lego's Hour of Code, and Hopscotch. But there are tons of different applications and websites to teach kids coding nowadays!

Notes:

It was a little complex for the K-2 crowd but, with a little extra help from our parents, it went well. At the first program of the week we had the kids choose what maze level they wanted to do. That ended up being really hectic and confusing for a lot of the younger kids so I decided at the Friday program that we'd write the code through the maze together. That went much better! 

Also, I attempted to use the stretchy/thin jewelry string in addition to white ribbon (the kids could choose what string to use). The parents and kids were having difficulty using the jewelry string so, in the future, I'd keep from using that material in my programs.