Coding in 1st Grade

Now that our nest building project is finished, we have been working on computer coding in class in several different ways.  Students are learning to think through a task logically and put the steps in the correct sequence.  They have to test their program and fix errors, then test again.  With so many electronic devices in the world, from our computers, iPads, and smartphones to microwaves, thermostats, and cars, coding is a skill that will be required in many future careers!  We have several great iPad apps that teach coding in a fun gamified way.  Kids love to play Kodable especially.  We also recently used a website called learn.code.org and another app called Hopscotch to write some more complex code.  

This week the kids designed roads and then programmed the robot roamers to follow the path and stay on their road.  Here are some robot programmers in action.  Notice the code they were writing down on their iPads in many of the pictures - the arrows that tell the robot which way to go.  Isaiah even invented his own shortcut way of writing the code.  Instead of writing 4 forward arrows, he just wrote one arrow and put a 4 under it to show how many times to repeat that command!

Learning to Code

Today my class learned some more about writing computer programs.  We have already worked on this with apps like Kodable and Hopscotch.  The students are learning to put the commands they want to use in a logical order to carry out a task.  Today we went to a website called learn.code.org and created our own versions of the Flappy Bird game.  The website has a nice tutorial that took us through the process step-by-step and then the final step was to design their own game.  Some students made the game character change locations as they played or created a game where you got points for crashing on the ground - a point for each bounce!  Some kids created an endless game that you can never lose.  Most of the kids have posted a link to their game on our class blog today.  You can try out their games by going to their posts here.  You can also go to the original site and try to make your own version or let your child show you how they program the game.  Here's my undersea version!