As I'm sure many of you have heard this week educators are bringing an international focus to coding. Now when I hear about things like this, I usually write them off-how can I do this with my little ones? But after playing with some sites I saw that it really isn't a complicated concept to teach.
This video shows the importance of kids at least knowing what coding is:
There are tons of resources out there, we used the ones from http://code.org/ today.
I introduced the games they had whole group. They had one with Elsa in it, so it wasn't too hard to get them on board. They told her to step forward, to turn right, etc. in order to make a design. The puzzles got more challenging as we went along.
Then I had them partner up and write a code for their classmate to follow. They used arrows to make a path through the room to lead them to a destination.
I learned a few things today: 1) coding is not as challenging a concept as I once thought 2) Kinders can do anything!
We will continue different games throughout the week to drive the importance home. It was funny, one of the videos we watched talked about how literally millions of high-salary jobs will go unfilled because we are not teaching this to our kids. And one of my students asked "do people who do this make more than doctors?". Priorities! :)
I was skeptical about teaching coding to young children too! I'm glad to hear that you tried the Frozen activity with kinders. I thought it seemed too hard for my 2nd graders, but I guess not. They'll be so excited to try it on Friday. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteChrissy
First Grade Found Me