Anna Maria Cires Teacher of Computer Science and Robotics, Heritage International School

Anna Maria Cires explains how very young learners can grapple with coding concepts – even without the computer

In my previous article 5 Reasons Why Programming is Important for Young Ages we discussed the benefits of starting to learn programming from an early age. In this article, we will continue discussing the same topic with a focus on which tools and methods can be used in the teaching process.

How can we teach coding to children from 4-5 years old? Is it good to begin dealing with computers so early? Or are there any other methods to teach programming concepts and, once they are ready, pupils can smoothly move to computers?

It may seem illogical to code without computers, but it makes perfect sense.

Fortunately, yes! There are methods to teach concepts of programming called offline programming, unplugged coding activities or hands-on activities. It may seem illogical to code without computers, but actually, it makes perfect sense. Children can learn and practise computational thinking, ordering tasks sequentially, while developing creativity and collaboration.

Below, you will find 5 engaging offline and online coding activities with short description and links. These activities are presented in ascending order according to their difficulty.

1. Hot wheels

This is a grid-based coding game that will help the child to learn sequencing, algorithms and debugging.
Materials needed: space, toy-cars, coding cards (instructions), car tracks, red paper to make hot lava squares. Set up a grid 4*5, cut red squares from paper, then insert randomly inside the grid squares.
How to play: The game requires two players: a programmer and a robot car. The programmer gives the instructions (for example, left, right, forward, backward) and the robot car follows them.

2. CodyRoby

This is an amazing unplugged activity with basic concepts of coding, algorithm and sequence. Roby and Cody are two characters of the game: Roby is a robot who performs tasks, and Cody is a programmer who assigns tasks.
Materials needed: it is possible to draw your own cards and playground, but ready-made cards can be downloaded.
How to play: move forward, turn left, and turn right – these are the main instructions of the game, illustrated by an arrow on cards. Cody chooses a card and assigns it to Roby, who moves on the chessboard accordingly.

3. If/Then Backyard Coding Game

The main goal of this activity is to learn conditional statements If/Then. Conditional statements are instructions that tell a computer which decision to take depending on a specific event. A simple example from real life: condition > If it  is raining outside, statement > Then I will take an umbrella.
Materials needed: a group of kids and a playground.
How to play: children take turns to play the programmer role, while the rest of the group are computers. The programmer gives commands to the computers standing in front of them: "If I ____ (condition), Then you _____ (statement)." For example: "If I touch my ears, Then you touch your ears”, or something more challenging "If I touch my knees, Then you touch your nose."

4. Encode an Emoji

A pixel is the smallest element that makes up an image on a digital screen, and it can be of different colors. An image can be displayed by a computer only if it ‘knows’ the color and the position of each pixel. In the image below, the letter I is represented and the color of each pixel is listed in order.

Materials needed: Cards with pixelated images. They can be easily handmade or downloaded (some examples here). How to play: Into the list of colors above we can notice a pattern. Green is written 3 times in the first line. Then one time white, one  time green and one time white again, till the last row of the image – and encoding is done! To turn encoding into pictures, you need to start by reading numbers from each row in order. Thanks to this activity, kids will learn that encoding is a way to represent and store information. They will also learn about compression, which is a technique to minimize the quantity of space in computer memory.

After the child has practised unplugged coding activities and learned some basic concepts about computer science and programming, it's time to switch to computers!

5. Scratch Junior

This is one of the best free visual programming languages to create the first projects in the digital world. Programs are assembled from multi-colored blocks. ScratchJunior is a desktop application, and it can also be downloaded for tablets. How to play: Just drag and drop blocks on coding space and interconnect them. The first block is always the yellow block with the execution condition. Kids can design exciting stories with a lot of characters, action games that can be played afterwards, and even cartoons, all while developing sequencing skills. Here are a series of ideas to be inspired to design similar or new projects.

Programming has become part of the new universal literacy, with the same importance of the ability to read or write. This is literacy that helps to support and stimulate creativity, and opens up sources of inspiration to express ideas of our children.

In the third part of this series, I will explain how to create and design an unplugged coding activity on any topic and idea with fewer resources – and much fun!

 

Reading and resources

 

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