Coding Unplugged: Getting First Graders Ready to Code!

I LOVE teaching first graders the basics of coding. They get so psyched, and there are so many cool things you can do with it! Our district uses the amazing Kodable curriculum (which is free! Check it out!) and I think the student lessons are amazing, but I like to integrate some more literacy into my introduction lessons!

Week 1: What is Code?

We started out by introducing the word code. I read the first few pages of Drawn Together by Minh Le, which tells the story of a boy and his grandfather who are having trouble communicating because they speak different languages. I stop while they are still unable to communicate, and we talk about how difficult it can be to understand someone if you aren't speaking the same language. Then I show them our code word card: the language computers speak. We discuss how computers can't understand us if we speak English, because they speak code, not English! (Thankfully no one brought up Alexa or voice-activated technology....I could see that being a bigger issue down the road!) In pairs, students had to interpret a message written in code, using the code translator on the paper to decipher the message. I just found a cute fall decoding freebie on TpT!

 

Week 2: Commands and Programs

Next we read Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit and worked to write a program to get our "robot" Clifford through the events of his story. I bought some giant puzzle pieces that I arranged into a sort of maze and placed different locations from the story on it. Any story would work for this - I like this one because it has a very clear and linear sequence of events!

I introduced Clifford the "robot" by telling them that, since he's a robot, he only speaks in code, and his code only has four words in it, which we call commands. I drew those four commands on the whiteboard: four arrows, one facing each direction! In preparation for next week's independent work lesson, I had printed out arrows on label paper, and we used those to write a program for Clifford. We paused between every 3-5 commands so a student could test out the code by guiding Clifford through the maze, following only our instructions.

Week 3: Be a Programmer

Our last unplugged coding activity is for students to complete in pairs! We read The Very Stuffed Turkey, another very linear story with a clear sequence, and made a list of Turkey's barnyard friends in the order he visited them. Then each pair got a third of a label sheet of commands (Turkey speaks the same code Clifford did!) and a paper with a map of Turkey's friends and space for the program.

Centers & Looking Ahead

Our centers this week were Scratch Jr. on the iPad, ABCYA Mouse practice on the Chromebooks, and for the writing center, we've had the opportunity to make our own secret code using another freebie!

Next up? Introducing sequences, loops, and conditions through Kodable!