Coding

The past couple of months we have introduced coding to grade one students through some of the websites on Hour of Code (Kodables, Lightbot and Candyquest).  Most students have found the programs challenging but they’ve persevered, however, other students have given up quickly and found it frustrating.  While I’ve found these to be a great start to coding, it hasn’t related to anything else we’ve been doing in the classroom.  We did a few  “dumb robot” coding in the gym, where they students worked in groups and tried to program each other through a course (jump in the hoop, out of the hoop, over the rope, etc.).  I would like to do more of this, related to math shapes, as we did this morning.  This would then transition into coding a square/rectangle etc. into a program such as ViMAP.

We have daily (almost) STEAM stations where students are building with a variety of materials.  I’m still working on how to “mathematize” these activities.  Any ideas?