Kids Who Code: Part 2

Last week I introduced my students to "coding" for the first time. If you're not sure what coding is, check out this link.

First, I asked the students if anyone knew any languages in addition to English. It was interesting to learn that most students knew Spanish, thank you Dora!

I then explained that we were all going to learn the language that computers use and that it is called "code." Everyone cheered!

We started our lesson by laying down a path of foam tiles on the carpet. The students then used arrows to instruct me where to go so that I could get from one end of the path to the other. Sometimes their instructions didn't work and they had to figure out how to fix it. Each time I completed the maze, the students cheered and gave each other high fives.

Next I used the mirroring function on our Smart Board to introduce the Kodable app. Kodable is a great app available for free on iTunes. Students use code to instruct a cute little fuzz ball through a maze, while trying to collect as many coins as possible.

Kodable App

I played the first level to demonstrate and then the students took over selecting arrows and giving our little fuzz ball directions. I could not believe how quickly they caught on.

Finally, the students were paired up and given their own iPads to try it out. It was awesome to see students working together, encouraging each other, problem solving, and trying over and over again without getting frustrated or giving up.

It sounds like a long process but the whole lesson took under 45 minutes, although many students begged to play for longer.

This week we will be teaching our grade 2 buddies about coding and introducing them to Kodable.

Kindess Matters

Today Mrs. Lowe surprised us with an empty wreath. We talked about the wreaths we saw around Remembrance Day and how they were symbols of peace. Mrs. Lowe explained that our wreath would be a symbol of our kindness to each other.

When students are caught doing kind things, they get to choose a ribbon to tie on the wreath. We are so excited to see how beautiful we can make it, with our kindness.

Some of the kind things we've been doing include:

• helping each other get ready for recess
• giving compliments
• straightening boots that have fallen over on the mat outside our room
• comforting a friend who has been hurt
• teaching each other new skills
• sharing toys 
• working as a team to complete a task or solve a problem

Working together to add ribbons.

This idea was inspired by the work of Debbie Clement. You can see more here.

Kids Who Code Project: Part 1

This is a post from Mrs. Lowe

I am so lucky to work in a profession where professional learning is encouraged and supported. Each year the Manitoba Teacher's Society provides grants for teachers to reflect and build on their professional practice.  Last year I was approach by Leah Obach and Devon Caldwell to submit a proposal to research and test the value of coding with kindergarten students. Coding is basically the language that computer programmers use to create programs, web pages, games, etc. We wanted to see if coding could be used as a tool for developing critical and logical thinking skills. We were ecstatic when we found out that our proposal was accepted.

A couple of weeks ago we spent an entire day working together on this project. Devon and Leah met at their local high school and I joined them via Skype. We made a plan for the day using One Drive. We started out by viewing a number of webinars, reading articles and blog posts. Then we uploaded apps, tested them and reviewed each of them.

Excited to be working with awesome teachers and friends!

Our exploring led us to an event called the Hour of Code on Friday, December 12. It looked very exciting but it would not be nearly enough time to cover everything we had planned. In addition, we have decided to do an entire week of coding activities to be concluded with a Code-A-Thon!


As with most projects, it's more fun to work with friends, so we have decided to connect with other classes through Skype and even teach our grade 2 buddies about coding. It will be fun to see the kindergarten students in the role of teacher to their big buddies.

Please stay posted for updates on this exciting project!

You can read Devon's post here
You can read Leah's post here