Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, NJ, will be actively participating in Computer Science Education Week from December 5-11, 2022, with daily coding and computing activities across all grade levels. Parents and caregivers can reinforce these in-school activities with assignments at home. Here are some suggestions and some helpful web resources.
- Utilize the learning resources at Hour of Code. Many classes are available, including a variety offered offline and device-free or minimal internet required.
- Build your robot out of recycled materials in the house or legos
- Magnetic Tiles Coding Game: This easy unplugged coding activity uses magnetic tiles to incorporate coding into playtime.
- Play the Simon Says Robot Game. The individual playing the role of Programmer explains to children that they are robots and cannot perform a task until the Programmer tells them precisely what to do. For example, the Programmer says, “Touch your head.” Robots touch their heads. The Programmer says, “Touch your head, spin around, touch the ground.
- Play an If/Then Conditions game. For every round, one child is the Programmer, and everyone else is Computer. The Programmer stands in front of the Computers and gives them commands: “If I ____ (fill in the blank), Then you _____ (fill in the blank).” For example, the Programmer could give the command, “If I turn in a circle, Then you turn in a circle.” Or the Programmer can give challenging instructions like “If I touch my nose, Then you touch your legs.”
- Play the Code Master Board Game or any game that is logic/puzzle based, like The Uzzle Game, Square Up, or Blokus.
If you have Pinterest, you will find lots of inspiration for learning coding “unplugged” here.
Here are some helpful apps you could also consider downloading at home:
- Kodable - used in school as well
- Swift Playgrounds
- Scratch Jr - used in school as well
- Khan Academy
- https://scratch.mit.edu/
- Any app that uses Block programming for beginners to intermediate coders
The folks at CSEdWeek want you to celebrate your progress on social media. Have you learned something new as the week evolved, made a breakthrough, or changed your perspective? Use their “How it started, how it’s going …” social media templates to show the world your own personal CS progress.
