Today Primary 1 were thinking about how to write a code to program a toy. We looked at a battery operated toy and talked about how we could get it to move, for example pressing different buttons to make it walk or stop.
Task 1
We did a robot dance activity which involved us moving like a robot by following a set of instructions.
Task 2
We talked about how these instructions could be shown as symbols, an arrow for moving forward and a round arrow for turning (a quarter turn). Mrs Collins arranged the symbols into a “code” for us to follow.
Task 3
Mrs Collins had laid out different pathways for the wheeled toys to follow. We had to match the correct sequence of symbols to it’s matching pathway.
Task 4
Mrs Collins then “cleared” her codes and we had to write our own ones. We tested them with a partner to see if we could write a code that took you from the start to the end.
Task 5
To finish the afternoon we had some fun, using what we had been learning to program the Beebots to move around the classroom. We had to work nicely with a partner sharing and taking turns.
This is fantastic, such a clever way to introduce coding!