If You Give a Pig a Pancake is a great jumping off point for coding with young children. They love the rhyme of the words and the story ends back where it started. After reading If You Give a Pig a Pancake, you can help your children connect the pictures on the coding printable to create an algorithm or series of steps that sequence the events.
If You Give a Pig a Pancake Coding Activity
Getting Ready for the Activity
You will need to print out either the BW or color versions of the If You Give a Pig a Pancake Coding Printable. When you select BW, the pictures will be uncolored and outlined in black and white.
Then you will need to get a copy of the If You Give a Pig a Pancake. If you plan to read the book to your students and then go over the sequence of events, you will just need one copy. If you want to create the algorithm in pairs or on their own, you will need more copies of the book.
Working on the Coding Activity
After reading the book, you will need to give each of your children a copy of the coding printable.
They will need to start at the bottom left-hand corner where you find the pig and the word start. Children will need to draw an up arrow in the box with the pig. Then they will need to draw an up arrow in the box between the pig and pancake. Next, they will need to draw an up arrow beside the syrup and one in the box above the syrup.
Children will continue drawing an arrow in each of the boxes that connect the events in order until they reach the pancake box with the word end in it. You may need to review the directions up, down, left, and right with your children and draw a sample arrow in each of the directions. It will help your children know what they look like.
If you like this coding activity based on a children’s book, here some more:
Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity and Printable
Coding Activity- Going on a Bear Hunt
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Algorithm Activity
Coding for Kids- The Day It Rained Hearts
Brown Bear, Brown Bear Coding Printable
The Snowy Day Coding Printable
