Planets for Kids – Coding the Planets in Order

May 11, 2017 By Deirdre

I think children remember facts and concepts when we have them interact with them. This algorithm coding activity will make it easy to remember the planets for kids. Your children will build an algorithm or create a series of steps that connects the word Start to the planet, Neptune.

Planets for Kids Activity

Getting Ready

You will need to start by printing out the Planets in Order Coding Activity. It was created with colored planet graphics. While you could print it out in black in white, the characteristics of each planet may be hard to see in black and white.

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You may want to share a solar system poster for kidsor book on the solar system like Smart Kids: Space: For Kids Who Really Love Space!before starting the coding activity.

Starting the Activity

Your children will start at the word Start and decide what direction they will need to go to get to Mercury. (They can really only decide to go up or to the right due to Mercury’s placement on the grid.) An arrow pointing the direction they think they should go will then be drawn in the box to the right or above the word Start.

Children will continue connecting the planets with arrows. As they connect the planets together, they are creating an algorithm. I mentioned saying up, down, left or right. If you would like them to say that they are going north, south, east or west that will be fine.

When the have reached the box right before Neptune, your children are not done with the planets for kids activity. You will want to take the time to have them describe the path they have created. There is more than one way that they could have created their algorithm. It will be fun for you to hear why they made the choices the did.

This post is part of a series of solar systems activities. Below you will find a complete list of the solar system activities I have shared this week.

Planet Crafts- Paper Plate Solar System

Printable Constellation Mats

Hydroponic Gardening- Bean Space Garden

If you like this Planets for Kids activity and are interested in doing more coding with your kids, here are some wonderful coding activities and printables.

Life Cycle of a Spider Coding Activity
Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity and Printable
Code Your Name STEM Fun for Kids
Coding Activity- Going on a Bear Hunt

Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity for Preschoolers

April 25, 2017 By Deirdre

Little Miss Muffet is great nursery rhyme to use to teach young children how to code. Children will just have a simple rhyme to repeat and sequence on the. While many of you have loved my Gruffalo and Very Hungry Caterpillar coding sheets, they have coding grids with more pictures and spaces. The Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity has fewer spaces. The spaces one the grid are also much larger.

How to Code Little Miss Muffet

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Before you start this coding activity, you will want to read the Little Miss Muffet to your children. While many of them will probably have heard it some may not have.

You will also want to explain to your kids that they will be creating an algorithm. (They will love getting to learn a new big word.) The definition I use for an algorithm with my students is that is a series of steps needed to complete a task. This coding activity lets them create the steps they need to get from the beginning to the end of Little Miss Muffet.

Before Your Code

You may want to have your children retell the nursery rhyme these Little Miss Muffet Sequencing Cards before you start coding. Your children can identify the graphics on each of the cards. Then they can place them in order.

Hint: There are three different versions of the sequencing cards. You can print whichever version of the cards that you like. I have included a black and white version that would be simple to photocopy a set for each of your kids.

Coding Activity

Children will start in the bottom left-hand corner. They will need to draw up arrows in the boxes between the words and picture of the tuffet or stool.

Then they will decide if they need to draw arrows that will go up, down, left or right to get to Little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey. If they say that two more up arrows are needed, they will be right.

Next, they will need to decide what direction they will need to go to get to the spider. Some children will need to use their arms or hands to figure on what direction to go.) Then they will draw the right arrow.

The next picture they need to draw arrows to the spider sitting beside her. Children will need to draw down arrows in the boxes leading up to the spider sitting beside her.

Finally, children could draw two down arrows and then an arrow pointing to the right. They could draw an arrow to the right of the picture and two down arrows. You can tell your children that there is sometimes more than one way to complete an algorithm.

If you like this nursery rhyme activity, here are some more:

Little Jack Horner Craft

Nursery Rhyme Sequencing

Bingo Cards with Nursery Rhymes

Code Activity for Kids- Gruffalo Coding Sheet

February 23, 2017 By Deirdre

A great way to work on story retelling and building an algorithm is to select a story that your children love already. The Gruffalo is one on my son’s favorite books. I bet your kids love it too. This code activity for kids asks children to connect the events in the story from its beginning to end.

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If your children haven’t read The Gruffalo, you will want to read it to them before starting this code activity.

Code Activity for Kids

The first thing you will need to do is to printout The Gruffalo Code Activity for Kids. While the graphic are color, it will be fine to print them out in black and white.

Your children will start this activity by finding the mouse standing by himself in the bottom left had corner of the The Gruffalo Code Activity for Kids sheet. That is where they will start retelling the story and creating their algorithm.

As you read or walk your children through the story, they will need to draw an arrow in each box connecting the events. Some events will be connected by arrows pointing up or down. Some events will be connected by arrows pointing to the right or left. There will be others that are connected by an arrow pointing up in one box and one pointing left or right in the next.

In many cases there are several different ways to connect the events. You can encourage your children to connect the events with the fewest number of steps.

If you like this code for kids activity, her are some more coding activities you children will enjoy.

Coding for Kids- The Day It Rained Hearts

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Coding Printable

Plant Growth Algorithm Coding Printable

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Coding Activity

If your children really love The Gruffalo, here are some more wonderful Gruffalo themed activities.

No Bake Gruffalo Cookies

Fine Motor Pre- Writing Activity with a Gruffalo Tool

Gruffalo Wooden Spoon Puppets.

Coding for Kids- The Day It Rained Hearts Algorithm

February 6, 2017 By Deirdre

Teaching children how to write an algorithm or set of rules for completing a task doesn’t have to been challenging. You can take a book that they are familiar with The Day It Rained Hearts, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or Going on a Bear Hunt. Then you can have them connect the events in the story in order.

Let me walk you through how to do this using the book The Day It Rained Hearts.

Coding for Kids Activity

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You will need to print out enough of The Day It Rained Hearts Coding Activity sheets for your children.

Then you will need to read the story Day It Rained Hearts to them. Even if they are familiar with the story it is a good idea to refresh their memory of the events in the story.

Next, you will explain to them what an algorithm is. I keep it simple and tell them it is a series of steps. A step can be up, down, left or right.

Your children will need to draw arrows on the coding for kids activity sheet to connect the events of the story.

Example:

They will draw an arrow pointing up in the box above the raining heart box to get to the catching hearts box.

Next, they will draw an arrow pointing up in each of the boxes leading up to looking at the hearts in the hand.
By connecting the pictures in order with arrows they children are coding or creating an algorithm. The algorithm takes them for the beginning of the story all the way to the end of it.

Here are more activities based on the book The Day It Rained Hearts:

Raining Hearts Name Craft from Still Playing School
Prewriting Valentine’s Day Pack from Kori at Home
Love Heart Number Line from Adventures and Play
Heart Shaped Pancakes from The Educator’s Spin on It
Preschool STEM: Valentine’s Tower from Preschool Powol Packets
Raining Hearts Viscosity Experiment from Inspiration Laboratories
Easy Heart Shaped Pancakes from The Educators’ Spin On It
Kindness Party for Kids from Toddler Approved
Hearts Sensory Bin from The Moments at Home
Heart Themed Sensory Board from Mama Smiles
Flannel Board Hearts from Mama Smiles
The Day It Rained Hearts Process Art from Artsy Momma
Easy Heart Art Painting from Messy Little Monster
Felt Hearts to Sew from Mama Smiles

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Algorithm Activity and Printable

April 18, 2016 By Deirdre

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is the perfect book for building a coding algorithm. It asks over and over again what is being seen. On the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Algorithm Activity children will draw arrow from the brown bear to first thing that he sees. After drawing arrow north connecting the brown bear to the red bird, children will need to decide which direction they need to go to get to the yellow duck. Will they need to go just one direction or a combination of directions to get from the bear to character at the end of the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

There really isn’t just one series of steps that needs to be used to get from one animal to another. There are definitely shorter routes and longer routes. When you are building an algorithm, you want create the shortest number of steps between one thing and the next. When I am building paper algorithms with my students, we try to do the same thing.

While I advocate that they just use one direction per box and try not to place a direction in the animal box on this Brown Bear, Brown Bear printable, it doesn’t always happen. Some try to come with complex algorithms that have lots of directions. I unusually take the time to tell my student that computer coders or programmers try to make their algorithms simple. Too many steps or a complicate series of steps can lead to trouble.

The ultimate goal is to give my students an understanding of coding even when they are in kindergarten or first grade. My older students are learning to code using Code.org. Next year my first graders will be using it too.

Plant Growth Algorithm Coding Worksheet

March 28, 2016 By Deirdre

A few weeks ago I shared a few algorithm building coding activities. Two of the activities were based on the books. The first one was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and the second was based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Recently I made another coding building or sequencing activity based on the growth of a bean plant. This activity isn’t based on any particular book. I will share with you at the end of this post a collection of really wonderful plant related fiction and non-fiction books.

We start out with bean plants as seeds at our house. The plant growth algorithm worksheet does too. Starting at the packet of seeds children will draw arrows to show the direction we need to go to follow the bean seeds growth.

Example: You will need to head up or north to get to the seed out of the seed packet. You would draw up arrows in each box that leads you up to the seed. (If you like you can say north, instead of up.)

Once you reach the seed, you need to decide what directions you will need to go to reach the seed growing a tiny root. There is more than one way to get to each step in the plant growth sequence. Below you will find the route we took to get from the seed packet to the full grown plant.

The goal of this activity isn’t to find the perfect route. The goal is to try to build an algorithm. Working with algorithms using things that children know like plant growth helps them begin to understand coding. It also allows them to work on direction and positional words.

Here are some wonderful books on plant growth we have read and I think you will like. Some are fiction books while others are non-fiction.

Planting a Rainbow

Pick, Pull, Snap!: Where Once a Flower Bloomed

From Seed to Plant

Jack’s Garden

The Tiny Seed: Book & CD (The World of Eric Carle)

Flower Garden

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Coding Activity

March 23, 2016 By Deirdre

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is not only a classic for young children. It is a great book for teaching children how to build algorithms. It has a series of events that are really easy for children to follow and remember. (If your children haven’t had the opportunity to hear or read the story they are in for a treat.) Each day The Very Hungry Caterpillar eats something different as it prepares to become a butterfly. On the Hungry Caterpillar Algorithm worksheet I created children will need to go from the caterpillar to each of the food he ate to his becoming a butterfly. You will notice I didn’t include all the foods that he ate on his hungriest day. Instead I just drew a picture of the salami. After moving up, down, left or right to get to each of the food, children will need to make their way to the butterfly.

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I usually fill out my own algorithm coding sheet as my students or son work on theirs. It helps us to stay on track and not get lost. You totally don’t have to do that. After explaining what to do, you could put out a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillaralong with a pencil and the worksheet. Your children could refer back to the book when they needed to remember just when he ate each food item . I bet they would be able to complete the coding algorithm on their own.

If your children need to get up and move, you could put the food and butterfly pictures on index cards. Your children could space the cards out on the floor. Then they could tell you how they would get to each one. They would still get to work on direction words up, down, left or right.

Here are some other coding activities that you can do with young children:

Superhero Coding Activity Without Computers

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Algorithm Printable Activity

Coding Games- Building and Walking an Algorithm

You will find more coding activities like this The Very Hungry Caterpillar Algorithm activity on my Early Learning Math board on Pinterest.

Coding Activity- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Algorithm

February 21, 2016 By Deirdre

Learning to code isn’t something that you have to wait for your children to get older to do. I have been working on coding with my kindergarten and first-grade students. We started by exploring what an algorithm is. They were told an algorithm is the series of steps needed to complete a task. There have been several activities we have used to learn about algorithms. I shared the walking and building an algorithm coding activity with you last week. This week I want to share with you the Going on a Bear Hunt algorithm coding lesson we did just a short time ago.

Coding Activity

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We started by reading the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. The kids loved the rhythm and repetition found in this book. Many had learned hand signs to going with each area the family encountered in the book. After coming to a consensus as to which hand signs we would use, I reread the book while they make the signs.

After we had read the book twice, I passed out a We’re Going on a Bear Hunt that I had made. We talked about how we were going to create an algorithm on the grid that followed the events of the story.

We started at the house of the family in the book. Then I asked a student to share with me if we needed to go up, down, left or right to get to the field. When we had decided that we needed to go up, we talked about how many squares we needed to go up. They drew an arrow in the square between the house and the field.

From the field box we talked about the direction we needed to go to get to the stream. After deciding to go up, they drew arrows in the squares between the field and the stream. We continue creating an algorithm that would ultimately lead us all the way to the bear.

As you probably noticed in the pictures above, JDaniel worked on this activity at home with me too. He does a great job of letting me know if an activity works and if it is fun before I try it with my students at school.

If you like this algorithm activity, here are some more you will love:

Algorithm and Building a Magical Creature Worksheet
Let’s Build an Algorithm Based on Ten Apples Up on Top
How to Make Slime with Liquid Starch Algorithm Coding Activity
Learn to Code with a Children’s Book – Hen Walking Algorithm Printable

You will find more STEM activities like this algorithm coding activity on my Early Learning Science and Early Learning Math boards.

Coding Games -Building and Walking an Algorithm

February 15, 2016 By Deirdre

An algorithm is step by step set of operations need to reach a goal. I taught my students how to build and walk an algorithm by playing a series of coding games. They liked it so much I brought it home for my son to play. The first of the two games is one I made up to introduce algorithms. The second game is one I learned when I attended a workshop offered by Coding.org. I called both coding games Searching for Treasure. The goals of both of the games was to guide someone to the piece of paper with the treasure box. We used the directional words up, down, left and right as we guided them to the treasure box. You could used the words north, south, east and west if you like.

Coding Games

Treasure Up

This version of Searching for Treasure is called Treasure Up because all of the kids can see the picture of the treasure box. The treasure box picture is facing up.

I had the children sit behind the array of papers so they would be facing the same way the child would be walking. That way up, down, left and right would mean the same thing to all of them. The key to having children create a successful algorithm is knowing the direction words to give the child following them. Making sure we all could see if the child was heading to the picture helped to know if we were on course.

At school I had a larger space to learn in. I placed the treasure box paper near the top of an array of paper. The array was made of five rows of four pieces of paper. That opened the door to having a variety of algorithms created by the students. There were a lot of ways to guide them to the treasure.

We don’t have a lot of room at home. I created a simple path that offered a few different ways to create an algorithm. My son was able to get a feel for the game even with fewer pieces of paper.

Once the direction words were explained, the children took turns sharing the direction they student on the starting paper should go. (Any piece of paper can be your starting place.) They had to remember that the key was to create an algorithm that would guide them to the treasure.

Treasure Down

This version of the coding games has a tricky element. That element is that the picture of the treasure box is turned upside down. Why is it tricky? The class or the algorithm creator has to remember where the picture is. I had the student who would be walking the algorithm leave the room while I had another student place the paper in array. The whole class had to remember where it was while they built the algorithm of steps. At home I needed to remember on my own. (Maybe is was better that I had fewer pieces of paper in the array at home.)

If your children forget where the treasure is, you can have the child walking turn away from group. You can then point to the paper they need to guide them too.

This is part of a series of STEM activities being shared on a number of wonderful blogs. For a full list of all the STEM activities including several more coding games please visit Left Brain Craft Brain. (They are hosting this wonderful event.) You will also find a number of STEM activities on my Early Learning Science Activities board on Pinterest.