Hour of Code

These past few weeks have been so exciting for Techkids!  After #skypeathon on December 3 & 4th, this week we used the #hourofcode to kick off coding in our classroom.  Coding is the language of the future and students will have regular opportunities to improve their coding skills throughout the remainder of the year.

We practiced coding using the following tools:

• Scratch . . . A free site from MIT allowing students to  “program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.”
• Dash Robot . . . Dash by Wonder Workshop, uses block coding similar to Scratch, but is more hands-on.  We created a course in our reading area to code Dash through.
• Ozobots . . . These nifty robots follow lines!  We draw courses and watch as the Ozobots follow them.  As Ozobots travel over different colors, they change to that color.  Students can use color codes to make Ozobots turn, go faster or slower and much more.  Ozobots can also travel on an iPad course using the app.
• Hour of Code website . . . this website has coding games and course for kids 4-100!  Many of the projects can be coded in an hour.
• iPad Coding Apps . . . we have several coding apps on our classroom iPads that kids can use.  Apps like Daisy the Dinosaur, Kodable, Light-bot and Cargo-bot are popular with students.

On Friday afternoon, we connected with Lucie Delabriere on Google Hangout.  She wanted to interview @techkids about their #hourofcode activities and kick off her Vermont Robot Rodeo.  Schools and classes can borrow a robot for a month to code and train to do tricks.  Lucie recorded our Google Hangout.  Enjoy! They were amazing!