There was a major shift of gameplay between worlds, so if your kid loves the free levels, they still may not love the paid version. STEAM Lab had a free subscription at the beginning of covid and several kids really enjoyed it. I like this, because playing around with functional code is a great way to learn programming, and quite frankly an accepted way to be a professional programmer as well.Ĭode Combat: This is gamified coding and it works pretty well. They walk you through the exact things to type, but also encourage a lot of play with your finished project. In this free hour of code you create a few apps. Learning a fully developed language requires typing, spelling, and problem solving skills, but can lead to more freedom.īitsbox: Bitsbox is a subscription box I’ve heard some positive things about. You’ll never catch me saying that block coding isn’t real, but sometimes it is limiting based on the platform you are doing it in. They progress to creating pong-like games. The tutorials are well done and easy to follow. There is reading at the start, but I think this would be suitable for pre-readers if a reader got them started.Īrt with Kano: Kano has a great drawing toolkit that lets folks programmatically create drawing by setting the background and pen colors and creating shapes and lines. ![]() ![]() Kids can also design their own challenges and the platform is forever free. This concept comes up in game design a lot, and I’ve never seen it taught so explicitly. Kids set collision events to create or delete shapes for the final outcome. ![]() Each level starts with a set of colored shapes and should end with a different set. It starts off a bit slow and it is a bit clumsy to me, but I think that is because of my preconceived notions. Plethora: This one is new to me and I think I really like it. I like education edition in concept and have even run some classes with it, but it is a bit buggy still and that can be frustrating. You can also download minecraft education edition and run through some free activities there. The fourth is more complex and allows kids to have events trigger behavior. They’re very popular and well done, but they do assume some basic minecraft knowledge. Minecraft: Three of these are Minecraft based puzzle games that teach kids how to sequence. It is a bit slow-paced and I almost didn’t include it, but so few coding activities talk about machine learning that I thought it was important. Kids train the bot to recognize fish and not fish and see how well it works. They can be skipped, but they are also all about underrepresented people coding in unique ways, so they’re pretty worthwhile.ĪI for Oceans: This activity teaches about machine learning and uses the ecological impact of trash in the oceans as a teaching tool. Website: Block-Based Programming for Readersĭance Party: This is the quintessential Hour of Code activity and kids tend to love it. It is not nearly so extensive as Scratch, but the simplicity makes it a great jumping off point. Scratch Jr is a block based app that allows kids to create movies or visual stories. These are a great jumping off point for having them create more of their own stories. This requires some more hands on work from a parent, but the lessons walk through an unplugged activity, teach some basics of how to use Scratch Jr, watch a 15 minute PBS video clip, and then have kids re-enact a scene in Scratch Jr. PBS ScratchJr: PBS has some really great guided lessons for ScratchJr. This can limit it for younger kids, but it adds a nice challenge for older kids. The number of commands becomes restricted over time forcing the use of functions. It works on sequencing and adds functions. The puzzles involve getting a robot to light squares, but he can jump, turn, light, and more. ![]() It is challenging enough for adults and simple enough for preK kids to at least start out. Lightbot: I love lightbot enough that I bought the full featured app awhile ago. Some amount of gameplay is free with hour of code.Ĭlick “Schools” in the upper left and then “Students” then “Hour of Code.” I recommend the puzzles, but you can design games as well. Most of these are still completely fun for older kids and even adults.ĬodeSpark Academy: I don’t love their pay structure it seems dishonest, and honestly my kid was done after a month, but the puzzles are great for problem solving and can be replayed to collect stars. Pre-reader activities just don’t involve written language. Most resources were pulled from Pre-Readers Here are some of the projects I find most valuable. Hour of Code can be a little overwhelming.
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