Coding Club: Driver Control Day #packintrain #codinginK

BIG WEEK THIS WEEK-We met Sphero!  Sphero is a ‘spherical robot’  capable of rolling around, and controlled by a smartphone or tablet. We met Sphero last week so the students had a heads up of what it looked like and how we could use it the next week.   

Students were also introduced to the Draw and Drive App which was how we controlled our robot today.

This week we reviewed introduced the Learning Objectives of:

• I will learn vocabulary words that will help me program
• I will work with other students to problem solve  Challenges on the iPad and with the Robots
• I will understand the relationship between the commands I make and the directions that the Robot moves.
• I will learn how to ‘pair’ Sphero to the iPad.

Vocabulary reviewed today included:

• Sequence:  Commands that are executed by a computer
• Command:  A specific instruction given to a computer in written code by a programmers.
• Pairing:  the way we ‘connect’ Sphero to the iPad
• Bluetooth: the wireless connection that supports the pairing.

Lesson Overview:

• We first talked about how to safely handle the iPad and Sphero in class.
• Next we broke off into partners and decided who would program and who would monitor Sphero.
• To start and have a better understanding of commands and directions we used hula hoops to give us physical boundaries in the gym.
• We started programming our robot to make simple shapes and then we progressed into having the robot change colors when it was moving.

THEN we added an extra challenge:Create a line back and forth that incorporates 3 different colors.

The results-the kids did fantastic!  They really picked up on programing and pairing quickly today-please let them know at home what a great job they did!

Prior to leaving class today we all practiced a little mindful breathing as we wanted to make sure our energy levels were showing we were ready to walk back to class by ourselves.

Let me know via Remind or give me a call if you have questions.  You are always free to stop in and join our class anytime!

 

Mrs. Cabeen

 

Meeting Daisy. #PackinTrain #CodinginK

Thank you all for your ongoing supporting of the Woodson Coding Club!  I really appreciated getting to meet many of you at conferences and enjoyed watching the excitement of your faces when your child demonstrated their learning on BeeBot for you.  If you missed me at conferences and want to try out BeeBot-just send me a note or give me a call and I can set up again in the office.

This week we were introduced to Daisy the Dinosaur.

Learn the basics of computer programming with Daisy the Dinosaur! This free, fun app has an easy drag and drop interface that kids of all ages can use to animate Daisy to dance across the screen. Kids will intuitively grasp the basics of objects, sequencing, loops and events by solving this app’s challenges. After playing Daisy, kids can choose to download a kit to program their own computer game

Daisy is a program that will extend the commands that we have learned with BeeBot into a format that starts to look more like what actual programming code looks like.  Students will ‘grab’ commands and move it into the programming box in order of how they want Daisy to move.  After each Challenge is completed they move onto the next one until all challenges are completed-then the teams can move into ‘free play mode’ and try to create their own code.

This step will prepare us for code.org and hopscotch as well as our next robot-Sphero.

This week we reviewed and introduced the Learning Objectives of:

• I will learn vocabulary words that will help me program
• I will work with other students to problem solve  Challenges on the iPad and with the Robots
• I will utilize positional language (forward/back/right turn/left turn) to communicate with my team, Robots, BeeBot app and Daisy the Dinosaur App.
• I will understand the relationship between the commands I make and the directions that the Robot moves.

Vocabulary reviewed today included:

• Sequence:  Commands that are executed by a computer
• Command:  A specific instruction given to a computer in written code by a programmers.
• Code:  The language written by humans to communicate with computers to complete a process; programming language that gives instructions to a computer.

Vocabulary introduced today:

• Turn, Grow, Jump, Spin (Daisy the Dinosaur).
• ‘When’ command

If you missed it here is the recent spot on KAAL about coding club:  KAAL Spot

 

Showing 150 Ways We Care #kidsdeserveit

Last school year we started intentionally finding ways to show our students, children, and those around us how much we care about them.  This year is no different.

During February Conferences each family at Woodson received the Search Institutes 150 Ways Poster and was given a challenge-choose one and do it.  Our results will be posted on Facebook with the following #150wkc and at the end of the month we will put all the pictures together for a powerpoint.

For more information on this year’s challenge check out our January Video.

For an article about last year’s first challenge check this out.

Feel free to take a look on facebook at #150WKC to see our new updates.

Keep Dreaming BIG for our LITTLEST Learners!

Jessica

 

 

 

Demonstrating our Learning #PackinTrain

Week Three of Coding Club!

Thank you for supporting your child’s participation in class-we have had another great week developing our vocabulary and application of new learning.

This week we continued the Learning Objectives of:

• I will learn vocabulary words that will help me program
• I will work with other students to problem solve  Challenges on the iPad and with the Robots
• I will utilize positional language (forward/back/right turn/left turn) to communicate with my team and BeeBot

Vocabulary reviewed today included:

• Sequence:  Commands that are executed by a computer
• Command:  A specific instruction given to a computer in written code by a programmers.
• Code:  The language written by humans to communicate with computers to complete a process; programming language that gives instructions to a computer.

During conferences this week I will leave a BeeBot and Mat in my office-please stop by and have your child demonstrate his/her learning for you.

A new area of focus for our class this week includes the following:

Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

During the class we are really working towards solving problems as a team instead of relying on the adults in the room.  These productive struggles can be frustrating at first-but by developing independence in our young learners they will carry forward in so many other aspects of their life.

We are looking forward to adding some new robots and app’s to continue our learning. Students are getting pretty good at understanding the coding and utilizing the iPad’s independently so I am planning on introducing a new robot friend next week. Stay tuned.

Session 2.1 2/4/2016 Encouraging Productive Struggles #PackinTrain #CodinginK

In preparation to teaching #PackInTrain I read Tony Wagner’s Creating Innovators as a way to understand how I might encourage your children to step outside of the known and start developing skills in the following areas:  curiosity, willing to experiment, perseverance, taking risks and learning to tolerate failure.  He stresses the following:

The essential elements of educating young people to become innovators:  the value of hands-on projects where students have to solve a real problem and demonstrate mastery; the importance of learning to draw on academic content from multiple disciplines to solve a problem; learning to work in teams.  pg.  52 Creating Innovators

This week we continued the Learning Objectives of:

• I will learn vocabulary words that will help me program BeeBot
• I will work with other students to problem solve BeeBot Challenges on the iPad and with the BeeBot
• I will utilize positional language (forward/back/right turn/left turn) to communicate with my team and BeeBot

Vocabulary reviewed today included:

• Sequence:  Commands that are executed by a computer
• Command:  A specific instruction given to a computer in written code by a programmers.
• Code:  The language written by humans to communicate with computers to complete a process; programming language that gives instructions to a computer.

Today we added a station to our rotations.

• BeeBot App:  this app on our iPad gave teams opportunities to try using positional language to navigate the BeeBot through various challenges.  The app makes use of Bee-Bot’s keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming through sequences of forwards, backwards, left and right 90 degree turns.
• BeeBot Floor Challenges:  Students will navigate the BeeBot through challenges that will include:
  • Number recognition and 1:1 correspondence
  • Shape/Color identification (navigate the BeeBot from purple triangle to the orange circle)
  • Letter/Sound Identification

Productive Struggles: This week I also used sentence starters and questioning techniques to support students solving problems on their own and with their peers instead of coming to the adult for the answer.  I have included these prompts below-please feel free to use at home.

• Ask Two Before Me (at home this might mean having your child tell you the steps they have already done to complete the task and what happened)
• Spend another two minutes trying
• I noticed you are finding ways to figure out (insert what they are working on) have you (insert a comment-but not the answer).  I noticed that you are doing a great job using the right turn/left turn commands on the BeeBot worksheet-I wonder what would happen if you included a forward command.
• I hear your frustration-you have worked really hard at this and I bet you are a little mad that the BeeBot isn’t going right where you want it to.  How about I set a timer for five minutes so you can take a break from this-rest your brain-and try again?

I will be sending home some BeeBot Challenges today for your child to explore at home. Feel free to use the prompts above and let me know if you find other ones that work.  The attached resource from the Search Institute could also provide some guidance on 7 Ways to Cultivate Students’ Problem-Solving Skills .

Remind:  Please sign up for remind I will be sending out notifications for blog updates through this tool starting next week.

Thank you again for your ongoing support of developing our innovation skills!

Mrs. Jessica Cabeen

 

 

Session #2.0-Snow Day Delay #PackInTrain

Well-it happens in Minnesota. Our lesson was postponed Tuesday due to weather.  Not wanting to loose the excitement of last week-I will attempt to reschedule this week’s session for Thursday.  This week we are having a guest collaborator as well.  Mr. David Wolff will be sitting in and helping me with developing some deeper questioning that helps expand the critical thinking skills of our kiddo’s.  Stay tuned for our first set of practice work to come home after Thursday’s session.

Also-during conferences I hope to have a coding station set up in my office so your child can walk you through what we have learned so far.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Mrs. Cabeen