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The COMPUTING Curriculum
You can even trial this on the 'Hour of Code' website, which will give you the basic run through of the game and you can play without signing up. Kodable 'Hour of Code' LinkI can wholeheartedly recommend the App or the Web/PC version to help develop computational thinking and problem solving with such a young age group. This leads nicely into then developing their understanding with Apps and activities such as 'The Foos' and 'Lightbot Jr' further in the school and is worth talking the time to set it up!
I'll add a guide as to how you can set it up in this blog post later on.
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Weebly
As a teacher you have to first have a Weebly account before you can set up your pupils, but thats fine as it's free to do. Once you have an account up and running (I would set it up using your school email address) you can then add pupils to your account. The password protected video below outlines what you have to do to set it all up, no bulk update at present I'm afraid, so it's manual pupil entry for now!
The Video below goes over the basics of adding text and images to your Weebly page.
There are lots of other things you can do with Weebly, and if you buy into the full version, you get a lot of handy tools! Here is the link to my other Weebly post, should you be interested in doing more with it!
Adding You Tube Videos (on the Pro Version)
Staff and children alike rose to the challenge of using Lego WeDo in their year group and were able to also get to grips with using and Mac as well. Installed and running in the Mac Suite, each Year group will have the opportunity to try out this as part of their programming unit this year. Along with the challenge with getting to know the software and a new operating system, with the increase of secondary timetabling in there, we've also had to be flexible with our timetables! Thank you for everyone for being so patient and understanding with this!
Year 5
The first Year group to brave the use of this software in the school, and although the hope is that they advance to the Mindstorms range later on, they started brilliantly with this! They were able to not only construct the models they needed, but were able to design, write and debug their programs to make their 'Monkey' respond to triggers, such as movement (linked to a sensor) and sound. They also used their problem solving skills to refine programs and a little trial and error to come to their conclusions.
Both Teachers and Pupils were brilliant and came away with increased confidence and ability, as well as a desire to know more about programming using the WeDo software.
Year 4
Just a quick introduction into using the motor and then creating a cams system over two sessions as a link to the DT unit we were doing. The use of the Lego WeDo system to put it all together and problem solve was very valuable. Combine that with the enthusiasm and excitement of the children using the Mac suite and you had a very charged and stimulating environment!
Here's a video of how some of them did!
Year 2
Taking Key Stage 1 into the Mac Suite was going to be a challenge! Year 2 are rising to that and are making sure that these children get a great basic knowledge of programming and are able to use their 'logical reasoning' skills to great effect.
You can check out what they did and see a video example on the Year 2 Blog
http://bsaky2.weebly.com/whats-going-on/lego-wedo Other Year Groups!
Watch this space for other Year Groups trying their hand at this, and possibly a few using Mindstorms in our final term! (Fingers Crossed!)
A free tool, Scratch is a programming tool that allows users to create almost anything and try their hand at coding in a user friendly drag and drop coding block manner. That's not to say that it's easy, it takes some time to navigate the tools, the workspace and the various blocks, and i still haven't gotten anywhere near understanding them all yet! Help is on hand however, with lots of activities online through the hour of code, as well as projects and activities on the mic scratch page itself, Scratch allows you to self learn through interacting and playing with it.
Year 3
Year 3 have been able to piece together a simple story using Scratch2 this term in place of using Scratch Jr on the iPads, which they used to good effect last year. navigating the online version, children told the story of Boudicca and the Romans and were able to recreate a scene to tell a story, importing or creating their own backgrounds and characters and making them move with the programming that they've done.
Year 4
Year 5
Year 5 have used this coding tool to replicate that of MS Logo, the 'turtle' software that allowed use to recreate patterns in spirograph fashion by entering lines of code and instructions. Now its case of connecting the blocks, but it still requires the same understanding of angles within shape and equivalence in length etc.
There blog link below shows a little of what they did in their pursuit to crate geometric islamic art style patterns, and how they programmed in Scratch to do this. (They even worked out a problem that was bugging me for ages! Children are superb problem solvers!) Keep referring to see the types of patters they created and how they are progressing this term!
How to Access Lego WeDo - The Cam
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AuthorWith the computing curriculum becoming more about coding, creation and collaboration over the basics of word processing and document making, The curriculum we deliver needs to change. Here you can see what we are doing to work on and develop this using what we have available to us. . Archives
June 2016
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