5th grade Coding

Today everyone was working on their Scratch projects and doing many different kinds of things within those programs.

I'm going to start to highlight a student or two each week and the project they are working on.   

This week's featured programmer is Noah A.!

Noah is creating "The Game of Science" that will help people to learn about the scientific method.  He has this great little frog that snatches flies out of the air.  The flies are tied to terms and ideas that you would need to know about when planning an experiment in Science class.  The goal is to "catch" all the flies by answering the games questions correctly.  

Noah's game is:

• challenging to code
• a fun idea
• educational
• unique
• AWESOME!

3rd grade Scratch Coding

Here is a link to some projects I am sharing to help you begin creating your own Scratch game or animation.  The program we worked on together in class is also here for you to look at to remember what we did.

Some of my programs are basic and some are pretty complicated.  Check them out and figure out what kinds of features you'd like to include in your project and I'll teach those in class.

5th Grade Coding - Scratch

Today the students were working on their individual Scratch projects.  Every student in my 2nd hour came with their homework done!  Way to go 2nd hour!

The students that were ready with their homework got some extra assistance  on their project.  In 2nd hour this meant that we were able to actually create a mini game that contained bit of programming that almost all of the students needed to learn to help create their game.  They learned how to code so the program knew when a score had been made, how to keep and show the score, how to create random movement in their project and how to get precise movement as well.  This got them a good start on creating basic games.

With games in mind I wanted to share that Code.org has extended their lessons to creating a shareable Flappy Bird game based aps.  Below is a link to a game I created to try it out and the link to where you and your child can go to create their own.  You can share the link through Facebook, Twitter, through a text, or if none of those work for you you can do what I did and copy the web address and email it to someone.

Flappy Code -Lesson 1

My game!

3rd Grade Coding - Scratch Project

Most of the students are finished with the lessons at Code.org and have moved into working on Scratch.  Their first assignment is to have the program print all of the letters in GALACTIC on the screen.  They worked to write this code out on paper using what they had learned through Code.org.  Now they are trying to translate their work into Scratch.  They figure out pretty quick that there are MANY similarities between the two and this helps them to maneuver through the free programming aspect of Scratch.

Next the students are choosing a project of their own.  Most will create some kind of simple game, however some of our advanced and dedicated coders are setting their sights high!  Quinlan is writing a game program that will help others learn about chemistry and the periodic table.  I suggested to the students that they think about writing some kind of review or educational game based on a class they took last year at GALACTIC.  Space, Spanish, and Seuss could make for a lot of cool projects that the teacher could use with this year's 2nd grade classes.  Music and Motion, Africa, Rain Forests, Engineering, and Math - the choices are HUGH!

If you are at all interested in trying your own hand at coding I strongly recommend Code.org and Scratch as some fun ways to learn a little and connect with what your children are doing here at GALACTIC.  Here are links to both sites: 

Scratch

Code.org 

Make sure to check out my other posts  about both 3rd and 5th grade Coding Class.

5th Grade Coding - Scratch Project Homework

Today in 5th grade the students began to work on their first major independent programming challenge.  Each student is choosing their own project and writing code to make it happen.  Some are doing educational games and other games just for fun.  A few are using Scratch to program animation and tell a story.  Some are art creating programs.

Here is a game I am working on coding.  Target Timer is a work in progress and there is a lot more to come as I teach the students about the possibilities of Scratch.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/27292323/

    Target Timer

The students  have homework for the first time.  They need to make a detailed list of the things they are going to need to figure out in order to reach their project goal.  In other words, what with the program need to do in order to create the game or animation they have planned.

An example from the Target Timer game above would be that I needed to figure out:

• how the program would know if the target had been hit
• how to keep score
• how to know if the new score was better than the last
• how to get the target to change size
• how to get the target to move to a random location

The students need to bring this list next week to class so I have a point at which to begin helping them.  I'll be able to help them prioritize their list and give them something to work on while I am helping other students.