A ten-lesson sequence progressing from the basics of Scratch through to creating simple games. It includes:

• drawing shapes and using repeats
• accepting keyboard input to control the movement of sprites
• planning algorithms using flow diagrams and executing them in Scratch
• ...

This unit of six lessons does not assume any prior programming knowledge and covers the following guidelines in the National Curriculum:

• Design - write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into...

This Barefoot Computing resource for upper-primary computing lessons uses the creation of a Scratch maths quiz as a basis for learning about algorithms using selection.

Children are asked to create an algorithm that...

This Barefoot Computing resource builds on the ‘Maths quiz with selection’ learning activities which should be undertaken first.

It involves improving an existing Scratch maths quiz and adding score-keeping using...

This collection of twelve Scratch cards is designed to provide a quick way to learn how to code using the language Scratch. The front of the card describes to the students what can be done; the back explains how to do it. Each card can be printed and folded to A5 size for use with students. The activities cover how...

This Barefoot activity for young programmers exploits the sequencing and timing of joke-telling to help students learn good programming techniques. After planning an animation using a storyboard technique they then code it using the Scratch Jr app, and debug it. Tips for supporting the less able, as well as...

In this activity, children work in pairs to learn and set each other challenges using the Rapid Router software.

The challenges include the use of Loop, If and Repeat Until commands, asking children to consider how they can automate a process and create efficient code. The activities focus on driving a...

In this, the final activity of a sequence of eight, children are asked to use their knowledge to create a challenge using Rapid Router, solvable using Python. It will ask their partner to use procedures, increment variables and apply different methods of control flow.

The resource includes an overview of...

Lesson 8 in a series of lessons using Rapid Router, the game-like environment for learning programming. This session takes loops and repetition further, and includes reusing statements and nested loops.

The resource includes wall displays, worksheets, model answers and assessment sheets.

The 5th lesson in the Rapid Router series adds complexity to algorithms, raising the level of challenge and building on familiar contexts from earlier activities.

Also included are wall displays, teacher and peer assessment sheets, worksheets and model solutions.

This extension activity features in the upper-primary Blockly course, by the Rapid Router team at Code for Life. It explores the limits of generalised solutions, introducing children to the idea of algorithm testing and debugging. Children are asked to apply logical thinking to different problems, and analyse what...

This activity makes the leap from Blockly to Python programming. The 'grocery van driving challenge' is reduced from previous lessons to allow students to concentrate on syntax and correct coding using a limited set of instructions. Matching of Blockly and Python code is encouraged to assist the transition.

This Rapid Router lesson uses the Blockly language to develop ideas about selection, repetition, and conditionals. Children progress from specific instructions to spot patterns that can be made into generalised solutions. This important step helps learning about abstraction and pattern generalisation, two...

This activity in the Rapid Router series takes children further in their transition to text-based programming in Python.

By creating Blockly programs and comparing them to the automatically-generated Python code, children are encouraged to identify code which matches. The complexity of the problems is...

This lesson, in the Blockly Rapid Router series, challenges children to create their own maps which are then offered to classmates to solve. Creating the maps requires logical...