Last year, I had my K-5 media classes participate in the “Hour of Code” sponsored by Code.org. If you don’t know what that is, it is a fun way to introduce students to computer programming. If you’re thinking, “I don’t have a degree in computer science and I can’t possibly do this!”, you’re WRONG! I too was very nervous about attempting this, but I took a chance and it paid off big time! All classes tried the Angry Birds module and everyone (including me) had so much fun learning the basics of programming!
This year the official “Hour of Code” week is December 5-11 and they are using a module that features… (wait for it…)
You really have to try this! To get started, watch the video on how to set up your own Hour of Code. Kids were anxious to continue trying the coding activities on their own at home and I had parents commenting to me that they were so impressed their kids were getting an introduction to computer programming at school (Great PR for your library program!)
I do need to warn you that when I attempted to access the site during the official week in December last hear, I couldn’t. I think too many people around the world were trying to get on. Keep that in mind. You can do the Hour of Code anytime during the year. I think I ended up doing it a week later and it worked just fine.
To encourage your students to talk about the “Hour of Code” with their families, I’ve created some fun bookmarks that you can copy and hand out to students at the end of class. You can download them for free here: Free “Hour of Code” Bookmarks
Have fun with this! Let me know how YOUR Hour of Code went. I’d love to hear from you!
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