Summer Coding Club is a weeklong program for students in kindergarten through second grade. During the week, students explore and use different coding platforms such as Scratch Jr., Code.org or Tynker. The first few days are dedicated to learning the coding basics while the middle days are spent creating playable games and building programmable robots. Lastly, students get the opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of their choice in the passion project.
Aside from gaining knowledge in coding concepts, students build friendships, confidence in computational thinking (a problem solving technique), communication and critical thinking skills.
Day 1- Coding Foundations
- What is Coding- Scratch Garden Video
- Scratch Garden Coding (song lyrics and pintables can be downloaded for free from here)
- Code.org Rey and BB8
- Hello Ruby- Book Website (We read chapters 1 and 2 today)
- Free Downloadable activities here
- Scratch Jr. Home Page
- All About Me Collage (Adapted for Scratch Jr.)
- Vocab:
- Code: Giving instructions to a computer or robot in a language it understands
- Algorithm: Step by step instructions in order to complete a task or a goal
- Sequence: The order something happens in
- Computational Thinking: A problem solving technique involving decomposition, patterns, abstraction (removing the details of a solution to make it work for other problems) and algorithms
- K-2 Summer 2023 Day 1 Handout PDF
Day 2- Coding Foundations and Game Design
- Decomposition Video- Scratch Garden
- Scratch Garden Coding (song lyrics and pintables can be downloaded for free from here)
- Draw a Face Unplugged Activity PDF
- Tynker- Candy Quest Hour Of Code
- Hello Ruby- Book Website (Chapters 3 and 4)
- Free Downloadable activities here
- Scratch Jr. Home Page
- Scratch Jr. Crossy Road Video Tutorial
- Vocab:
- Decomposition: Breaking big problems down into smaller problems
- Sending Messages: How characters talk to each other on Scratch Jr.
- K-2 Summer Coding Club Day 2 Handout PDF
Day 3- Robotics
- Debugging- Scratch Garden Video
- Scratch Garden Coding (song lyrics and pintables can be downloaded for free from here)
- Code N Go Mice
- Sphero Bolt
- Hello Ruby (Chapters 5 and 6)
- Free Downloadable activities here
- Code.org Minecraft Hour of Code Adventure
- Vocab:
- Debugging: Finding and correcting mistakes (bugs) in code
- Bugs: Mistakes or errors in code
- Events: Starts lines of code (when the green flag is pressed, when run is pressed, when spacebar is pressed, etc.)
- K-2 Summer Coding Club Day 3 Handout PDF
Day 4- Robotics
- Loops- Scratch Garden Video
- Scratch Garden Coding (song lyrics and pintables can be downloaded for free from here)
- Frog Life Cycle Video
- Lego Young Frog Building Instructions
- Hello Ruby (Chapters 7 and 8)
- Free Downloadable activities here
- Vocab:
- Loops: A part of code that repeats a certain number of times, until something else happens or forever
- Patterns Recognition: Finding similarities and patterns in order to solve complex problems more efficiently
- K-2 Summer Coding Club Day 4 Handout PDF
Day 5- Passion Project
- You Can Do It- Scratch Garden Video
- Scratch Garden Coding (song lyrics and pintables can be downloaded for free from here)
- Hello Ruby (Chapters 9 and 10)
- Free Downloadable activities here
- Hello Ruby Board Game
- Hello Ruby: Cupcake Hunt Game Directions and Playing Cards PDF
- Vocab:
- Confidence: Believing in yourself!
- K-2 Summer Coding Club Day 5 Handout PDF
Other Resources
Our YouTube Channel – We’ve created several free videos to walkthrough some of the puzzles from above and activities in Scratch Jr. from below.
Scratch Jr – Free app for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS – Allows your students to use the ideas learned above in their own creative programming environment. They can add characters and backgrounds to program their own games and animations. Here are some examples of free activities in Scratch Jr: www.scratchjr.org/teach/activities
Tynker – Free app for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS (also a website tynker.com). Limited number of free puzzles similar to the links listed above.
LightBot Code Hour – Free app for iOS and Android. Three-dimensional puzzles similar to the links above.
Additional Coding Resources
Enrollment Now Open
Choose from online and in-person coding courses for young learners, K-6, designed to develop critical thinkers and problem solvers with transferrable skills across all subjects.