Richmond ES Hour of Code 2018 Success

I had a great week learning and coding with students.  I watched students think, create, collaborate and share. All the tenets of my enrichment programming wrapped into one!

Here is a video hilighting some of the FUN!

**The 'Hour of Code™' is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming.”

Hour of Code ar RES, December 2018

This week RES students will be participating in Hour of Code during enrichment classes. The week of December 3rd - 7th, 2018 all RES students in grades kindergarten through four will have a hands on introduction to computer programming with Hour of Code activities during their enrichment classes! 

Computer programming helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity in people of all ages. Kindergarten, first and second graders will use  Scratch Jr. app for iPads, while third and fourth graders will choose from a variety of tutorials on Code.org.

                                   

Introducing Hour of Code! Here is a great video explaining some of the benefits of coding:

STUDENTS:  Here are the links for Hour of Code at school this week....some great choices:
Dance Party
https://hourofcode.com/danceparty
Minecraft
https://hourofcode.com/mchoc
Star Wars
https://hourofcode.com/star-wars
Animate your Name
https://hourofcode.com/scratchanim

or choose your own challenge (make sure to note the grade level):
https://hourofcode.com/us/learn

FAMILIES and TEACHERS: Here are links to continue the learning beyond this week at school!  ALL of the included links and recommendations are FREE!
Scratch Jr. iPad app
Scratch Jr. Android app 
More ways to learn from Code.org
Scratch  


Do you have questions about coding?  Do you want to figure out ways to help your kids use computers and tablets to create things versus consume content?  I would be happy to chat with you about this...just reach out to Darcie Rankin at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org.

“The 'Hour of Code™' is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week [csedweek.org] and Code.org [code.org] to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming.”

Hour of Code 2017 at RES This Week!

The week of December 4 -8th, 2017, all RES students in grades kindergarten through four will have a hands on introduction to computer programming with Hour of Code activities during their enrichment classes! 

Computer programming helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity in people of all ages. Kindergarten, first and second graders will use  Scratch Jr. app for iPads, while third and fourth graders will choose from a variety of tutorials on Code.org.

Introducing Hour of Code! Watch this quick video to see some celebrities learning to code alongside students just like you!



STUDENTS:  Here are the links for Hour of Code at school this week:

Some great choices:
Code Crazy Creatures:  https://hourofcode.com/cacrazy
Animate your name: https://hourofcode.com/scratchanim
Moana: https://hourofcode.com/moana
Monster Maker: https://hourofcode.com/grokmonster
Lego Robot: https://hourofcode.com/bits
Minecraft: https://hourofcode.com/mchoc
Star Wars: https://hourofcode.com/star-wars
Flappy Bird: https://hourofcode.com/flap
Frozen: https://hourofcode.com/frzn

Choose your own Coding (but check the grade level and how hard it is):
https://hourofcode.com/us/learn

FAMILIES and TEACHERS: Here are links to continue the learning beyond this week at school!  ALL of the included links and recommendations are FREE!
Scratch Jr. iPad app
Scratch Jr. Android app 
More ways to learn from Code.org
Scratch  

Need more motivation to keep kids coding? Watch this short film encouraging coding!




Do you have questions about coding?  Do you want to figure out ways to help your kids use computers and tablets to create things versus consume content?  I would be happy to chat with you about this...just reach out to Darcie Rankin at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org.

Building Coding Connections

In December all students at Richmond Elementary School participated in an Hour Of Code during their enrichment classes.  This was an excellent chance for students to be exposed to the concepts of coding. After several years of Hour of Code at our school, as well as many teachers embracing coding for special projects in their classrooms over the last three years...students have developed great early coding skills.

This year I signed up to participate in the Vermont Robot Rodeo. My teaching goal was for students to have an opportunity to advance their coding skills as they made connections between hardware and software.  I feel that in elementary school the ability to connect coding to the physical manipulation of materials is an awesome way to build true and lasting understanding. I have also seen it increase student engagement as the sharing of results is so transparent (i.e. Robots roll across the floor or say something or react to something!). 

This year I chose to focus the use of robots to build coding connections in our third grade classes(younger classes got exposure to the robots less formally).  We began our investigation by giving every student a chance to explore what robots could do. During this period, we might use apps that were more like a remote control versus coding and kids were encouraged to play.  After this exposure I challenged students to use coding applications to control the robots and to make them 'do something' deliberate and expected.  Students jumped right in to meet this challenge.  They used Blockly and Tickle applications and developed cool project ideas: making a robot draw something, dance to music, greet others, create a light show, interact with another robot, pull a toy on a path, make it through an obstacle course...to name a few!  They wrote many lines of code, tested and iterated to achieve their goal, worked together and had a lot of fun.  Several students pointed out that this work was hard....but not because they wanted  to stop.....but I think they were just proud of themselves! And I was proud of their persistence and drive to learn. 

Kindergarten getting early exposure to coding skill through maze building and BeeBot

Third Graders putting their coding skills to the test!

The Vermont Robot Rodeo is an amazing opportunity to expose students to these coding connections and we are grateful to all of the sponsors who provided funds to give our kids the chance to advance their coding skills. We will be sad to send Dash and Dot to the next school--but we are sure that they will learn as much as we did--and we will be watching and checking out their work too.

I look forward to watching as our RES students use all of the skills they developed and applying this same persistence, thinking and collaboration to other learning.

Below is a video that hilights student work with robots, coding examples and student reflections.

Robot Rodeo is coming to RES!!!!

One thing I am looking forward to sharing with students in January is that RES will again be a participant in the AWESOME Vermont Robot Rodeo.  After a great experience last year I requested another chance for students to play and explore with robots and this year we will be getting a DASH and DOT robot for the month of January.

Our robot, which has been visiting Newbury Elementary School in Newbury, Vermont in December  has already learned A LOT!  We are excited to meet our robots which they have named 'Harmony' and 'Nature Rocks'!

Students at Newbury Elementary learning with Harmony and Nature Rocks!

The concept of the Robot Rodeo is that students around Vermont get a chance to increase their understanding of robots and extend their Hour of Code experiences through the use of robots that travel from school to school.  Last year we were also honored to have students present their learning at Dynamic Landscapes--a local professional development conference for educators (it was so amazing to watch students teach and engage teachers!) You can see some of the great work going on around Vermont at the Vermont Robot Rodeo blog here:
http://robotrodeovt.blogspot.com/

And I will be doing guest posts on this blog as well as the Robot Rodeo blog as we share our experiences at RES!

Our robots will be arriving THIS WEEK! So stay tuned for updates.

Hour of Code 2016 Success

This week at RES students participated in hour of code.  I wrote a blog post describing our plans here:

http://enrichmentatres.blogspot.com/2016/12/hour-of-code-at-res-this-week.html

This is the third year in a row that educators at our school have worked to host this event.  It is great to see the learning and knowledge that students are gaining about coding!  It is also fun to watch those students that gravitate towards this learning to have the opportunity to be classroom leaders and support the learning of fellow students.

Coding is a language and creating code requires creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.  Some people may be surprised by the conversations, giggling and hands on learning that was a part of coding this week--it was awesome!  These pictures and video can provide a glimpse into the excitement!

Hour of Code at RES-THIS WEEK!

Introducing Hour of Code! Watch this quick video to see some celebrities learning to code alongside students just like you!

Computer programming helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity in people of all ages. The week of December 5 -9th, 2016, all RES students in grades kindergarten through four will have a hands on introduction to computer programming with Hour of Code activities during their enrichment classes! Kindergarten, first and second graders will use  Scratch Jr. app for iPads, while third, and fourth graders will choose from a variety of tutorials on Code.org.

STUDENTS:  Here are the links for Hour of Code at school this week:
Moana:Wayfinding with Code https://hourofcode.com/moana
Bits and Bricks:  Lego Coding https://hourofcode.com/bits
Minecraft Hour of Code  https://hourofcode.com/mchoc
Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code https://hourofcode.com/star-wars
 Make a  Flappy Game https://hourofcode.com/flap
 Artist https://hourofcode.com/art


FAMILIES and TEACHERS: Here are links to continue the learning beyond this week at school!  ALL of the included links and recommendations are FREE!
Scratch Jr. iPad app
Scratch Jr. Android app 
More ways to learn from Code.org
Scratch  

Need more motivation to keep kids coding? Watch this short film encouraging coding!


Do you have questions about coding?  Do you want to figure out ways to help your kids use computers and tablets to create things versus consume content?  I would be happy to chat with you about this...just reach out to Darcie Rankin at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org.