Practice coding skills without the need for technology with these offline coding activities.
One of my favourite skills to teach my kindergarten students (other than fine motor skills) is teaching how to code.
I don’t start my students with technology right away- I wait a few months before I start using robots.That doesn’t mean you can’t start laying the foundation for beginner coding skills before then though!
Purpose of Offline Coding
Why would you want to practice offline coding though? Some teachers and schools may not have access to the technology needed to code (iPads, Chromebooks, laptops or robots).
Another reason is that you want children to start thinking like coders. This sets them up to be successful when coding because they will have certain basic skills:
- problem solving
- sequential thinking
- collaboration
- persistence
- critical and creative thinking
These skills can be taught in many ways, just through daily classroom activities that you are doing already.
Decompose A Set of Instructions
When coding, you have to break down each action into a set of instructions for the computer to understand what you want.
Getting your students to do this, will help them to start seeing instructions as a series of steps that they have to follow. You can do this with how-to instructions or recipes.
Symbols
Coding is an abstract way of thinking, you have to use symbols and codes to represent commands.
Introduce this concept by adding arrows to the building center or loose parts table. This will introduce the concept of directional coding, and they will have concrete material to practice with before moving into the abstract.
Conditional Logic
The language that is used when coding involves the use of if/then statements. For example, “If you move the box, then you will be able to reach the toy.”
Exposing children to these simple statements, and having them do their own, will help them when writing their own code. This can be as simple as adding this wording when you are giving instructions to students.
Algorithms
An algorithm is a process or set of rules that a computer has to follow. Your students can write their own algorithm for how they get ready in the morning, how to make a sandwich, etc.
You can also practice this by sequencing stories, and retelling it.
If you are looking for more ways to teach coding to your students, you can check out my Unplugged Coding post or my Teach Coding in Kindergarten post. They both have lots of information to help you get started on your coding journey.
There are lots of websites with activity ideas for you to try out:
- Thinkfun has 5 Super-Cool Offline Coding Activities
- Code.org has a huge list of Unplugged Activities
- Discovery Education has Offline Coding Activities
Do you teach coding to your students? What are your favourite activities? Let me know in the comments!
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These are some great offline techniques which you have shared to teach coding for kids. The most important part before teaching coding, is to cultivate interest among kids. I think the activities shared will be very much helpful to develop the right mindset of kids towards coding. When kids to learn to code they strengthen their logical thinking as well as problem solving abilities. TechyKids Canada provide various coding for kids courses & programs in a professional environment which makes learning of coding lot more fun & interactive for kids. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful blog with some interesting offline coding activities.
any chance you would share the directional arrows you have created? I would like to use them with the Bluebots in my classroom.
They are including in my Unplugged Coding packs: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unplugged-Coding-Bundle-12-Activities-for-a-whole-year-of-STEM-Eng-French-4537016
You can also easily make some in Microsoft Word by using the shapes that are built in! That’s what I did for some no tech coding activities that I was doing with my students.
These are great off-screen activities to get started on developing coding skills in early years. As a STEM educator, I have tried some of these with kids…they are great hit with kids. Here is an another interesting article with a few more interesting games to introduce coding in early years – https://kidpillar.com/coding-for-kids/
Thank you for presenting such useful and clear information about offline coding. Learning to code without a computer and laptop may seem illogical, but it makes ideal sense.
Offline Coding activities that take place offline are an excellent method to introduce children to coding concepts.
Benefits of offline coding
* Coding is an enjoyable and fun activity
* Coding increases creativity
* Coding enhances the problem-solving ability
* Collaboration enhances via coding
Ready for some offline coding activities? Our blog “BENEFITS OF OFFLINE CODING FOR YOUNG STUDENTS” can help!
Thank you for sharing the blog on offline coding activities, as coding is important for children in today’s time. Pisarv technologies providing the best solution for this. Programming Tools for Kids