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Easy Offline Coding Activities for the Classroom

Practice coding skills without the need for technology with offline coding activities. Start your students on their journey as coders with no tech needed!

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

Practice coding skills without the need for technology with these offline coding activities.

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

Practice coding skills without the need for technology with these offline coding activities.

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

Practice coding skills without the need for technology with these offline coding activities.

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:

Do you teach coding to your students? What are your favourite activities? Let me know in the comments!

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11 comments

  1. TechyKids says:

    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.

  2. Krista says:

    any chance you would share the directional arrows you have created? I would like to use them with the Bluebots in my classroom.

  3. Shreiya says:

    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/

  4. Swayam Saini says:

    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!

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