You can start a coding club for kids today. Here are some of my ideas for getting started.

I originally wrote this in January 2017. It’s still so relevant today, so I updated the article for you.

Scratch

Scratch is a drag and drop coding platform great for kids to learning computer programming concepts.

– Make easy games for beginners. Familiarise XY coordinates, coding logic patterns: sequencing, branching & looping with these beginner level games. See our Scratch studio for beginner level games:  https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/1939632/

– A bit more challenging Scratch games (intermediate level), see our Scratch studio for intermediate level games: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/1923096/

– Advance Scratch projects, see our Scratch studio for beginner level games: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/2924225/

Makey Makey

You can make building with Scratch even more fun by adding Makey Makey to your Scratch games. Makey Makey is an input device that you can connect to your Scratch project. Learn about circuitry, conducting and non-conducting materials.

The input device allows you to build gadgets such as a game controller for your Scratch game using conductive materials e.g. bananas, marshmallows, bucket of water, aluminium foil.

Lego Mindstorms EV3

I wrote a blog post last year about the Robotic Junior competition. There is a list of 13 challenges there are really fun to do in this article.

The challenges are in order of easiest to hardest. The coding club can have a go at programming the EV3 robots to make its way along a path.

Python

Are you able to download Python onto school computers? (I ask because this is not possible for State school computers.) If so, Python is a great programming language for beginners. Python is a general purpose language that is clean, simple and easy to read. You can create fun activities such as:

– drawing spirography

– creating small games e.g. Hangman (guess letters of a word), naughts and crosses.

– create a little adventure games in the style of “Choose your own adventure” stories.

– artwork e.g. coloured balls of different sizes bouncing around a screen window.

Make your own project

Here is a blog post I wrote when I took a class (Year 4-6 students) to make their own projects using Scratch, Makey Makey and 3D printing.

Students come up with the most wonderful ideas e.g. TED – Talking Entertainment Droid which is a robot that was designed to be a companion for someone who is lonely. TED tells jokes, stories and sings. One team designed and 3D printed their own game controller and connected it to a Makey Makey. They also designed a 10 level maze game.

 

Start a coding club for kids today!

 

 

Check out our free teacher download. Learn to code with Scratch in 30 minutes.


If you’re interested to find out more