It's Computer Science Education Week and students across the globe are learning to code, program, debug and more. For me, this week is the perfect time to share with my students something I enjoy so much. I'm not sure why I love coding but, ever since I learned how to create programs using QBasic back in high school, I love tinkering with code. It is such a rewarding feeling of accomplishment when you can create something out of nothing. I now mostly dabble in HTML but I love block coding, too, especially when it comes to introducing my students to coding. I have mostly used Scratch during Hour of Code or as part of a CS First Coding Club, but I'm hoping to eventually try coding in Minecraft and programming robots such as the Sphero or Ollie. For my younger primary students, however, I have been wanting to try something a little more simplified, such as Scratch Jr, but when I attended Steven Floyd's workshop at OECTA’s Technology Summit: Get Your Head Out of Your Apps conference last spring, I discovered the perfect solution - the Bee-Bot floor robot.  

Thanks to Canadian Classroom, I finally get to test out Bee-Bot in my classroom, just in time for Hour of Code. Since I teach French, I wanted to have a set of sequence cards that students can manipulate while waiting for their turn to program Bee-Bot. The creator in me just couldn't help but make my own set using Google Drawings. I even drew Bee-Bot, too! If you would like to try unplugged programming, feel free to download the sequence cards by clicking on the thumbnail below. 

Even if you don't have a Bee-Bot, you can still use the cards to "program" students as they move throughout the classroom. Our classrooms have tiled floors and each square is the perfect size for a student to stand inside. I designate a starting tile, add a couple of obstacles such as chairs, and a destination. Then students can use the sequence cards and dictate instructions in French. No computers required!

Teach Spanish? I created a Spanish version of the sequence cards which you can download by clicking on the thumbnail below.

Stay tuned as I share my first Bee-Bot experiment, as well as some handy resources from Canadian Classroom. Oh, and happy coding!