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Coding Lingo Moves Pre-Primary Student “Computers”

10/27/2022

Three and four-year-olds might not be the first people you think of when the words “scientist,” “engineer,” or “computer programmer” come to mind, but in the Pre-Primary School’s newly revamped Wonder Lab, a hands-on approach is readying our youngest learners to understand the “hows” of animal development, strong structures, and computers.

STEAM Teacher Georjean’s goal is to use the Wonder Lab to investigate questions and reinforce facts that arise across the Pre-Primary School. For example, students observed first-hand the science of the butterfly life cycle and used art materials to demonstrate the steps from egg to chrysalis to migration. As they see a new bridge installed as part of the Kalmia Creek Project later this year, students may build engineering skills by exploring what materials, lengths, and widths make for stable or flexible bridge structures.

“It’s so great that our students have this dedicated space to come and really focus on these topics,” says Explorers Room teacher Lisa. Students can even visit the STEAM Lab during free choice times, in addition to their dedicated lessons, to practice these and other STEAM projects. Large bulletin boards will showcase ongoing work, sparking curiosity in students about what their peers are exploring.

A particular challenge was to find a way to teach the “T” in STEAM—tech—without adding too much screen time. Instead, Georjean lays the foundation to think like a computer programmer through hands-on, device-free activities. She recently introduced children to the “If ___Then” game, which simplifies the command statement from coding and combines it with movement. In the game, one student is a programmer and the rest are computers. The programmer commands and demonstrates, “If I spin,” to which the computers respond, “then I spin.” Friends take turns coming up with commands and discover that the pattern only works if they give the appropriate directions. In addition to the coding lingo, Georjean works in vocabulary such as forward, backward, left, and right for the computers to process. As students get comfortable with the game, they will work on coding a story by sequencing particular events in picture form. “What happens first, second, third?” Georjean asks. “Computers need to know what order to complete their tasks, just like a story has a beginning, middle, and end.”

Future projects will further explore coding commands with students working collaboratively to achieve a goal. Georjean envisions a grid taped out on the floor of her room, with spaces large enough to stand in. Programmers will command the computer (student on the grid) to move through the grid to get to the final destination, i.e., walk forward two spaces, turn left, and walk forward one more space. As an added integration with their science studies, they may use the grid to practice the life cycles of frogs, for example. Classmates would again use “left” and “right” commands to move the computer through a grid, but would have to direct them from an egg photo at the closest corner to a tadpole photo several spaces away, all the way through to an adult frog photo on the opposite side. Music teacher Audrey and dance teacher Taylor are also getting ideas to tie coding in with their lessons by reinforcing the directional vocabulary and helping students to understand backward and forward on a kinesthetic level. “Our Pre-Primary students will be digital citizens in the world someday,” says Georjean. “These coding lessons help them to be familiar with the language they will be using in the future.”

School News

Coding Lingo Moves Pre-Primary Student “Computers”