OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

Draw a snowflake using code.org. My students were really challenged to follow the directions in the lesson, so I created an ‘I do, we do, you do’ type of lesson through the slide show. My students then had to follow along with my slides and I could see where they were still having trouble with understanding the vocabulary of coding.

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Mathematics, Art
• Grade Level : 3-5
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Algorithms and Programming
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, Collaborating Around Computing, Creating Computational Artifacts
• Materials:
  • code.org access Level E of the 2022 program
• Considerations: +

Lesson Plan

Overview

Draw a snowflake using code.org. My students were really challenged to follow the directions in the lesson, so I created an ‘I do, we do, you do’ type of lesson through the slide show. My students then had to follow along with my slides and I could see where they were still having trouble with understanding the vocabulary of coding.

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

Vocabulary for this lesson: Loop, repeat, turn or spin
Why do we use repeat blocks? (to use less code, to keep the next direction from affecting the code in the repeat block)

OBJECTIVES

Students can follow step by step instructions to create code that draws a snowflake. Students will apply the knowledge that they have gained over the past several weeks of assignments.

CATCH/HOOK

No two snowflakes are the same. However today we are going to create a snowflake that is beautiful and uses our coding lessons to complete it. We have been drawing with code for several weeks and today we will use that to create a repeated pattern that looks like a snowflake.

When we are finished with this portion of the project, you will have free time to create your own snowflake patterns.

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Students need to log in to their code.org account. This lesson is specific for Code.org Level E Lesson 8, (it may be applicable to other platforms that I am not familiar with also). Present the slide show slide by slide and show the students on your own screen what happens with the code. This lesson demonstrates the benefits of using repeat blocks. If my math is correct we can show that instead of using 280 lines of code this nested loop uses only 8 blocks of code.

Supplements

Any items in this section are the property & under the license of their respective owners.

REVIEW

After each slide, I will move throughout the classroom and see if their work matches mine and answer questions as needed.

STANDARDS