Let’s go through a coding game that allows your student to practice discussing algorithms, sequence, and decomposition. Encourage your student to have some fun with this easy coding game!

Activity #1: Origami Algorithms Game

In this origami game, your student will teach YOU how to make a simple origami creation by giving you specific instructions to complete the task. The catch is that you will be sitting back to back so your child will have to be very specific and detailed in their instructions so that you can create the origami properly!

Explain to your student that it is very important to explain the instructions step-by-step, completing a task the same way a computer would. Just like in this activity, computers don’t have an idea of what the final program is supposed to look like. They need very detailed and accurate instructions in order to complete a task properly.

The origami very simple. In this origami activity, you will be creating a simple dog face.

Step By Step Instructions

They KEY to this algorithm activity is that your origami ‘coder’ needs to explain the algorithm WITHOUT you looking at the visual instructions.

Step One: Sit back to back with your student. It may be helpful to have a small desk to work on.

Step Two: Each person starts with an unfolded square piece of paper (if you don't have origami paper just cut a sheet in to a 5x5 square).

Step Three: Have your student teach you how to make this simple origami creation by explaining the instructions to you as they go. They will use the origami instruction sheet below to create the origami but you will not be able to look at the instructions when they are explaining it!

By not being able to SHOW you the instructions, your little ‘origami coder’ will learn just how challenging algorithms are for computers! Computers don’t have eyes to see. They need to be given VERY SPECIFIC and exact instructions with lots of detail. If computers aren’t given the correct instructions, the final outcome can turn out really silly!

Origami-AlgorithmDownload

Step four: Compare creations! When you are done building your creation, turn around and see if you got it right!

If your student gives you some instructions that aren’t quite right, follow through with them in your origami design. Then when you compare at the end, you might note some pretty funny errors! That’s ok, errors are part of programming. Now we just have to debug our errors. Figure out where we went wrong and how we can correct it better for the future.

By: Teach Your Kids to Code

This activity introduces children to the conditional statements (If/Then Statements). A conditional statement tells the computer to execute a set of action depending on a specific event.

The objective of the game is to follow the programmer’s instructions and perform a particular task .

Materials Needed

A backyard or playground

A group of students

How to Play

For every round, one child is the Programmer and everyone else are the Computers. The Programmer stands in front of the Computers and gives them commands: "If I ____ (fill in the blank), Then you _____ (fill in the blank)." For example, the Programmer gave the command "If I turn in a circle, Then you turn in a circle." Or he can give challenging instructions like "If I touch my nose, Then you touch your legs."