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Content
Content
Big Idea:
Big Idea:
Coding to learn about spatial sense and positional and directional language on a plane (i.e., a flat, two-dimensional surface).
This is a series of three lessons, anchored in barnyard characters, that invite students to progress from using directional and positional language and physical movement to pseudocoding with numbers and arrows.
Expectations:
Expectations:
Algebra
C3. solve problems and create computational representations of mathematical situations using coding concepts and skills.
C3.1 solve problems and create computational representations of mathematical situations by writing and executing code, including code that involves sequential events
C3.2 read and alter existing code, including code that involves sequential events, and describe how changes to the code affect the outcomes
Spatial Sense
E1. describe and represent shape, location, and movement by applying geometric properties and spatial relationships in order to navigate the world around them
E1.4 describe the relative locations of objects or people, using positional language
E1.5 give and follow directions for moving from one location to another
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills in Mathematics and the Mathematical Processes
A1. Throughout this grade, in order to promote a positive identity as a math learner, to foster well-being and the ability to learn, build resilience, and thrive, students will apply, to the best of their ability, a variety of social-emotional learning skills to support their use of the mathematical processes and their learning in connection with the expectations in the other five strands of the mathematics curriculum.
In these lessons, to the best of their ability, students will learn to think critically and creatively as they apply the mathematical processes of connecting (make connections among mathematical concepts, procedures, and representations, and relate mathematical ideas to other contexts (e.g., other curriculum areas, daily life, sports), and of communicating (express and understand mathematical thinking, and engage in mathematical arguments using everyday language, language resources as necessary, appropriate mathematical terminology, a variety of representations, and mathematical conventions), so they can make connections between math and everyday contexts to help them make informed judgements and decisions.
Learning Goals
Learning Goals
We want students to...
We want students to...
understand positional and directional language, accurately follow a route and navigate others along a route on a floor-sized checkerboard map.
follow a route of pseudocode on a large floor checkerboard and a small paper map.
“pseudocode” routes for a character (left/ right, forward/ backward, reverse, turn left, turn right) from a START location to a STOP location on a checkerboard map.
Success Criteria
Success Criteria
I can...
I can...
follow the directional words forward, back, backward, left, right, turn right, turn left, advance, reverse, as well as use them to give oral directions.
to follow a route of pseudocode symbols on a large floor checkerboard and a small paper map.
use arrows and numbers to “code” a route for a sprite on a checkerboard map from START to STOP.
Materials
Materials
make and post left and right hands (labeled “Left” and “Right”)
find or make 3-5 obstacles or images for the floor grid prepared in advance
painter’s tape
a few costume elements such as hen wings or beak, fox ears, a farmer hoe or rake (optional)
pseudocoding distance number cards, movement forward straight arrow cards, and turn arrow cards (provided)
the coding mat (provided)
sufficient copies of the paper barnyard hen and fox game board
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
Foward
Backward
Right
Left
Advance
Reverse
Code
Sprite
Prior Learning
Prior Learning
Students need to have:
some understanding of small Ontario mixed family farms, the livestock raised on them, and their natural predators.
understanding of oral positional and directional language such as left, right, up, down, above, below, turn right, turn left, advance, reverse, turn.
a beginning understanding of physically following oral directions to move themselves on a large map checkerboard map (an alphanumeric coordinate grid)
some experience giving oral positional and directional language instructions to other students such as move left, move right, turn right, turn left, advance, reverse, turn.
Pedagogy
Pedagogy
Minds On
Minds On
Make and attach left and right hand images to a wall. Make sure students can see them. It is best if the students face the wall on which you have posted the hand drawings of the two hands so they can refer to them to describe left and right.
Warm Up #1 Simon Says Game (large group):
Have the class practise Spatial Simon Says. In this centuries-old game, the coder (leader) calls out positional and directional actions while students must follow the instructions. The game should be used to teach positional words such as behind, in front of, on, under, above, below, forward, backward, on top of, under, left, right and beside as well as directional words such as forward, backward, reverse, advance, turn left, and turn left. A teacher or student is “Simon.” Simon issues commands e.g., “Simon says, Take 2 steps backward, Simon says put your right hand on your head, Simon Says turn your head to the left, Simon says take 1 step to the right.” The class must follow the instruction unless “Simon” tries to trick them. If Simon does not say “Simon says” before the command, the students should remain motionless and not comply.
Optional Warm Up #2 Captain, May I? Game (large group)
This classic students ’s game provides a whole-body experience to help students develop understanding of and begin to use spatial directional language e.g., forward, backward, sideways, left, right, to the left side, to the right side, advance, reverse, as well as measurement terms: short, medium and long. A student, known as the First Mate or the Code), asks the teacher or Captain, “Captain, may we please take e.g., two long steps backward?” The Captain replies, “No you may not take two long steps backward,” adding what the crew may do: “You may take 3 short hops sideways!”
Barnyard Background Information
If necessary, provide students with background on barnyards through story, video and song.
Action!
Action!
Lesson 1 (small group)
Summary: A teacher and then students orally describe a route consisting of direction and distance in chunks to students, who must accurately follow the directions and move their bodies on a grid.
Activity
Set up a large 5 x 5 grid on a floor or carpet using painter’s tape.
If you have a carpet divided into squares you can use that instead, but you still may need to mark the lines and intersections with pieces of painter’s tape.
Post the left and right hand cut outs provided. Add the obstacles derived from the story that you prepared in advance e.g., a pond, beehives, a windmill, a haystack, the fox, as well as a START sign and a STOP sign. It is fun to use a chicken image as a start point and a chicken coop image as an end point, or you could use an image of a bag of grain as the end point.
Explain to the students that they are going to reenact the story of Hen Takes a Walk. The object of the activity is for one student to “code” instructions to help the hen navigate around the obstacles and get safely home (or to the corn).
Next, negotiate a set of “rules” for the game with the students as follows:
• We can only give directions for moving a limited number of squares at a time (e.g., 2).
• We can only move forward, backward, turn left or turn right.
• We will NOT move on the diagonal.
• We have to stand on the squares/ rectangles
• When we start to count movement, we count the first step, not the point where we are already standing. Have the students take turns practising while the teacher calls out instructions.
•Reverse and “move/go backwards” is actually turn left and turn left again or turn right and turn right again. (Reverse in coding is usually “turn 180 degrees” then advance.)
Once the teacher is satisfied that the students are confident with the activity, choose one student to be the Hen. Choose another student to be The Fox. Other students could hold the other obstacle drawings or costume elements and be them.
Choose one student to be “the Coder.” The Coder places the Fox on the checkerboard as an obstacle. Next, the coder gives the Hen instructions e.g., Go right 2 steps/ squares. Turn right. Go forward 3 steps. Go backward 1 step. Turn right. Go forward 3 steps. Turn left. Go forward 1 step. Turn right. Turn right again (reverse). Move forward 1 square.
Play again, switching roles. Eventually this can become a centre.
Teacher Moves
An anchor chart of left and right hands like the one above will help the students learn their left and right, and also maintain the correct orientation of their bodies on the board.
Maintaining a fixed orientation frequently presents a challenge to young students, especially when moving their own body. They often have difficulty staying oriented in a line-up of students and following the person in front of them when their line moves, often turning their body or falling out of line. Help the students maintain the same orientation so they are always facing the left and right-hand cutouts. You may have to ask them to sidestep in order to help them do so.
Once students understand the activity, introduce an obstacle by placing an object on one of the squares.
When students have more experience with the activity, add two obstacles. When students are proficient at the activity, they often enjoy adding map features such as mountains, volcanoes, lakes, and animals.
A common misconception among students when showing movement on grids, number lines, and board games is to start counting at the square where they or their game marker is. When they hear, “Take two steps forward,” they often count the spot where they are standing as a step forward when it is not. When we count movement, we count the next step as the first step, not the point where we are already standing.
Another misconception that might crop up is about where turns occur. A turn happens on the same spot that you have moved to, not the next square to which you are moving. Turn, then move. One way to show this is to put the turn on top of the move, i.e., move to that square, then turn.
You may need to add gestures to your language to enhance student understanding.
Help students remember that we count the first step, not the square where we are already standing. Have the students take turns practising while the teacher calls out instructions.
If students are having trouble understanding, try some of these things:
1) Play the classic students ’s game “Mother, May I?” (Captain, May I?”) where students are asked to take 1, 3, or 3 steps forward.
2) Place two parallel lines of painter’s tape on the floor. Add 3 perpendicular lines spaced the same distance apart like rungs on a ladder. Demonstrate with 2 students. Ask each student to take 2 steps (lines) forward, but ask the second student to include the first line as a step. Ask what happened, why, and what the second student should do differently.
3) Show the students what happens on a number line if you count the number you are on. Start at 0. Go 2 jumps. If you count the 0 you end up at 1. If you start by counting the next number, you end up at 2.
Lesson 1 Opportunities for Differentiation
Differentiate for Topic and Interest:
Some students may have no schema on farms and barnyards or interest in it or the topic may be culturally irrelevant to them. The teacher can adapt this activity and use any other story or fairy tale if they align better with student interests in order to increase student engagement and participation in the lessons.
Differentiate Workload:
Provide fewer directions to follow.
Differentiate for Visual Memory:
Teachers may need to play more memory games with the students to develop visual memory such as Memory (matching turned-over cards), the Tea Tray Game where students have a time limit to memorize arrays of objects, their names, their positions and locations
Differentiate for Recall of Sequences:
Some students may have difficulty remembering a sequence of events. The teacher may have them draw a picture or series of pictures which depict the order of events as a memory aid or post an anchor chart.
Differentiate for Positional and Directional Receptive Language:
Some students may need additional practice developing receptive language for position and orientation. Teachers may need to involve students in playing more whole body physical spatial games such as Simon Says and Captain, May I?
Differentiate for Positional and Directional Expressive Language:
Some students may need to develop expressive language. Teachers may need to play more hiding and seeking games with directional language such as Huckle Buckle Beanbag, also called Hide the Object or Hide the Key, Hide the Thimble or Hide the Handkerchief. It is a studenthood game which involves the hiding and seeking of an object. The game should be played where the hider or hiders inform the seeker how near he or she is to the object with positional and directional terms such as nearer, farther, higher, lower, look behind. The game can be played where the class takes turns giving directions to the seeker to help the seeker find the object.
Lesson 1 Assessment Opportunities
Assessment for Learning Conversations and Observations:
Ask students questions and observe their actions to check their understanding. What strategies are they using? How do they explain their thinking?
Assessment as Learning Observations:
Observe students and their ability to explain the reasoning behind the choices they make.
Observe students and check how they express themselves and organize themselves during teamwork.
Assessment as Learning Observations:
Observe students and their ability to explain the reasoning behind the choices they make.
Lesson 2 (small group)
Summary: In partners, students read and follow pseudocoded routes consisting of numbers, straight arrows and turn arrows on a giant or small paper checkerboard to help the hen get safely home to its chicken coop.
Activity
Use the large floor checkerboard created from painters’ tape from the previous lesson, make a new one, or if you have a rug with squares, you can use it. You can also project a copy of the small paper Hen and Fox game board provided in the Resources section onto a screen, wall, or Smart Board.
Post the left and right hand images that you made for the previous lesson. Set out the images of obstacles you made for the previous lesson e.g., a pond, beehives, a windmill, a haystack, a hen, a chicken coop, a bag of grain, the fox. It is fun to use a chicken image as a start point and a chicken coop image as an endpoint, or you could use an image of a bag of grain as the start point.
You will need the printable coloured arrow, number cards, and turn arrow cards from the Resources section.
Download, print, cut out and use the number cards, straight arrow cards, and turn arrow cards provided to pseudocode several “secret code” routes that help the Hen get from the start square safely home to its chicken coop (the stop square). Make copies of each of your codes for each group of students. It works well if you glue the arrows down and photocopy them or take a photo and print it out. You can also draw your own pseudocode secret paths.
The idea is for the students to follow your written, symbolic directions accurately from a START square to the STOP square.
Gather a small group of students. Explain that they are going to work in pairs to read the teacher’s “secret” path (code) to move the hen from START to STOP. They have to hide it from the Fox.
Show or project the arrows and number symbols for this lesson. Explain that e.g., →2 or 2→ means go forward two squares, ←3 means go backward or reverse 3 squares, ↱ means turn right one-quarter turn or 90 degrees, and ↰ means turn left one-quarter turn or 90 degrees.
Explain again that there is only forward, backward, turn left, turn left twice (reverse), turn right, and turn right twice (reverse). Explain the concept of reversing ↱↱ or ↰↰, which means to make two one-quarter turns or 180 degrees).
Remind students that the first move is never START but adjacent to it.
Next, both partners take on the role of the Hen. They work together to read and follow the teacher’s secret code line by line and move themselves accurately on the giant checkerboard from the START to the STOP square.
If students are ready, you can make secret code routes for them to follow on the small paper checkerboard provided in the Resources section. You will need to prepare these in advance.
At this point the activity can be used as a centre.
Teacher Moves
This activity requires experience moving markers on checkerboard grids. Students are learning to read symbolic representations (pseudocode) of direction and distance to create movement on maps. Model this activity thoroughly before students begin.
Key Questions
Did you imagine the route before you moved the hen? Did you imagining the route in your mind to help you? How did it help you or how could it help you next time? Did you describe the direction and distance (the number of steps taken/squares moved)? Did saying it out loud help you? How did saying it aloud help you or how could it help you next time? When you were finished, did your path look like you had imagined or visualized? If not, why do you think that happened?
Lesson 2 Opportunities for Differentiation
Differentiate for Topic and Interest:
Some students may have no schema on farms and barnyards or interest in it or the topic may be culturally irrelevant to them. The teacher can adapt this activity and use any other story or fairy tale if they align better with student interests in order to increase student engagement and participation in the lessons.
Differentiate Workload:
Students could give only one to three instructions.
Lesson 2 Assessment Opportunities
Assessment for Learning Conversations and Observations:
Ask students questions and observe their actions to check their understanding. What strategies are they using? How do they explain their thinking?
Assessment as Learning Observations:
Observe students and their ability to explain the reasoning behind the choices they make.
Observe students and check how they express themselves and organize themselves during teamwork.
Lesson 3
For this lesson, you will need sufficient copies of the arrow and number cards, coding mat, Hen and Fox game board from the Resources section and barriers such as cardboard for all your students.
Two copies of the barnyard checkerboard map are provided in one file so that children can work together in pairs.
Activity
Gather a small group of students around you. Explain to the students that they are going to work in pairs. One of them is going to be a coder and the other will be the Hen. Then they will switch.
Tell them that the Hen has seen a Fox and wants to get safely from the start square to its home, the chicken coop, the stop square. The coder will plot out a secret route and give the directions orally to the Hen. The Hen has to accurately follow the spoken coded directions.
The coders will use the arrow and number cards from the Resource Section. They will represent direction with a straight arrow, distance (steps taken) with a digit, and changes in direction with a turn left or turn right arrow e.g., →2 or 2→ means go forward two steps, ↱ means turn right one-quarter turn.
Remind students how to reverse, and that the first move is never START but adjacent to it.
Explain to the coders that they are going to “chunk” their path into different “legs” of a journey (sections of directional movements) by changing the colours of arrows every time they change direction (to help them remember their turns so they do not “double code” the same square).
Students are going to make their code line by line on a coding mat behind a barrier such as a cardboard box.
Show them how to create a path with the direction and distance symbols (the code) from START to move the hen marker/game piece home to its chicken coop. Remind students how to reverse in coding. Remind them there is no up or down, just forward, backward, turn left, and turn right.
It would be beneficial for the teacher to model creating a pseudocode route on the coding mat for the class and to show them how the route works on the game board. Ideally you will display these both on large format versions or projected onto a screen or wall so everyone can see.
Create and display the pseudocode and the checkerboard for each separate move. Do this for one or two entire routes. Tell the students to imagine the path in their mind’s eye first, then set down the pseudocode.
The students take turns one at a time doing the activity on the paper version using the number and arrow cards.
Teachers should document the students’ code so the students have copies or photos of their work to share in a gallery work.
Once enough students are proficient with this activity, it can become a centre.
Teacher Moves
Some students might need considerable modelling and practice for this lesson.
If students are having trouble marking the route/pathway, you can give them several markers to lay down for one “leg” or section of the route e.g., like a trail of breadcrumbs, or in the case of the hen, corn feed. Have them chunk the path in sections.
Sometimes students lose track of where they are in their coding. You may need to support their visual memory and coding skill development by changing one attribute of the marker such as colour or type for each section of the route e.g., 4 moves left is in blue, 3 moves forward is in orange. This will help them remember what they have coded previously.
Key Questions
How many moves did it take to get from the START square to the STOP square? Is there a shorter path? How do you know it is shorter? Is there another route? How many moves would It take?
Lesson 3 Opportunities for Differentiation
Differentiate for Topic and Interest
Some students may have no schema on farms and barnyards or interest in it or the topic may be culturally irrelevant to them. The teacher can adapt this activity and use any other story or fairy tale if they align better with student interests in order to increase student engagement and participation in the lessons.
Differentiate Workload
Students could follow only one to three instructions.
Some students may have difficulty understanding the concept of reversing (in 2 directions). students may need an anchor chart to enhance their recall.
Differentiate for Reading and Writing
Some students will be unable to follow written (numerical and arrow) coded directions. You can support them by giving them verbal directions.
Lesson 3 Assessment Opportunities
Assessment for Learning Conversations and Observations:
Ask students questions and observe their actions to check their understanding. What strategies are they using? How do they explain their thinking?
Assessment as Learning Observations:
Observe students and their ability to explain the reasoning behind the choices they make.
Observe students and check how they express themselves and organize themselves during teamwork.
Consolidation Of Learning
Consolidation Of Learning
Remind students of the learning goals.
Have the students present your photos/images of their arrow and number pseudocode, either in a gallery work, sharing in small groups or with the support of the teacher in a bansho approach. Ideally the teacher projects the pseudocode on the wall or provides copies to give to students or posts it on a wall in a large format so that every child can see. Each group takes a turn to present their pseudo. First, they demonstrate their pseudocode and how it works. One student will read the code and one will move the game marker piece. Next, they explain what problems they encountered, how they solved them (strategies used), what they would do differently the next time, and whether they have met the learning goals and success criteria.
Assessment
Assessment
Assessment opportunities are embedded throughout each lesson.
SEL Self-Assessments (English) and Teacher Rubric
Extension
Extension
These activities can be repeated with any story and multiple times throughout the year. The work can also be adapted to seasonal celebrations, folk tales, and to the history, literature, customs and celebrations of all sections of Canadian society, as well as to current events.
Once students are familiar with them, many of the activities can be set out as learning centres to reinforce and enhance skills.
Students can make their own offline coding games for their classmates, either whole body, 3-dimensional activities or activities on paper. Students could even make up such activities to be played outside on pavement or grass (the teacher should consider retaining control of the spray paint!) or in the snow (make the grid in the snow with a boot or shovel).
Students can begin to experiment with coding in teacher-led guided groups, small groups, with partners, or independently using any of the available beginner coding platforms.
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