Focus

Grades:

Kindergarten and First Grade

Resources/Materials used with Blue Bots:

  • Grid mats: purchase from the site or DIY
  • Arrow and command flash cards
  • Story element cards from Goldilocks and The Three Bears and Three Little Pigs
  • Tracking sheets to tally success and failures

Concepts/Skills:

  • Basic Coding using directions: Left, Right, Forward and Backward
  • Sequencing
  • Estimating and planning
  • problem solving/debugging
  • Collaboration

Instruction:

  • Begin with learning about bees
  • Introduce Blue Bots and discuss what a "bot" is
  • What is coding?
    • How do you tell the Blue Bot what to do?
    • Parts of the Blue Bot - what does each button do?
  • Use arrow/command flash cards to show how "coding" works
    • Students work together to create different codes
    • Student challenge to get from one point to another point on the mat
      • Students estimate and plan by using squares on the mat
      • use arrows to create code first and then code the bee bot
  • Introduce "sequencing" by reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, what happened first, second, third, etc.
    • Student challenge to use story element cards on mat and code blue bot to follow sequence of story
  • Students tracked success and failures with their partner
    • When students failed they problem solved by figuring out the "bug" in their code to "debug" it.