The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle 

We then looked at the life cycle of a caterpillar and used the Dash robot to follow along with the life cycle. Students used the cards to reference what forward, backward, left, right and drive meant. This helped the younger students who are not reading yet be able to use the Blockly App independently. 

Here is a video of the students coding Dash through the life cycle of a caterpillar: 

Extension opportunities:

-Make dash turn - we chose not to during this round as these students were just exploring the Dash Blockly app and we wanted them to get the hang of it first. 

-Sequence/Retell in the correct order of food that the caterpillar ate through. Set out pictures on the floor and have Dash drive through while students retell the story. A great way to incorporate literacy! 

LightBot Unplugged and Plugged

Today we tried out the LightBot app. Some students had been tinkering with the app during learning centres. Today we pulled small groups of 3 students each. They were given the task of creating the track with snap cubes first. They then needed to code on a piece of paper. How can they get their foam block to move from one end of the snap cube track to the other end? They wrote down the code on their paper and tested it out. It was very interesting to watch the students figure out how to code. Some students drew their code in the shape of the track, others put the arrows randomly around their pages. After they did that they were able to use the iPad and do the same level they just coded on paper. Check out the website and some pictures from our activity:

 LightBot Website