Get your pupils thinking like a programmer with this free National Coding Week pack from Busy Things…
Pupils will:
- Understand what coding is, why it’s important in today’s world and where to start
- Break down tasks into bite-size instructions and consider their order
- Follow directions to move a chicken to the right spot (available online or on paper)
- Use coding skills to help a postman deliver a monster’s birthday present
- Direct the teacher to pick up a marker and draw a house
- Use Code Disco to get Beard Man moving on the dance floor
What is National Coding Week?
National Coding Week is an annual event that encourages teachers and students to learn digital skills, with a focus on coding. It aims to inspire teachers to integrate coding into their lessons and help build students’ digital literacy and problem-solving abilities.
When is National Coding Week?
National Coding Week starts on the third Monday in September. The theme for 2024 is ‘AI’.
What is coding?
We need coding to make computers and other electronic devices do what we want them to do.
It’s essentially writing instructions for machines in a language that they understand. Some people think that it’s just writing programs for computers, but these days anything from TVs to smartphones, from washing machines and microwaves to heating systems, have small computers in them and use code to manage them.
Why is coding important?
Learning to code is important because it’s used everywhere in the technology that surrounds us and is here to stay.
Almost every job you can think of now includes an element of computer usage and, in the future, people will be expected to not only use technology but be creators of it too.
To do that, today’s children will need to actively understand code and the impact the different elements within the code are having.
Busy Things offers a huge collection of interactive, curriculum-linked games and activities. Discover 1600+ games and activities to develop and support maths, literacy, phonics, science, art, music, coding and more.
