Hour of Code - Kindergarten activity - FREE lesson plans!

One of the largest road blocks to having K-5 teachers implement computer programming skills is TIME! I have often heard my teachers saying "I just can't add more more thing to the day."

That's why I think that the success of incorporating computer science skills INTO the curriculum is essential! Currently, I am looking at the CCSS and the learning progressions. Using Scratch (www.scratch.mit.edu) - a FREE website, I am working on creating lessons that are aligned to the CCSS in ELA and math.

Please feel free to use the FREE resources and worksheets for the Hour Of code week - December 9th thru December 15th!  The worksheets take the Kindergarten student through the process of creating a holiday card through various screen shots.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/14804494/#player

Scratch 2.0

I'm so excited...

but keep seeing this screen! I've been checking like every 1/2 hour or so! Have a web-based version will be a HUGE benefit to teachers everywhere! No more fighting with the IT guys and downloading the program onto the server!

Stay tuned to the blog as I continually update with more K-8 Coding challenges aligned to the CCSS in math!

ISTE 2013 - Augmented Reality Game

On my way to San Antonio to set up the Aris - Augmented Reality Game for the ISTE 2013 conference. Sitting at the Baltimore airport...waiting for the connecting flight :-(

http://www.isteconference.org/2013/

Follow along as I blog about the process involved in setting up one of the first Augmented Reality games for ISTE members to play while at the conference!  It will involve learning about computational thinking skills in a "Gamification" format for adults.

Then...it will involve thinking about how educators and incorporate these skills into their teaching.

Creating a BASIC digital story-telling project with only 3 programming blocks!

Worked on the first lesson today and finally have it ready for you to use. I will continue adding lessons/worksheets/ rubrics/ instructional videos through the remainder of the year. Please keep checking the Blog, for updates.

Here is the video:

and the worksheets (including a teacher resource page, student worksheet AND rubric) can be found on the following website page:

https://sites.google.com/a/stretchinstructor.com/k-8-programming-playground/lessons/digital-storytelling/grades-K-2

If you decide to try this, please feel free to let us know how it goes by providing a comment to this post.