Fourth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about polygons (SOL4.12) and angles (SOL4.10), so today students in Ms. Bennett’s class used their knowledge of angles to create polygons using basic coding skills. Teaching students about coding is an important skill that is being emphasized more and more. Not only is it practical, but it also trains the brain in logical and sequential processing. I posted a link to Scratch on Google classroom, which is an excellent site for teaching elementary students how to write basic computer code. I helped them set up their accounts, and we used the teacher’s email for confirmation. Then we signed in and clicked “Create” to start our project. I did an example first, showing them how to use code to create a triangle. We discussed pixels (for the length of the sides), angles (for the corners of the shape), and position (for returning to the beginning). First I wrote a long code, programming each side and angle, then I asked if they thought there was a simpler way. Some of them figured out that they could use the loop feature to handle some of the repeated commands. Now they were ready to create their own shapes. We started by making a custom sprite (click “New Sprite” and choose file, drawing, or camera). The the students used the coding blocks to make their shape. They could create any polygon with less than 10 sides. They also added a speech bubble at the end for their sprite to say the name of the shape they created. When they were finished, they shared their projects on Google classroom. You can see them all here. Be sure to click the “See Inside” button to take a look at the code.
