STEAM mystery!- Find my shadow!

Algorithms are instructions that we must follow to complete a specific task.

An easy and fun activity that can be repeated in many ways is command gymnastics.

This is an unplugged activity, requiring no device or internet connection.

We use large command blocks, which we place on the floor or tape to our classroom blackboard.

The commands are simple and include:

1. the images for the beginning and the end

2. the arrows, with which students are asked to move forward, backward, right or left,

3. the images with the various movements

4. the boxes, which show how many times (repetition) they have to repeat the movement.

We will celebrate with our partners in the eTwinning project: Good manners detectives the CODEWEEK. So, since we deal with a different social value every month, we decided to deal with the concept of cooperation. The aim of the activities is to introduce BASIC PROGRAMMING CONCEPT, to cultivate logical and mathematical skills, but also communication and cooperation skills in the students. Let's teach the little beebot what cooperation means! We could create cards with behaviors that show cooperation and behaviors that show children not cooperating. Cards can be created by students or ready-made cards can be used. We'll teach the little beebot only the right behaviors, planning correctly and avoiding uncooperative behaviors. If some of our partners do not have robots, they can draw a track on the ground with paper tape, place the cards on the track, and the students in pairs have the role of the driver and the robot. The driver will either give verbal instructions (e.g. 1 step forward, turn right, etc.) or with specific movements (e.g. a tap on the back means a step, a touch on the left arm means a turn to the left, etc.). Also, since many have more than one robot it can become a race (where they have a different starting point) as to which team can program the robot the fastest and collect the most cards with positive behaviors. These activities will be implemented within the framework of the eTwinning: Good manners detectives and specifically for the cooperation value and there will be instructions in Greek and English for our partners on the digital board: https://digipad.app/p/916109/81a8a2e12fca2  , where the relevant activities will be posted. 

Preschool age children will take their first steps in algorithmic thinking and programming and at the same time get to know different forest animals. The main goal is for the children to cultivate knowledge and skills of computational thinking, programming and coding, to discover forest animals with and without the use of the robot (unplugged), to raise awareness about animals, to communicate and cooperate and have fun.

As the beginning of October is designated as code week and at the same time we celebrate animals’ day, we could prepare a piece with the animals of the forest, making each school a card with an animal.

Activity title: "Let's get to know the animals of the forest". Children will be able to either use robots or themselves to move through a grid to meet the animals of the forest. It could maybe get more complicated, say the name of each animal in English. That is, each school to draw, record the name of the animal and create a qr code. Each school will print out the images with the codes and the child will scan each time they reach an image. This will depend on the age maturity and familiarity of the young students with the codes.

The activities will be published in a collaborative video, the link of which will be shared with the group members.