SUDOKU Challenge for ERASMUSDays

Celebrating Christmas becomes more interesting for our young students this year! The students of the 3rd and 4th class have to crack the code to discover what's behind the squares in an unplugged activity that combines PIXEL ART with coding!

Students will learn about coding concepts such as sequencing and algorithms by creating a "program" to light up a Christmas tree with a specific pattern of colours. This activity promotes logical thinking and understanding of how to create and follow step-by-step instructions.

STEPS:

1) Students will be given a coding key that assigns each colour of the "Christmas light" a specific number or symbol. For example:

        Red = ♥

        Green = ☘

        Blue = ❄

        Yellow = ★

    Students will be shown how each colour is represented by a symbol, and get informed that they will create a sequence of instructions (an algorithm) to "light up" the Christmas tree in a specific pattern. The goal is for students to "program" a Christmas tree by placing the colored lights (using coloured paper circles) in a specific order according to the code they create.

2) Students decide on a pattern of lights for their tree. They will write the sequence using the symbols from the coding key.

3) After writing their code, students will follow the sequence to place the coloured paper lights on a cardboard tree outline, gluing them in the order specified by their code.

4) Once the students have placed all their lights, they are asked to check if their Christmas tree matches the code they wrote. This helps them understand the concept of "debugging" or fixing mistakes in their code. If the light pattern doesn't match the original code, students should find where they made a mistake and correct it. They can rewrite the code and adjust the coloured lights on the tree accordingly.

Christmas is coming and Santa is asking for the students' help to find his beloved Rudolph! The students need to give Santa the proper guidanceto find Rudolph! This will be done by writing the correct code which will help Santa reach his destination while avoiding all snowmen!