Coding Day 7.7.16

On Wednesday we had a coding day with the help of Mrs Hellyar, so thank you for coming in.

We first thought about how computers and robots work. We talked about how coding is writing a set of instructions (algorithms) for a computer or robot to do something. We practised this by writing instructions for human robots to make a sandwich for us; we found this tricky as we had to go into such detail to get the robots to do what we wanted. 

We then learnt about how to repeat certain algorithms to make a loop in a program by writing dance moves and then putting them in an order and thinking about which moves to repeat to make a dance.

After break we took all that we had learnt and used it to code on 'Turtle Logo' making shapes by repeating instructions and had lots of fun doing this. We also learnt about 'bugs' (when codes do not work) and how to 'debug' our codes.

In the afternoon the year 3's carried on learning with Mrs Hellyar; using all that they had learnt about shapes to code the turtle to make a shape. The year 4's had a go on another coding program that they will use in middles schools called Scratch and coded characters to interact and move with each other. 

Both programs are available for free online so we can all have a practise at home if we want.