Unplugged Coding Activities You Can Do at Home

You do not need a tablet to start teaching your child to code. The ideas underneath coding (putting steps in order, repeating a group of steps, finding the step that went wrong) show up all over an ordinary day. An article for families in NAEYC’s Teaching Young Children puts it plainly: computational thinking “doesn’t require using a computer,” and preschoolers can use it to solve everyday problems.

The activities below use things you already have in the house. Each one lines up with a skill in the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards, a set of computer science standards written by educators and published by the Computer Science Teachers Association. For kindergarten through grade 2 (the standards call this Level 1A, ages 5 to 7), three of those skills are:

• creating and following algorithms, “sets of step-by-step instructions,” to model daily processes (1A-AP-08);
• building programs with “sequences and simple loops” (1A-AP-10);
• debugging, which the standard defines as “identify and fix,” errors in an algorithm that uses sequences and simple loops (1A-AP-14).

Here is how to practice each one at the kitchen table.

Sequencing: putting steps in order

An algorithm is a list of steps to finish a task. That is Code.org’s definition in its unplugged lessons for young students, and it is a good one to say out loud to your child.

Routine cards. The NAEYC family article suggests making cards for everyday tasks, like packing lunch or feeding a pet, then talking about what happens when the steps get mixed up and how to put them back in order. Draw four or five simple pictures on index cards: get the bowl, pour the food, put the bowl down, fill the water. Shuffle them and ask your child to line them up. Then swap two cards and ask, “Would this still work?” Pouring food before you have a bowl is a funny mess, and that laugh is the lesson. Order matters.

The literal sandwich. Ask your child to tell you how to make a jam sandwich while you do exactly what they say, and nothing more. If they say “put the jam on the bread,” hold the closed jar against the loaf and wait. Kids quickly figure out that they need to say “open the jar” and “pick up the knife.” This is the gap between what we mean and what we say, and it is the same gap every programmer works across.

Loops: doing the group again

A loop is a group of steps that repeats. Young children already know loops from songs, chants and clapping games.

Clap, stomp, jump. In an excerpt for NAEYC, early childhood researcher Joohi Lee describes children following a movement pattern to music: clap, stomp, jump, repeated, then a harder version, clap, clap, stomp, jump. She uses it to build sequencing and ordering. You can use the same game to introduce loops. Do the pattern once and ask, “How many times did I do the group?” Then write it the short way on paper: draw the three moves inside a circle and write “3 times” next to it. That circle is a loop. Ask your child to write a loop for you to perform, and follow it exactly.

Loops in the house. Once the idea clicks, point loops out as they happen. Brushing teeth is “brush, brush, brush” until the timer ends. Setting the table is “plate, fork, cup” for each chair. Ask your child to say the loop in one sentence: “For every chair, put a plate, a fork and a cup.”

Debugging: finding the step that went wrong

A bug is a part of a program that does not work correctly, and debugging is finding and fixing it (again, Code.org’s wording for young learners). Debugging is where children learn that a mistake is information. In our Rocket & Raven stories, Rocket’s first idea does not always work, and that is on purpose.

The silly caterpillar. The NAEYC family article suggests making a row of clay caterpillars with alternating colors, slipping a few mistakes into the pattern, and asking your child to check the pattern, explain what is wrong and work with you on a fix. Let your child hide a bug for you to find, too.

My Robotic Friends. Code.org’s unplugged lesson My Robotic Friends Jr. (written for grades 2 and 3) has one person act as a robot that stacks paper cups into a shape. The robot may only follow a small set of symbols, such as arrows that move a cup up, down, forward or backward. The lesson plan suggests about 20 cups per group, and its rules are worth copying at home:

• The programmers write the whole list of arrows before the robot starts.
• While the robot works, programmers do not talk or point out mistakes.
• If you see a bug, raise your hand, and let the robot finish as best it can.
• Talk about the bug together, fix the program, and run it again.

For a kindergartner, try three cups and only a few steps. For a third grader, try a pyramid of six and then ask for a shorter program that does the same thing.

Breaking a big job into small jobs

Programmers split big problems into smaller ones. CSTA’s K to 2 standards call this decomposing “the steps needed to solve a problem into a precise sequence of instructions” (1A-AP-11). The NAEYC family article offers a picnic example: work out together how many jobs there are, then give each helper one job, such as counting pretzels or packing fruit. Cleaning a bedroom works the same way. “Clean your room” is overwhelming. “Books on the shelf, then cars in the bin, then clothes in the basket” is three small programs.

Keep it short and keep it light

You do not need a schedule. Five minutes of the sandwich game on a Saturday counts. Follow your child’s interest, let them be the programmer more often than the robot, and when something goes wrong, say what Nova says: “Let’s debug together.”

When your child is ready to try these ideas on a screen, our Code Crew courses on Lantern Learn pick up the same thread. Code Crew Kindergarten uses picture puzzles for sequencing, patterns, loops and “if this, do that” with no reading required, and its early weeks are named things like “Clap and Stomp” and “One Step is Wrong.” You can see every live course on the course page.