Children ages 3 to 5 are able to create drawings of maps that represent relationships between objects and places. It’s very engaging for children who enjoy telling stories and using grids and maps. If children are just beginning to understand and follow directional language and use ordinals, the precoding activities that follow will reinforce that learning.Īctivities involving location and movement, such as playing board games and giving directions to peers in pretend play, offer some background knowledge and provide entry points for children into coding activities.Ĭoding is like a game. Some children will have mastered these concepts and others will still be learning.
Play and create games how to#
They need to become familiar with how to count using ordinals ( first, second, third) and understand one-to-one correspondence. To participate successfully in precoding activities, children should be introduced to directional language, like up and down, backward and forward, left and right. Many preschoolers are just the right age to begin learning!Ĭoding is more accessible to young children than you may think. The earlier children explore the basics of coding, the more easily they will be able to learn, understand, and apply coding later in life. Many of the same concepts supported in these activities, such as spatial reasoning and number sense, are a foundational part of coding that children can practice without a computer.Įarly coding is fun and exciting. Children are naturally drawn to adventurous experiences in which they can explore movement, direction, and location. Activities related to creating and following commands can be gamelike in nature, such as moving a gaming piece a specific number of spaces on a grid (think Candyland or Chutes and Ladders). Children learn about creating commands, or using directional language, when they make and use maps to locate a treasure during dramatic play and when they give each other instructions while playing with toy cars.
Play and create games series#
I started to think about some aspects of precoding that would be meaningful to preschoolers, and I began to develop a series of activities where children create their own coding stories. There are many learning activities preschool children already engage in that relate to coding. These are 21st century skills that are valuable for children’s future success in our digital world. Gaming systems, tablets, cars, cell phones-even washing machines!-all use coding to function properly.Įarly coding, or precoding, offers children experiences that integrate communication, thinking, and problem solving. It involves the process of creating step-by-step instructions a computer understands and needs in order for its programs to work. If coding is new to you, you will find that it builds on many early math and literacy concepts you are familiar with.Ĭoding (or programming) is a basic language of the digital age. They offer opportunities for interactions and collaborative learning. Coding stories and coding games are playful, hands-on ways for children to explore and experiment with early coding.
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