Short Term Planning Year 4 Term 2 Games and Information
Resources:Scratch 1.4 (free download) or download Scratch 2.0 offline editorOR Visual in can be used on tablets to accomplish most of the activitiesPyonkee App can also be used on iPads)
Graphing program e.g. Infant Video toolkit/ Purple Mash (2 Graph) / (iPad app- graph/ iChart maker
Datalogger e.g. Easysense Q, Vu, LogIt Explorer, TTS Logbox
Search engines
Microsoft Word, SMART Notebook, Textease or Pages app / Objectives:
Programming
- Know that I need to keep testing my program while I am putting it together
- Use a variety of tools to create a program
- Recognise an error in a program and debug it
- Use an efficient procedure to simplify a program
- Use logical thinking to solve a problem by breaking it up into smaller parts.
- Use a sensor to detect a change which can select an action in a program
- Recognise that an algorithm will help me sequence more complex programs
- Organise data in different ways
- Collect data and identify where it could be inaccurate.
- Use a datalogger to record and share my readings with my friends
- Tell you whether a resource I am using is on the Internet, the school network or on my own device
- Identify key words to use when searching safely on the World Wide Web
- Create a hyperlink to a resource on the World Wide Web
- Talk about the ways I can protect myself and my friends from harm online
- Use the safety features of websites as well as reporting concerns to an adult
- Comment positively and respectfully online
1 / Programming
I know that I need to keep testing my program while I am putting it together / Review of what children already know, create a Knock, Knock joke
- Recap what the children have learnt during prior experience with Scratch. Give the children some time to play on Scratch and experiment. What can they make their sprite do?
- Select these five buttons on the script menu from the middle of the page and display on the board (the colour corresponds to each set of programming blocks). Can the children find, select these buttons and put them together so that they work?
- Give the children five minutes to experiment with the different ways these can go together. Remind the children that when working with Scratch it is like a jigsaw and we click together the tabs for the sprites to follow. Show them how we can start our programme by clicking the flag and stopping it by pressing the red shape next to it. The tabs from the middle of the screen vary and control our sprites in different ways.
- Choose some children to explain what they have done and you show on the board. Has everything they have done been successful? If not, do they know why not?
- Tell the children they are going to animate a knock, knock joke: choose a joke from
- In real life, enact two people telling a knock, knock joke. Who says which part? Ask the children to talk to each other to describe the algorithm of telling a joke.
- Open a new project. Choose two sprites. Can you program the sprites to tell a knock, knock joke? Remind them of the looks block ‘say XXXX for XX sec’. (Some children may decide to record their own voice. If they choose this way they will need to record the correct part of each line of the joke for each sprite.)
- Tell children it will be important for them to keep trying out their programming as they go along. Keep reminding them of this.
- Leave children to work at telling the joke, intervening as required and continually reminding them to test out their programming. Prompt children to use when green flag clicked to start each sprite. Some may discover other ways but using the green flag will start both sprites off at the same time.
- Children may need to consider the ‘wait for xxx’ control block so that one sprite waits for the other to finish before they tell their part of the joke.
- Early finishers can be prompted to add a background and appropriate movement to their sprites.
- Ask children to save projects. View and discuss projects with 2 stars and a wish. Talk about the way in which the algorithm has been implemented by different children.
Silver: Can I program my own joke with two selected characters, continually trying out the programming and debugging any mistakes?
Bronze: Can Iprogram two characters to tell a joke?
2 / Programming
I can use a variety of tools to create a program.
I can use an efficient procedure to simplify a program. / Create an Etch a Sketch game
- Give all children Etch a Sketch instructions.
- Have a look at the algorithm. Look at the programming blocks. Can you describe what the programming blocks will do? Discuss the use of selection: if I press the up arrow key etc.
- Encourage children to continue to problem solve with each other where errors are occurring in their programming.
- Create your Etch a Sketch game. Children can use right click and duplicate to copy the sets of programming blocks and then use the drop down arrow to chance for each key. You can describe this sequence as a procedure.
- Ask the children to fill in the ‘algorithm boxes’ which describe what each set of programming blocks achieves. (Children are likely to need to create the whole ‘game’ before going back and being clear about what each set of blocks achieves).
- Talk about the programming blocks for each key press as a procedure.
- Challenge: What can you add to improve your Etch a Sketch?
Silver: Can I use a sequence of steps to make things happen?
Bronze: Can I select the blocks to make things happen?
3 / Programming
I can use logical thinking to solve a problem by breaking it up into smaller parts.
I can use a sensor to detect a change which can select an action in a program. / Introduce the idea of ‘if something happens … then …
(This is the idea of selection. For explanations for terms used when programming with Scratch see
- Prepare a child before the lesson to act out ‘if I walk into a wall’ then ‘I fall down’. Ask the class what is happening. Guide them to the use of if and then language.
- Ask the children to find the if and then command in Scratch (in the control blocks).
- Ask the children to paint a background which has a coloured wall.
- What will happen if the cat works across the stage and hits the wall? Talk about the algorithm you want to create eg The cat walks across the stage, if it touches the wall, then it will return to the start.
- Ask the children to create a program to implement the algorithm. They will need to discover the sensing block for colour. (Click in the colour box and then on the colour on the stage you want to sense.)
- Encourage the children to look at each others’ ideas and the programming they have used.
Silver: Can I use a sensor programming block to make something happen?
Bronze: Can I select the bits of code to make things happen?
4 / Programming
I can use a sensor to detect a change which can select an action in a program.
I recognise that an algorithm will help me to sequence more complex problems. / Create a racing car game(Thanks to Ashleigh Stevens of Ashcott school for contribution)
- Ask the children to tell each other what a selection command is. Remind them of the work in the previous session. (Chooses between two or more course of action depending on the answer.) It might be helpful to refer children to selections (choices) they make in everyday life; for example, if it rains in the morning, then I will wear my coat to school, otherwise I won’t.
- Create a chalk pathway on the playground. Ask a child to walk along and purposeful step off every now and then. When they step of they need to go back to the beginning. Rehearse the if and then language.
- Explain to the children that they are going to have a go at programming a car racing game. . Instructions for Scratch 2.0.
- Talk through the algorithm. In this game their sprite (or car) will need to react if it touches a certain colour or a certain feature on their race track. This could be if it touches green, then it returns to the start position. Or is it touches the edge of the screen then it bounces back. Children can choose the ‘if, then, otherwise’ they want their sprite to do.
- For children that need extra guidance, use the pdf link above. Otherwise let children discover what they are able to do. Encourage early finishers to use what they have learnt from the Etch a Sketch game to make it a two player game.
- Allow time for the children to have a go at playing another child’s game. Not only are they playing the game but they are also looking for what they think the ‘selection’ options are that are being used. After playing the game, they look. Were they right?
Silver: Can I use a sequence of steps to make things happen?
Bronze: Can I select the bits of code to make things happen?
5 / Programming
I recognise that an algorithm will help me to sequence more complex problems.
I can recognise an error in a program and debug it. / Adapt the Car Racing game to create a game of my own
- Support materials for this session are at
- Explain to children that today they are going to bring together what they have learned in Scratch to develop a game – they will have two sessions to plan, program and evaluate their game.Consider the planning process:
- What will happen on the screen?
- Plan the process / algorithm necessary to achieve this
- Carry out your plan
- Encourage children to think about how they could adapt the car racing game to a make a game of their own. Ask them for some similar scenarios eg Fox getting to the chicken house, What knowledge and skills do they already have that they can apply?
- Remind them of the need to test as they are programming, in order to debug any problems. Stop the class when appropriate for different children to explain mistakes they have come across and how they have debugged them.
- Allow children sufficient time to complete their Scratch game.
- When complete, discuss the outcomes with children and ask them to play one another’s games. What has been successful? What challenges did they overcome?
Silver: Can I use a sequence of steps to make things happen?
Bronze: Can I select the bits of code to make things happen?
6 / Handling Data
I can organise data in different ways / Collect and organise data
- Pose a question to the children that needs data collected e.g. attendance of after school clubs or numbers of points scored in inter school sports matches over the past term. Explain to them that this is discrete data. Discuss with them the different methods of collecting the raw data.
- Once the children have had time to collect their data demonstrate how to input their raw data into a graphing program – choose from Infant Video toolkit (2Graph) / Purple Mash (2 Graph) / Textease Spreadsheet / Excel Spreadsheet / iPad app- graph/ iChart maker.
- Remind the children about the importance of having a clear title and labels for the x/y axis. These can be added by clicking at the base and side of the L shaped graph. Give children time to input their data into to the program and add in the titles/labels. Show the children different options for displaying their chart.
- The default setting for 2Graph is a block chart. Click on the taps at the top of the screen to toggle between the different graphing options.
- Depending on the level of the children, block/bar and pie charts are available. The graphs can be printed or saved to the network. A good plenary idea is to ask the children to present their findings to the class using a large digital display. The other members of the class can then ask questions about their findings and look for trends and anomalies.
- Note for teacher: 2Graph is the simpler of the tools and is ideal for instant results with little teacher input. 2Simple have added a help video that demonstrates how to use the program. This might be a good starting point for anyone who is not confident with using a graphing tool. The iPad apps are a little more complicated but are portable and can therefore be used in any location around the school. Once downloaded they do not require a wifi connection until you wish to print. This means that you could take your lesson to where the data is being collected and produce the graph instantaneously. Or sit outside and do it on a lovely sunny afternoon!
- If choosing to use a spreadsheet option a pre-prepared template can support some children to be able to more quickly enter their results and be ready for creating a graph.
Silver: Can I create a graph that accurately presents my data?
Bronze: Can I create a bar chart using my data?
7 / Handling Data
I can use a datalogger to record and share my readings with my friends
I can collect data and identify where it could be inaccurate. / Using a datalogger to collect data
- Referring to the previous lesson for how to collect data and the programs that can be used to display it and discuss the difference between discrete and continuous data.
- Once defined, pose a question to the children that involves them collecting data over a period of time e.g. which material is the best insulator for keeping a jacket potato warm? (make links to Science or Maths learning).
- Model the different methods of collecting the data using a regular household mercury thermometer, a digital cooking thermometer and a data logger. Agree the time intervals for each data collection and set the data logger to measure the temperature and set the time for each reading. Pose the question to the children about which of the 3 devices they think will be the easiest to use and which will give the most accurate readings?
- Discuss the need to have a control temperature reading from the start of the data collection.
- Once all of the data has been collected, show the children a line graph and explain why this is a good method of displaying continuous data. Discuss any anomalies in the data e.g. a sudden drop or a sudden increase – how could this have happened?
- Model with the children how to input their data by inputting the control data to the chart.
- Remind the children about the importance of having clear titles and labels for their charts. Demo how to insert them by clicking at the bottom and side of the L shape graph. (If using a data logger then attach the device with the cable provided to a computer that has the correct software installed. Follow the onscreen instructions to create the graph.)
- 2Graph will only allow you to plot one set of data on the screen and so you will need to print out the graph and add the extra data by hand. (This is a nice opportunity for you to see who has understood the concept of a line graph.)
- The iPad apps have multiple line functionality but require a little more teacher input during the data inputting stage. Connect your iPad to your digital display to model this to the whole group.
- All of the programs will allow you to print your finished line graphs and display them digitally (with the correct connections) for your children to talk the class through their findings.
- Note for teacher: Data loggers vary in operation, but Data Harvest devices come with a very simple step by step guide in the box that will make the process very straightforward.