Developing Computational Thinking in a KS1 Classroom Through English, Mathematics And

Developing computational thinking in a KS1 classroom through English, Mathematics and Computing

Sequence of activities for mixed year 1 and 2 class

Learning objectives

English

●Spoken language

○ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge

○articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

○give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes

●Reading comprehension

○develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read and extend vocabulary and understanding.

○build understanding of books read and explain clearly their understanding of what is read to them.

Mathematics

●Number and place value

○count numbers and to use language of equal to, more than, less than (fewer), most, least

●Statistics

○Construct and interpret pictograms and block diagrams

Computing

●Use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content.

Prior learning

●Children have listened to a variety of traditional stories. A classroom display of illustrations created by the children provides a reminder of the different stories.

●Children have been practising their mathematical vocabulary to look at different collections of objects and talk about ‘more than’ and ‘less than’. They have begun to use the words most and least.

●Children have used copy and paste and saved and open files on laptops in the classroom.

●Children have used the JIT tool in to build sequences and to talk about the algorithm for the wolf to visit each of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ homes. They implemented the algorithm as a program.

●Children have talked about computational thinking ideas after doing the logo activities within j2code and have a poster reminding them of these

Preparation

Create a word cloud of a traditional story the children have already listened to and talked about. Copy and paste the text of the story into the online tool.

Print out text of story

Have text of other traditional stories such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ available.

Activity One

●Show the class the word cloud of a story.
●Children talk about the word cloud in pairs.
●Teacher asks the pattern recognition questions encouraging the children to explain their answers.
●Children talk about what a block graph of the story would look like and think about how they can make one. Children can use 2Count in PurpleMash to create block graph or use coloured squares and pritt stick to physically create a block graph.
●Ask the children to compare the word cloud and the block graph. What are the differences? What are the similarities? What questions could you ask about each of them?
English
Building understanding of the stories they read and listened to
Articulate their thinking and explain their answers and opinion
Mathematics
Construct and interpret a block diagram
Count numbers, use the words most and least / Pattern recognition
What story does this show?
What makes you think that is the answer?
Why are the words different sizes?
What would a block graph look like for this story?
Decomposition
What else will we need to know to create block graph?
How will we make block graph?
Which words

Activity Two

●Children talk in pairs about ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and write their own word cloud for that story. They will predict which words appear the most and the least in the story and use this knowledge to write different words in different sizes..
●The children are then given the text of the story. Do you think the word cloud you have made shows the most and least words? How will you check?
●Show the children ABCYA word cloud. Have a website with text of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ available.
●Remind the children of copying and pasting. Show them how you make a word cloud.
●How do you think ABCYA word cloud works? What are the steps it must go through to make the word cloud? Remind the children of the way the algorithms they used in j2e.com. What sequence of things will we do for this challenge?
●Look at computational thinker poster together. Which skills have we been using? Which attitudes did we need to achieve our outcome?
English
Build understanding of the stories they read and listened to
Articulate their thinking and explain their answers and opinion
Mathematics
Count numbers, use the words most and least / Decomposition
What are the parts of the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ story?
How do you think ABCYA word cloud works?
Pattern recognition
What would a word cloud look like for ‘Little Red Riding Hood’?
Does the ABCYA word cloud look like the word cloud you made?
Algorithm design
How will you make a word cloud of the story?
What are the steps ABCYA does for you?

Activity Three

●Give the children a chance to choose a story (have text of stories available via hyperlinks to appropriate websites or through electronic copies of the story.
●Children talk about the story they have chosen and predict which words will appear the most and which the least
●Remind the children of the algorithm for making a word cloud
●Children create their own ABCYA word clouds
●Children create a poster of story using word cloud, clipart or pictures they create in a paint program
●Look at computational thinker poster together. Which skills have we been using? Which attitudes did we need to achieve our outcome?
Computing
Create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content
English
Building understanding of the stories they read and listened to. Articulate their thinking and explain their answers and opinion / Abstraction
Which are the characters in the story?
Which are the key parts of the story?
Algorithm
How will you make a word cloud of the story?
How will you create a poster for the story?