In December, the girls began the coding unit by learning about Ada Lovelace, a famous, female computer programmer. Next, the girls participated in the Hour of Code. According to the Hour of Code website, "Launched in 2013, Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. We believe computer science should be part of core curriculum, alongside other courses such as biology, chemistry or algebra." You can find more info about Hour of Code - even have your daughter do this at home - by clicking here.
The girls are now using Scratch, "a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations" (https://scratch.mit.edu/). We will continue to use this programming language through 5th grade, building onto their skills. This year, in fourth grade, the girls learn the basics of Scratch: creating animation incorporating movement and images, using xy coordinates to move sprites, alternating between different costumes, incorporating time and motion, importing pictures and sound, creating and recording sounds to use in projects, using the pen function, and using repeats to draw images.
We use the downloaded version at school. You can download this at home or create an account for your daughter (parents permission and email required) by clicking here. Please be aware that if you don't download the program, your daughter will be on an online community that should be monitored by parents.
