Getting ready for Christmas Capers

Our Code Club is having a little break while I and Joe do a few other things.  Next week I am helping at Hull's Hack to the Future in Bransholme, Hull. It is a day for senior school pupils to learn about all things computer related, run by the incredible Alan O'Donohoe (@teknoteacher) who seems to spend most of his time enthusing school children and the general public about coding and computers.
I'm also spending some time learning about physical computing with my Raspberry Pi and new acquisition, a Pibrella.  I'm hoping to plan a practical session using Raspberry Pis for the year 5 or 6 pupils at Bishopthorpe. What I'd love to do is - the biscuit thief detector which was on Twitter earlier this year and which would require me to attach a motion sensor to the Pibrella.  It needs the pupils to write a Scratch program for the motion sensor so that noises and lights go on when anyone steals a biscuit from a plate. Got to get it working myself first!


Anyway, roll on December and Christmas Capers at Code Club!

A brilliant creative session - Create your own game

The group had so many ideas this week!  Some of the pupils used Scratch.mit.edu starters:  Maze,  Greeting Card and Pong (with the 'Don't hit Finn!' remix) were the most popular.  Others worked completely on their own and some were very well-organised, looking back over previous projects to help them write scripts. Can't wait for next week to see how these games work out and put some of them on the Scratch website.

Maze

 

Don't hit Finn!

 







Create your own game

This was quite a challenging week as far as keeping the pupils on task went. They found it difficult to concentrate on planning. They were given laptops once we'd seen a rough plan but they weren't as attentive even then. Most of them have chosen aims that fit into the groups that the Scratch Team have written starters for www.scratch.mit.edu (in 'See examples') :

• Pong
• Maze
• Hide and Seek
• Greetings Card

so to structure the session a little more I'm going to take along part of the scripts on paper to give them something to type in then remix.  Also, with the help of Richard Austin I've found out how to download Scratch2 projects and copy the sprites out of them into .png files.  Therefore I can give the pupils some additional sprites that they've requested, such as bears.

Scratch Second Level with Year 6

Had a brilliant group of returning children on Thursday and we worked through the 'What's that?' activity.  I know most of the children already and it's lovely to see them coming back for more.  Also, Joe Cutting has joined us as my partner volunteer so he is going to be most helpful. Whereas I only know about programming, he has skills in making and electronics so we should be able to do some practical work soon.

This coming week I thought I'd be a little more brave and use Richard Austin's Flappy Bird for Scratch 1.4.  I've had to write the activity notes myself so I hope I've done alright with them!  Well, I'll soon find out tomorrow!


For the following next few weeks we are going to use the activity 'Create your own game' and I'm looking forward to the imaginative ideas that I know this group will have.


BTW, it's really worth investing in a set of reusable badges because each group that I've used them with seems to have had more of a group identity and it's certainly easier for me to get to know each child!

Year 4 get creative with Whack-a-Witch

We had a good, but very busy, session today.  I am observing that year 4 children find it harder to learn by reading the activity sheets so need more help from me. It was a full class of thirteen too, so I had trouble helping everyone.  Next week I must arrange some experts in particular processes, such as,

• using a variable to make a scoring system
• making a timer
• broadcasting when a hit has taken place
• changing a sprite's costume
• finding a sprite from a resource file.

 

That would give me time for the more unusual queries. I love the ideas this group have though. For each child, he/she is very good at making his/her game individual.

Code Club with Year 4 again

We had a really good, although chaotic session, last Thursday as I'd downloaded the new version of 'Felix and Herbert' and hadn't realised it was for Scratch 2.0 so some of the commands were a bit difficult.  Also, I think it will help if I get the year 4s to read carefully, then tick the boxes next to the instructions, before moving on as they are missing out bits of work and getting stuck.  Next week's 'Whack-a-Witch' should be straightforward and I'm just going to program it on my Raspberry Pi, which has Scratch 1.4, to make sure I remember what to do.  The new part in 'Whack-a-Witch' is giving the game a timer.

Another brilliant Code Club session!

The year 4 pupils did a great job with Desert Race. They have worked brilliantly with Adam while I was away.  They needed a little more help than Year 5 children but still produced some good race programs. They are taking all the project notes home tonight so that they can continue working on coding at home. The next year 4 group starts in 3 weeks.

Code Club with Year 4

I am so looking forward to getting back to Code Club this afternoon. We will be coding Desert Race and I can't wait to hear the children's lion and parrot sounds!

Fireworks picture

Fireworks and e-cards

On this our 8th week, we looked at the Fireworks project again with the new group. I suggested that they could adapt the project to make an e-card and this seemed to work well.  Alabama (female, 9/10 years) and Joe (male, 9/10 years) both produced really good cards and Alabama was allowed to bring her mother in - to look at what she'd achieved. Everyone in this group has completed a project (that I've tried out and discussed with them) now.

New group - new challenges

Our new group has 7 girls and 4 boys. There are some bright sparks this time so I'm going to bring forward some challenges which appear later in order to keep the children, who find a project easy, working on something worthwhile for the whole 55 minutes.

Fifth week already and we're saying Goodbye!

Adam and I said goodbye to our first group today.  It seems to have gone so quickly and I hope the children enjoyed it as much as I did.  They were a bit lively this week; maybe it's because it's half-term holiday coming up.  Or maybe it was because I wasn't on top form.  I still got some names wrong so badges are definitely going to help with the next group.  Also, I think we should think of something a bit different to do in the fifth week to celebrate what the children have learnt.  We decided not to give certificates this time because it was difficult to identify who had really achieved them and the children seem to be rewarded enough by producing a game/display that works.
8 girls and 5 boys today.

Fish, fish and more fish and the odd werewolf!

We had 15 children in attendance this time to work with my favourite activity, the fish one. The range of sprites to be gobbled up and their colours was very imaginative!  The children have started recording their own sounds with the headsets too so, all in all, the programs they produce are excellent.  Some children stick exactly to the remit - some go off on flights of fancy - but all, with a little help from Adam and me, are producing programs that work.  That's a relief as I wasn't sure some of them were going to get to that stage, in the beginning.  We say goodbye to this, our first, group next week and I will miss them!


On a completely different point.  I hear of plenty of granddads volunteering for Code Club but what about geek grannies. I can't be the only one.  When I went away to study in 1970 there were plenty of women there, learning programming, with me.  Are they doing volunteering but keeping quiet about being grannies?  Don't they feel confident enough to give it a go?  Maybe some training would help. I was lucky enough to do Open University TU100 My Digital Life which revised my knowledge and taught me all I needed to know.  Geek Grannies of Britain identify yourselves and come and give it a try!
8 girls and 7 boys today.

Week 3 -Very inventive

This week we used the 'Fireworks' activity as a model to do some creative displays.  Some children stayed with fireworks and explosions, while others were really creative with the project outline, using different sprites and sounds.  I think their completed projects would make good e-cards to send to teachers perhaps.  Mrs. Ferencz-Clarke had managed to put the Firework Resources on the school network in the P for pupil folder so, for each child, importing the new sprites and the 'bang' sound was straightforward.  I had been wondering how we'd do this but it was no problem.  Adam was a great help with difficulties I couldn't sort out and the children really appreciated having him work with them.  The headphones definitely helped to keep the noise down in this week's activity. 


It's really nice getting to know the 15 children in the group as 7 girls and 7 boys were present this time.  We have each group of children for 5 weeks so when the next 15 children start I'll make the badges and then we will get to know them a bit more quickly.  I'll have to collect the badges in each week as, firstly they might forget to bring them back, and secondly, if I buy badge surrounds, I want to recycle them to save cost.


All in all, I felt a lot happier about how it went this week and I think my increased confidence is mainly because I am getting to know the children and their individual personalities now which always makes working with people/children more enjoyable.

Week 2 -Noisy but fun!

This week we had one extra girl and one extra boy making 8 girls and 7 boys.  It was a bit more chaotic than before because they really got the idea of importing new sounds. We need to get the headphones out for next week's Firework project.  They really seemed to enjoy Whack-a-Witch though. (Mind you they had some brilliant choices of sprites so it certainly wasn't 'witches' all the way!)  We're still having difficulties reminding them to Save their scripts though.  We must remind them more next week.  Also, next week they need some extra sprites and a sound so I must make sure they can access those.

First brilliant session!

Our first Code Club went brilliantly!  Well it wasn't perfect on my part but I know how to improve things,that were slightly chaotic, for next week.  I think Adam and I work okay together and his technical knowledge is invaluable. Mrs. Ferencz-Clarke, the teacher, was on hand and was a great help. The pupils (7 girls and 6 boys) were attentive and enthused, and I hope I get to know them all by name soon. Several of them finished the 'cat chases mouse' game which is the first activity in the Level 1 pack. 


The laptops all worked beautifully, with great sound, and the only teething problem we had was making sure we saved their work in their personal file, on the school network, correctly.
I have to say I think the Code Club materials are very well thought-out and most of all - fun!