Focusing on the programming skill of loops and repetition, this activity offers a chance for pupils to apply their understanding, linking both Scratch and art. With links to modelled examples, teachers could apply the PRIMM method to their lessons, through the pre-created Scratch projects.

This collection of twelve Scratch cards is designed to provide a quick way to learn how to code using the language Scratch. The front of the card describes to the students what can be done; the back explains how to do it. Each card can be printed and folded to A5 size for use with students. The activities cover how...

This one-page help sheet offers a comprehensive introductory guide to Scratch, great for teachers new to the platform, or those who are unfamiliar with some of its features.  

ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young students to create their own interactive stories and games. Students snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Students can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds,...

This Barefoot activity for young programmers exploits the sequencing and timing of joke-telling to help students learn good programming techniques. After planning an animation using a storyboard technique they then code it using the Scratch Jr app, and debug it. Tips for supporting the less able, as well as...

A Barefoot Computing introductory programming activity for lower-primary children learning computing. Using the iPad app Scratch Jr, children are given the opportunity to develop skills by tinkering with existing programs as well as creating their own. Children might be offered the chance to tinker with other basic...

A resource from the CS4FN bank produced by Queen Mary and King’s College, University of London. Students will be able to link the algorithms that they have learned and the relative complexity expressed in Big O notation. The resource consists of a series of slides, program files with solution, an activity sheet and...

A set of resources aimed at secondary school students. The resources were developed by Nichola Wilkin and cover the following topics:

• History of computing
• Networks
• Using Python
• Using Scratch
• ...

This activity allows students to investigate how images are produced from data streams by using first a spreadsheet and then an image-processing program. They then go on to see how the usefulness of such a monochromatic image may be enhanced by using lookup tables and calibration. The materials used focus on the...

This Barefoot Computing primary school resource helps children to Understand how search engines work. By acting as a ‘web crawler’ and collecting information across a small selection of web pages, they learn what in data is indexed by search engines and how this is used when a search query is received. As well as...

This interactive online self-driving challenge from Siemens can supplement robotics education in computing. It enables pupils to programme a car to drive around a circuit without a driver, the circuits getting more complex as the challenge progresses.

Self-...

The joy and challenge of building ‘cheap and cheerful’ sensors has a wide appeal to adults as well as children. It also opens a wide number of links to aspects of the mathematics, science, computing, design and technology, and engineering curricula, supporting scientific investigation and discovery. These...

In this session students will create a logic circuit to represent a Mars rover MOT. They will identify the necessary logic gates and consider numerous inputs, which will be combined and traversed in person. They will make the link between truth tables and undertake testing and some simplification to reduce the...

This activity highlights comparisons between the life cycle of a frog and basic programming, exploring sequencing through flow charts and loops and repetition. Link science and computer science together in the cross curricular activity.

Our first activities introduce your child/ren to:...