Part 1
Prompt and Class: Charlotte’s Web studied by a 2nd Class
Charlotte has fallen from her web and needs assistance in getting back. Using the black and white chess board in the playground, pupils will be asked to move Charlotte from one side of the board to the other, and back to her web. Create a series of commands/steps for Charlotte to follow to allow her to arrive to her web safely. Extensions or challenges to this activity could include getting Charlotte there using the fewest number of commands, or Charlotte must pass obstacles such as a hay stack on her way back to the web or avoid predators in her path such as frogs or birds.
Materials: playground chess board, pen, paper, colours for colour coding
Part 2
The paper explores the importance of CT and an social-emotional development within young people. An interesting concept to delve into, as often times, children engaging with digital tools and gaming can be branded as being unsocial and engaging in solitary activities. In the learning environment, the paper highlighted the importance of those oppertunities for developing communication skills and collaboration between children and their shared application of CT for a common goal. The paper went on to illustrate integration of STEAM across curricular areas, not solely focusing on maths and science. Digital skills such as programming and coding were then likened to literacy and the learning of a new langugae, which certainly rings true for any teachers who have explored coding within their classrooms. The paper identified the importance for the introduction to this lanaguge and therefore these tools to be developed in early learners. It stated that in Finland, changes were made to their curricula to allow concepts of CT to be introduced before formal schooling, at the ECCE stage of a young child’s learning. The report also referred to the ever topical issue regarding current teachers lack of knowledge and being at the ‘sharp end of implementation’. Moreover, it recommended adequate and ongoing training for professionals to ensure for the accurate delivery of CT to young learners. The paper also identified tools for developing CT such as robotics, opened activites that encompass ‘low level, high ceiling’ <wide walls> approaches, oppertunities to play and create as well as unplugged activities. Overall, I feel this paper mirriors our experiences in Irish classrooms currently. The importance of introducing these skills as early as ECCE was thought provoking.
