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Your Space Catcher game is a lovely example of how digital play can support early science learning. One feature I really liked was the falling asteroid mechanic — it clearly shows objects moving downward, which links beautifully to your objective of helping children explore ideas like gravity and movement in space. Because the asteroids fall at a steady rate, children can visually connect what they see in the game to how objects behave in real space environments.
You also explained your debugging process well. Adjusting the asteroid speed and spawn rate through trial and error shows strong computational thinking — especially your willingness to revisit steps and refine the design when something didn’t behave as expected.
A practical integration tip would be to pair the game with a short hands‑on activity, such as dropping different classroom objects and asking children to notice how they fall. This creates a direct bridge between the digital simulation and real‑world observation, strengthening their understanding of forces and movement.
1. Game Type: Catch Game
2. Game Title: “Teddy Catch”
3. Curriculum Area: Early Computational Thinking / Digital Literacy
Learning Objective: To help pupils develop Computational Thinking skills such as sequencing, pattern recognition, and cause‑and‑effect by designing and playing a simple interactive game.4. Simple Storyboard
Location: A bright, colourful playground.
Player: A friendly teddy bear sprite that moves left and right.
Game Elements: Falling hearts or stars (good items), Occasional falling boots or rocks (bad items), A short timer (10–20 seconds), Score counter, Gentle sound effects5. Goal / Win–Lose / Scoring: Goal (Catch as many hearts/stars as possible before the timer ends), Win Condition (Score 10 points or more), Lose Condition (Score below 10, or catch too many “bad” items), Scoring (+1 point for each heart/star) & (–1 point for each bad item)
6. Computational Thinking Links: Sequencing: Pupils see how events happen in order (item falls → player moves → score changes). Pattern Recognition: Pupils notice which items are “good” and which are “bad.” Cause and Effect: Catching an item immediately changes the score. Debugging: If something doesn’t work, pupils can adjust blocks and test again.
I thought your Rock Paper Scissors MakeCode project was a lovely choice for introducing coding to children. The “on shake” input makes it very interactive, and the random selection block is a great way for children to see how computers make decisions. It definitely supports early coding skills because pupils can clearly see how an input (shaking) leads to an output (one of the three icons). Even Junior Infants would enjoy the physical element of shaking the device and watching what appears.
One way you could strengthen the STEM integration is by making the data‑collection element a little more structured. For example, pupils could record 20 shakes and then compare which symbol appeared most often. Even simple tally marks or colouring in pictures of rock/paper/scissors would make the maths more hands‑on and age‑appropriate.
A practical support idea might be to let pupils act out the game first without the Micro:bit. They could play Rock Paper Scissors in pairs, then compare it to how the Micro:bit “plays” using randomisation. This helps them understand the algorithm before they ever touch the device, and it’s especially helpful for younger classes or mixed‑ability groups.
Overall, your tutorial choice works really well for building coding confidence and linking to STEM in a playful way.
I completed the ‘Flashing Heart’ tutorial on the MakeCode micro platform. This tutorial shows how to make a little heart shape flash on the Micro:bit screen. The LEDs turn on and off in a pattern, so it looks like the heart is beating. It’s a very simple animation and a nice introduction to coding for young children especially in my own Junior Infant class.
This in my MakeCode Link to My Project: https://makecode.microbit.org/_feKUVJ0Rf8rT
I would use this project as an Integrated STEM Learning Experience for My Junior Infant Class as they are very young and in a small rural school. I would keep everything hands‑on, simple, and playful. The flashing heart works well because the children already know about hearts from everyday life, and the animation is easy for them to recognise.
Science
As a whole class discussion we would chat about how our hearts beat inside our bodies. The flashing heart on the Micro:bit can help them imagine this. We might even do a quick activity where they feel their heartbeat after running a lap of the astro turf.Technology
The children get to see that the Micro:bit is a tiny computer and that we can tell it what to do. They don’t need to understand coding — they just see that pressing “run” makes the heart flash.Engineering
This year my Junior Infant class loved experimenting so they could try changing the speed of the flashing or switch the heart to a different picture. They become immersed in their learning by becoming little problem‑solvers by testing what happens.Maths
We could count the lights in the heart shape or talk about patterns — on/off, fast/slow. Even simple counting and comparing fits well at this age.Extra Classroom Ideas
Children can draw their own heart on squared paper and compare it to the Micro:bit version. We could link it to SPHE by talking about kindness and caring hearts.
As we’re in a rural school, we could connect it to nature — for example, “animals have hearts too,” and talk about farm animals they know etc.,Overall, the tutorial is short, visual, and very manageable for Junior Infants. It gives them a gentle introduction to STEM without needing any reading or complicated instructions.
I really enjoy how you have identified a real strength in your practice — the way you create active and engaging digital learning experiences for your children. It’s clear you already make great use of the digital resources available in your school, and that foundation will really support any next steps you take.
One of your planned actions, embedding unplugged activities into weekly or daily lessons, feels especially realistic because it doesn’t require new equipment or major changes to your planning; it simply builds on what you’re already doing with the children while gradually strengthening computational thinking skills.
A helpful question to consider might be: how will you gather small pieces of evidence to see whether these unplugged activities are influencing the children’s problem‑solving or independence over time?
Strength: One thing I feel is working well in my digital learning practice is how confidently the children use shared digital tools to collaborate — they genuinely enjoy working together and it has become a natural part of we are learning daily in our classroom.
Area to Develop: Something I’d like to focus on now is bringing more UDL thinking into everyday lessons, especially by giving pupils more flexible ways to access material or show their understanding.
Action 1: I plan to incorporate two lessons each month where children can choose between different formats for accessing content or presenting their work, and I’ll keep track of this in my planning so I can see how consistently I’m doing it as an assessment strategy.
Action 2: I’m also going to use one accessibility feature — like captions, read‑aloud or voice typing — in every digital activity over a school term and write down any changes I notice in engagement or independence with the children.
What a lovely idea and treat for the children to be brought to the lake a lovely time to spend looking and listening to the sounds of the water/ducks etc., A really well-thought by easy lesson to organise and for children to enjoy and learn at the same time. I really like the thematic plan across the art subjects and what can be done just by using the lake as a stimulus. I also love how you showed the importance of looking after the lake as part of their environment.
To begin the project with the children I will take them for a short nature walk around the local village focusing on the natural trails and historical sites. I will also ask the older children to accompany us as they love to tell the younger children all about their own locality and what they know. Every year a local poet visits our school to focus on poetry so I will ask that they come and teach the children poetry based on their locality. I also love to get the children to gather various leaves on their nature walks to create leaf rubbings as part of an art lesson and create mini clay sculptures as part of the clay stand. Whilst we are on our nature walks at various times of the year I ask the children to use their listening ears to listen for sounds they can hear in their immediate environment. In our aistear area regularly the children can become various animals based on themes each month e.g. the pet shop. These are some ways that we can involve children in the art subjects based on various projects throughout the year involving their own locality.
I really enjoyed Emma’s lesson plan. It is so detailed and easy to follow step-by step which makes it a great resource for other teachers to use in their teaching in the future. I also love how Emma included her resources in this lesson plan. What a great teacher!
Where I teach and live we live walking distance to the main bridge of the town so it is a great opportunity for children to explore this making and building challenge with the children this upcoming year. To elicit prior knowledge from the children I will show them a picture of this bridge and ask various questions about structure, angles, ratios etc., As a class we will take a short walk down to the bridge to observe the making of it allowing the children to see for themselves in real-life how this bridge was made and how we could improve the structure etc., In various groups the children will design and plan how they will create their own bridge. Teacher will give various objects to groups and will facilitate their learning throughout the lesson but allow the children to use their own critical thinking and creativity to come up with their own ideas. They will be reminded of measurements etc., throughout the lesson to incorporate and show how math is needed for constructing. Each bridge will be tested using toys cars and maximum loads (various objects) to see which group have made the best bridges etc., As a class we will discuss why certain bridges are more sturdy etc., what we could’ve done different.
I think it is a great idea for older classes in the school to plant a variety of flowering plants that bloom in different seasons. This will allow children to observe the seasonal changes that happen throughout the year in real-life. It is a great way to release gradual responsibility to the older classes as they will have the opportunity to look after these plants in the school year and come up with various ideas of how to look after these flowers and what we need etc., I think it is a great whole-class project for children which will also lead to green school flags, a great worth while initiative.
As I teach Junior Infants I based my answer on this age group. Children will explore local biodiversity throughout the school year and become ‘young ecologists’. We will explore biodiversity through the varying seasonal changes e.g. in autumn we will explore leaves changing colour, in winter we will explore animals surviving the cold weather, in spring we will focus on new life and in summer the children will focus on farming. These studies will involve the outdoors regularly as we will take part in nature walks, weather observations and local habitat studies etc., Children will have worksheets for each activity that we explore e.g. leaf rubbings/changing colours, counting insects observed etc., This will integrate the subjects of Math (counting), SESE (local studies), visual art (sketching) etc., We will create a noticeboard in our classroom that will be based on the seasonal changes and we will add/take away as we progress throughout the year.
I think this is a great lesson plan for young children. It is very hands on, interactive and engaging. I also love how Nicola incorporated the children’s school locality into her lesson as this ensures she is making connections for their children.
I will introduce the children to what a ‘map’ is by using a map stimulus on the IWB to elicit prior knowledge. I will ask the children why we use ‘maps’. We will go through key features of maps in simple terms for the young children e.g. compass etc., To help the children create the map of their own school we will explore ‘google maps’ and look up the children’s local village and show the children the various aspects of their locality e.g. post office, football pitch, school etc., and how to read maps using various keys. As a whole class activity we will create a map together on the interactive white board of our own school yard as there is a lot we can discuss e.g. astro turf, afterschool, back/front of school etc., we will add various key features to our map also to represent various buildings and areas. We will also discuss how we get to school using directions etc., Next, I will get the children to draw their own version of their map of their school. At the end of the lesson I will get the children to show their maps to the class using authors chair. We will discuss what the children have learned.
I love the way Anita uses a ‘hook’ question at the start of each lesson to elicit prior knowledge from the children. I also love how she states that these lessons integrate the real world and children’s locality which results in ‘making connections’ which is very important for children especially in the lower end of the school. I will also be looking forward to using these lessons in my classroom in the upcoming year.
