Acquiring programming skills means that we can help shape our future. Now pre-school and early school children can also acquire basic knowledge. Codekindy enables educators and teachers to teach important basic knowledge in a playful way, without a screen or reading skills. It makes sense to start at the age of four to five.
Teaching the principles of computational thinking is a complex process, because in addition to the programming language and its syntax, fundamental concepts of abstraction, logic and mathematics must also be taught. With Codekindy’s teaching tools, these skills can also be taught by laypersons.
“The workshops are so playful that you don’t even notice how you’re learning. Thanks to the structured and child-oriented development of the individual project units, which use everyday materials and can be prepared with a manageable amount of work, both the five- to six-year-olds and the pedagogical staff learned a lot during the workshops.”
Sarah Riccitelli
Erzieherin und Gruppenleiterin, Kinder- und Familienhaus Mainz
Computational thinking encompasses the skills that we humans apply in the development of digital tools. These thinking skills consist of three parts: Coding concepts from computer science, instructions for dealing with technology as well as thinking methods and perspectives for the development of interactive applications. In a playful way, the independent units offer an easy introduction to the topic.
The exercises are designed in such a way that a layman without programming knowledge can execute the units. In the preparation phase, the mentor familiarizes himself with the workshop specifications and contents, procures materials, which often consist of everyday objects and can be found in almost every household, club and school, prepares the room according to a room plan and copies worksheets and certificates.
Each workshop has an elaborated script, in which a framework action and the respective instructions for action are listed, which the mentor can follow word for word. The script also contains formulations that promote soft factors of computational thinking such as perseverance and predictability in children.
The introductory conversation at the beginning uses storytelling, which vividly conveys the context and work assignment to the children and lets them come together as a group. The participants then carry out the tasks in the prepared room with specially prepared working materials. Depending on the length of the workshops, small movement units offer a break or the opportunity to regroup and repeat the workshop task. The work concludes with a reflection on the topic, in which the results of the work are reflected together in the group.
The workshops can be compared on the basis of different criteria such as duration, preparation time or level of difficulty. The construction framework describes the structure and contents of all workshop sheets. Here a detailed description as PDF .
The teaching materials of Codekindy can be downloaded for free and can be requested via this form. Please enter your name, email address and type of use and you will receive a download link by email. We will not pass your data on to third parties.
