Hopscotch is a visual programming language designed to allow young or beginner programmers to develop simple projects. Hopscotch’s characters and colors are fun and engaging for students, empowering them with many options to individualize their own learning. The app is also a good example of scaffolded learning. The intuitive visual block interface allows students to become comfortable creating programs with blocks to build confidence before they encounter the complexities of coding with text.
All 3rd-grade classrooms at Pine Glen Elementary School were introduced to the Hopscotch Coding app in the last few weeks. Learning that Algorithms are, “A list of steps that you can take to finish a task”, “students were introduced to the App’s basic tool set and learned to create a program that draws a line.
This week, Mrs. Cunha’s classroom (rm. 203) accepted the challenge of creating more than one line to create turkey tails! Students were challenged to use the knowledge they already learned about how to draw a line in Hopscotch, and create feather’s which consist of lots of line’s and tails that have more than one feather!
Student’s were instructed and quickly learned how to draw one feather using multiple lines with different thicknesses and then copy it to create the entire tail. Guided to use as few blocks as possible, students were also introduced to the “Repeat” block, which allowed them to create one feather and repeat it several times, instead of having to create the code over and over again.
Students were highly engaged in trying to solve this creative challenge, collaborated with each other, and were eager to share their success. Gobble, Gobble, and Happy Thanksgiving!
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