Welcome to my Code.org Distance Learning Unit. For those of you unfamiliar with Code.org, it uses a block coding language to teach elementary school students the basics of computer programming. They use the blocks to code instead of typing in the code as regular programmers do. The great thing is that with each puzzle, once they solve it, they can click on a "Show Code" button to see what the actual programmers had to type to get the code to work.

The students will code progressively harder puzzles using very familiar characters like Angry Birds and Rey and BB8. In this unit, there are 8 weeks of separate weekly lessons in code.org. In the weekly agenda, you will see a description of the lessons and a screen-cast tutorial giving step-by-step instructions on how to complete the puzzles. There is also an intro agenda that gives you teachers two videos to show you how to set up a teacher account in Code.org and set up your classes and students. There is another video showing you how to set up a Google Sheet to put in all the student passwords. The video also shows you how to put the link to the sheet on each agenda so the students can access their passwords easily.

I taught this exact unit last spring when our school had to go virtual. My students really enjoyed it and did really well with the puzzles. This lesson is not only very educational as it promotes critical thinking as they work through the coding line by line to solve the puzzle but it is a lot of fun and a nice break from their regular school work. The students don't realize how much they are learning because it is so interesting and exciting when they get to the end and solve the puzzle. I hope you will consider purchasing my curriculum. I think I had as much fun doing the videos as they did doing the puzzles! Happy Coding.