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Year 1 have been investigating branching, decisions and flow charts. Lesson 1: Making decisions about what activities to do during whether Investigating branching with paper flowchart shapes. Stick them on a page and use arrows to indicate possible decisions.  Lesson 2: Use Microbits to randomly select Program Microbits to make random decisions.  On Shake  Display randomly the weather Sunny (round image) or Rainy (Umbrella) On Button A pressed Display randomly selected clothing Sunglasses or a jumper On Button B pressed Display randomly selected activities Zoo (Giraffe) or Park (Duck) or House or Beach (Wave) Use the Microbits to write down a new flowchart. Write down what is selected. Discuss crazy combinations the computer selects. Discuss how we can not always trust decisions made by computers.  Have they had any experiences with Siri or Alexa making silly suggestions or saying things that don't make sense. Reinforce that it is importa

The Makey Makey is a board that replaces the keyboard. It also has mouse functions. If you use the "On Click" function you need to position the mouse over the area on the computer screen you would like to click on. For this project you will need: 2 10x10cm squares of cardboard. Aluminium foil to cover one of the squares. Makey Makey  2 alligator clips USB power cord Sticky tape to attach squares to the floor. They should be taped jumping width apart. Board set-up This project uses the "on click" function to activate an onscreen counter to count the number of jumps. Attach one alligator clip to the on click circle. Attach one alligator clip to the earth. See the steps below to set up the switch. Extension If you need to make the alligator clip longer you can join the clips.  Use tape over the silver connections to make them more secure so the connection is not lost. Screen set-up Open an online counter, this project used  https://coun

Picture books can be used to enhance a non-fiction unit. These 6 books have applications for units on sustainability and plastic. These picture books open a range of themes and topics that could be expanded on depending on the interests of your students and the inquiry questions to post prior to reading the books. Living things  - impact of human behaviour on ecosystems Sustainability  (general capability) Volume of waste - sustainability of human lifestyles - How do we reduce waste? Material World  - how can materials be used in different ways? What are alternatives to plastics? What is plastic made of? and how is it made? English  - compare and contrast different texts, purpose, audience, method, infographics, pictures, language. Data  - explore facts and figures in the books or that are found online, regarding amounts of plastic, time to decompose infographics. Vocabulary  - degradable, biodegradable, compostable, recyclable, reusable Art - use plastic to cre

Year 1 and 2 are required to " Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose ( ACTDIK001 ) "  The Australian Computing Academy has unpacked what this means.  They need to " name digital systems (e.g. smart phone or laptop) that they interact with at home and school and recognise that they are digital systems" they also need to "play (with guidance) and use different systems to explore what they do and how they work. They match digital systems to specific purposes (e.g. using a phone to call a family member)." In NSW the above requirement is contained in the content of Outcome 11 in the Stage 1 Science and Technology Syllabus. ST1-11DI-T identifies the components of digital systems and explores how data is represented The purpose of the lessons below are to recognise and explore components of digital systems. Lesson 1 : Introduction Watch and discuss Read and discuss Hello Ruby, Journey inside a compute

Year 1 students have been learning about weather and how it changes. So we decided to make an animation of  changing weather with Scratch Jr . This style of animation introduces coding concepts to young students and allows conversation about the teaching content in any key learning area. The group had recently had discussed temperature and different types of clouds. Firstly they named the program Changing Weather. Then they added an outside background of their choice. They then added multiple sprites Sun Cloud Storm Cloud A person without a face Adding a face to a sprite Add a sprite with out a face. Tap on the paintbrush. Tap on the camera. Tap on the face. Position the camera to take a photo of your face. Tap the tick. The photo will be inserted as the face of the sprite.  Creating your own sprite Students were required to create their own sprite for the rain. This required them to learn to use drawing tools, line thickness, line colour. Tap add sprit

STEM, STEAM or STREAM is the latest acronym to hit schools. Schools are spending thousands on resources, rooms and even buildings.  This post will consider what STEM is, what it isn't and propose 5 ideas for teaching STEM. STEM is an acronym that encompasses Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The acronym was first coined in "2001 by  American biologist Judith Ramaley" ( Britannica ). Prior to this it was referred to as SMET.  STEM is a pedagogy not a subject area. STEM is learning how to teach with a focus on these four areas and this can be done in a low cost way. The best way to spend scarce money is on teacher training and upskilling teachers to improve their pedagogy (ACER, Hattie), rather than expensive rooms staffed by a specialist. If your specialist moves on all the knowledge and skills are lost. The STEM movement began in the early 2000's when it was noticed American students were underperforming in PISA (Program for International Student A

There is now a range of books both fiction and non fiction that teach about algorithms and coding concepts. These books can be used individually or in series. Picture Books If I were a wizard by Paul Hamilton Paul is an Australian author that has published a sweet story with Australian bush animals. Each page of the story introduces a coding concept. The back of the book has a brief definition of the concept and how it links to the story. This style of book is useful for teachers wanting to learn more about coding concepts and gives key terms that can be researched to find project ideas and further information. The concepts included in the story include: Repeats and Loops Sequence and Order Algorithms Variables Conditionals Functions Debugging and Patterns Paul's website includes additional resources that can be used in conjunction with the book, apps, augmented reality, games, and lessons.  https://www.wizardcodingbook.com/ This book would be suitable as a story

"Software doesn't have a day off"  Original Article If a teacher can be replaced by software they probably should be because teaching is about relationships. I don't believe robots can engage students like a quality teacher. Teachers are not glorified babysitters and it requires far more skill to be an effective teacher than technology companies and journalists will ever admit.  (This post is not going to discuss what makes a quality teacher. In every profession there are different levels of competency. We have all met good and bad doctors yet we don't lump all doctors in together with the bad ones. The same for teachers.) So many teachers have been reinventing the classroom, implementing technology, new teaching methods and using real world probably solving. Yet rarely do these stories make the news.  If you "google" teacher you are more like to get articles about misconduct than stories of achievement and success.  By replacing te