Warm Up - The Unplugged Foundation (10 min)

Review Unplugged Activity

This lesson relies on the concept of repeat loops that students learned in the previous unplugged activity, My Loopy Robotic Friends. It is important to bring this idea from the real world into digital form so that students understand how to use Blockly blocks to repeat a task multiple times.

Display: Show students a cup stack from the "My Loopy Robotic Friends" exercise that they completed in the lessons prior to this one.

Discuss: Ask students to recall the symbols used in "My Loopy Robotic Friends."

• What happens when "East" arrow is circled with the number 3? (It moves E 3 times)
• What is it called when we circle an arrow and add a number? (A repeat loop)

Transition: Once you are satisfied that your students remember "My Loopy Robotic Friends", you can move into the Bridging Activity.

Bridging Activity - Choose One

This activity will help bring the unplugged concepts from "My Loopy Robotic Friends" into the online world that the students are moving into. Choose one of the following to do with your class:

1) Unplugged Activity Using Paper Blocks

Model: Select a pattern from My Loopy Robotic Friends Cup Stack - Image Pack from the My Loopy Robotic Friends unplugged activity (if you just modeled an image to review, feel free to keep that one for this portion of the exercise.) Using movement pieces from the Unplugged Blockly Blocks (Grades K-1) - Manipulatives, show students how you would code this shape using Blockly repeat blocks.

Pair/Think: Next, choose another pattern and have the students program what blocks a "robot" would need to read to get the correct stacking of those cups.

Make sure that students understand that only the repeating code needs to go inside of the pink repeat blocks.

Share: Have the students check each other's answers and resolve any questions or bugs that may come up.

2) Online Activity Using Unplugged Arrows

Model: Pull a puzzle from the corresponding online levels. We recommend Lesson 8, Puzzle 4. Show students how to get Scrat to the acorn using resource mrf-symbols-b not found. It can be helpful to call the arrows "North", "South, "East", and "West". Once you have a program, trace it with your finger (or a pointer) and show how Scrat will travel when the program is run.

Pair/Think: Next, move on to a puzzle that is a little more challenging, like Lesson 8, Puzzle 5, and have students try writing programs (using arrows and repeat circles) on their own.

Share: Encourage students to share their programs with other groups and see if they came up with solutions that are the same or different.

Online Foundation: Preview Loops in Ice Age

To finish the connection, preview an online puzzle (or two) as a class.

Model: Reveal an entire online puzzle from the progression to come. We recommend Lesson 8, Puzzle 5. Point out the "Play Area" with Scrat and the acorn, as well as the "Work Space" with the Blockly code. Explain that this Blockly code is now the language that the class will be using to help Scrat get to the acorn. Do students see any similarities to the exercise that they just did? What are the big differences?

Work with your class to drag code into the workspace in such a way that Scrat (eventually) gets to the acorn.

Transition: Students should now be ready to transition to computers to complete online puzzles on their own.

Main Activity (30 min)

As students work through the puzzles, see if they can figure out how many blocks they use with a loop vs. without a loop.

Pre-Express Online Puzzles - Website

Circulate: Teachers play a vital role in computer science education and supporting a collaborative and vibrant classroom environment. During online activities, the role of the teacher is primarily one of encouragement and support. Online lessons are meant to be student-centered, so teachers should avoid stepping in when students get stuck. Some ideas on how to do this are:

• Utilize Pair Programming - Student Video whenever possible
• Encourage students with questions/challenges to start by asking their partner
• Unanswered questions can be escalated to a nearby group, who might already know the solution
• Remind students to use the debugging process before you approach
• Have students describe the problem that they’re seeing. What is it supposed to do? What does it do? What does that tell you?
• Remind frustrated students that frustration is a step on the path to learning, and that persistence will pay off.
• If a student is still stuck after all of this, ask leading questions to get the student to spot an error on their own.

Wrap Up (5 - 10 min)

Journaling

Having students write about what they learned, why it’s useful, and how they feel about it can help solidify any knowledge they obtained today and build a review sheet for them to look to in the future.

Journal Prompts:

• What was today’s lesson about?
• Draw one of the Feeling Faces - Emotion Images that shows how you felt about today's lesson in the corner of your journal page.
• Draw Scrat and an acorn.
• Draw yourself using a loop to do an everyday activity, like brushing your teeth.

Extended Learning

So Moving

• Give the students pictures of actions or dance moves that they can do.
  • Have students arrange moves and add loops to choreograph their own dance.
• Share the dances with the rest of the class.

Connect It Back

• Find some YouTube videos of popular dances that repeat themselves.
• Can your class find the loops?
• Try the same thing with songs!