Education
NURTURING CODING SKILLS IN YOUNG CHILDREN
Dr Swati Popat Vats writes on CODING IN KINDERGARTEN NURTURING CODING SKILLS IN YOUNG CHILDREN.
What do Froebel’s gifts, HOT, STEM, guessing and estimation games have in common?
They are all the foundation of learning coding and robotics in the early years!
The first six years are brain development years and it is during this time that the brain learns about patterns, sequences, and problem solving and thinking skills—all skills required in coding!
It is time for our early years programmes to adopt what the world is calling, ‘a new literacy’- coding. Children have become digital natives, which means born in the digital era and are exposed to technology and gadgets from the time they are born (the first time a parent points a camera/phone at them!) many of the toys they play with belong to ‘the internet of toys’. By the time a preschooler joins the job market 20 years from now, all the jobs will require some or other kind of programming. Technology will be used for everything…almost everything. We teach preschoolers to read, write, count, we teach them about the world around them – animals, birds, insects etc. and we are forgetting that the world around them now is full of gadgets and technology. Teaching them how to safely engage with technology and informing them how this technology works, is the need of the hour. It is time to ensure that these children who are presently in early years programs are exposed to ‘technology literacy’ and are aware that machines should not be making us do things all the time but that we can tell a machine what to do…that machines listen to US!
What is a code? It is a set of instructions for a computer. What is coding? It is the process of creating step-by-step instructions a computer understands and needs in order for its programs to work. The foundation of coding is: Pre-coding activities which are developmentally appropriate games and activities in which children explore some of the concepts involved in coding in ways that are meaningful to them. However, coding in Kindergarten, is not about computer programming, we are talking about laying a foundation, about training their brains to think and understand SYSTEMS, PATTERNS, and INSTRUCTIONS through role play, games, puzzles and board games.
So why start from early years? Isn’t it too early to understand the concept of coding? Well, no, because coding is nothing but understanding sorting and classifying, recognition of same and different, recognition of shapes, ability to make sets, sorting, see sets within sets, patterning, ordering and sequencing, one to one correspondence, number value, number counting, playing games of guessing and estimation, etc. And all of these are already part of children’s every day play and exploration and an integral part of readiness curriculum in early years.
Coding is not different from how children play or learn, coding is already an integral part of the exploration that children indulge in during play, it is time for early years educators and parents to connect the dots and see how children learn coding while playing and ensure that play makes a big comeback to early years learning!
Fredrich Froebel the father of kindergarten, designed gifts, and occupations for young children. These were designed to make children see patterns and shapes in their environment and in their play and understand the connections between these patterns and shapes, his quote, "It would prove a boon to our children and a blessing to coming generations if we could see that we possess a great oppressive load of extraneous, merely external information and culture; that we foolishly seek to increase from day to day," is more relevant today than ever before.
I have included Froebel’s gifts in the coding curriculum that I have designed (‘Start Coding with Jumbo’) for early years. Froebel discovered that brain development is most dramatic between birth and age three, and recognized the importance of beginning play based learning, earlier than was then practiced.
Froebel’s gifts help children see form, shape, patterns, connections, and this is exactly what the learning and understanding of coding requires. It requires the five processes of problem solving, reasoning, communication, connections, and representation. These are critical to the young child and his or her understanding of coding and robotics, and are nurtured when children play (are occupied) with Froebel’s gifts.
Froebel designed Gifts and Occupations and the difference between Froebel’s gifts and occupations is that Gifts can be returned to their original state after play (whole to parts and parts to whole) whereas occupations are craft activities and cannot be returned to their original shape. According to Froebel, the child’s desire to play is nature’s way of stimulating the brain to grow and that is why it is important for us to realize that play is the fuel for brain development. Froebel’s gifts are a gateway for children to learn to play with Math concepts, Mathematics was more than an intellectual pursuit to Froebel it was the language of the universe. His gifts were carefully designed so that children can experience three-dimensional, then two-dimensional and then move to lines, edges and points and then understand how lines, edges and points make a three-dimensional shape. So, learning actually comes ‘full circle’ when children play with Froebel’s gifts.
So, in his gifts one to six children experience three-dimensional solids, which represent whole forms of the physical world. While playing with gifts 7 to 9 children experience 2 dimensional shapes, the sides of solids, the edges of solids, lines and points. Froebel designed 3 different ways to play with the gifts, 1 Forms of life, 2 Forms of knowledge and 3 Forms of beauty. In Forms Of Life children can create something from their world (around them) using all of the gift pieces. In Forms of Knowledge, adults help children see the math in the gifts, count the sides, see the difference between a sphere, a cylinder and a square, hear the sound a particular block makes when dropped on the floor etc. Whereas in Forms of Beauty children make abstract designs using the gifts, here Froebel devised two rules, “always use every piece and modify but never destroy a design”. If the child wants to change a design then the child has to find a way to modify an existing design in stages to arrive at the new design or concept. By playing with Froebel’s gifts a child builds a foundation of symbolic learning by internalizing these play experiences. Playing with Froebel’s gifts help children perceive the geometric blocks of the world and help nurture the very skills required for a coder, namely –Understanding, Creativity, Logical thinking, Remembering, Working with others, Taking risks and questioning.
The coding curriculum for early years that I have designed is based completely on play and because it is a foundation for understanding coding, I have included coding activities in all areas of play be it Block area, Dramatic play, Cooking area, Art area, Playground, Water play, Sand play, Music & movement, etc. The foundation of coding for early years should also start with Encouraging HOT (Higher Order Thinking) skills
Encourage children to notice things, play games like where is the teddy hiding.
Encourage children to describe things they see or do, during nature walks or during water and sand play.
Ask ‘what’ questions before ‘why’ questions- what is happening to the sand when we mix it with water?
Encourage one to one correspondence activities.
Take photos of the child’s environment and see if children can recognize them. Click photos of each child’s eyes and see if they can recognize their own, their friend’s….
‘Start Coding with Jumbo’, curriculum is SCREEN FREE and engages children through HANDS ON LEARNING, through engaging games and activities that involve:
Directional games involving location and movement like board games
Treasure hunt
Giving directions to peers during pretend play
Games using grids and maps
Some coding activities that young children learn about in ‘Start Coding with Jumbo’ are –
Decompose or break it down- how to break down a problem into smaller parts to solve the problem- Gamepick up all the blocks from around the classroom, then pick up all the blocks from around the classroom before the sand timer stops, and then pick up all the blocks from around the classroom, before the sand timer stops and only 3 people can be used to pick the blocks.
Algorithm- a list of steps needed to follow or complete a task, play games of missing instructions teach the doll the steps of brushing teeth.
Debugging is when you go looking for mistakes or bugs in your programworksheets for find the mistake, find what is missing.
Sequence- is the order the program has to follow- put the story in the right sequence.
Pattern- a pattern is what you see when something is the same over and over- what comes after, what comes before- patterning games, Froebel gifts.
Loop- a special bit of code that repeats over and over again- during singing and musical play time.
In the ‘Start Coding with Jumbo’ curriculum, the children also learn about robots and robotics. Young children are first given game instructions to move on a specified pattern during outdoor play, in this they learn how to follow instructions and move their body to complete the game or the maze given. Then they play in pairs and give instructions to each other, they role play being a programmer and a gamer, the programmer gives coding commands and the gamer follows the commands and moves accordingly.
Young children then play with puppets to understand how ‘they’ can make the puppet move. They explore the difference between hand puppets, finger puppets, string puppets, and shadow puppets. They ‘program’ the puppets in a puppet show. And then move on to games that require them to build robots and program robots to move around a grid. They make grids, place the story characters in the grid, and retell the story using the robot by making it move to each step of the story. Children do this by using directional cards/buttons to give instructions to the robot to move up, down, left and right, forward, back.
The most important role of early years educators and parents in fostering learning of coding is to provide the stimulation and encouragement to help children develop and practice their own thinking, to learn by DOING, to make mistakes, to learn from them. When we support children in this, we help children take big steps towards becoming competent, confident, code thinkers! That is why I have worked on a foundational curriculum/program to teach young children about coding and robotics, understanding the foundation of coding and robotics before they start programming and using robots. Understanding that humans program any technology or gadget that we use and thus we have control on how, how much and when to use it.
The new millennium requires children to live in an ever changing technology filled world, parents and educators now realize that childhood is the most important time in a child’s education We need logical thinking and ‘Start Coding with Jumbo’ helps children see the interconnectedness of things and patterns in their physical and technological world.
Dr Swati Popat Vats is the President of Podar Education Network, she is a ‘tinkerer’ and has always advocated for developmentally appropriate use of technology for young children. She is the first to design an early years’ curriculum for coding and robotics called ‘Start Coding with Jumbo’. She believes that play is the way children learn and coding and robotics are a great combination of tinkering in play! She is a big follower of Froebel, Montessori, Vygotsky, Piaget and Gijubhai Badeka and her curriculum on coding and robotics for early years is hugely influenced by their work, especially Froebel’s gifts. She is also the President of Early Childhood Association. For any questions on her coding and robotics curriculum for early years she can be contacted on swatipopat@podar.org or 7506639870 (messages only)