Monthly Archives: March 2020

Creating pictographs

During Computing with Mr Baddhan, Year 1 Puffins have been tallying up their favourite items to create pictographs.

The children created a tally for the following items:
► Favourite farm animal
► Favourite material
► Favourite pet
► Favourite minibeast

They then used Purple Mash’s 2Count program to add data into a pictograph.

The children then created a pictograph by gathering their own tally data.

Creating stick animations

During Computing, Year 1 Puffins have this afternoon enjoyed creating their own animations using Pivot Stick Animator.

Mr Baddhan explained to the children of what an animation is and that each animation includes a collection of frames.

Using the Pivot Stick Animator program, the children were asked to create a waving man. Then the children tried animating different stick figures.

Design and technology skills

The Puffins have been developing their design and technology skills over the last week. So far we have learnt and practiced cutting accurately. Marking and measuring accurately. Moving on to testing the most appropriate materials and equipment to use to finally make out dog on wheels towards the end of the week.

Sequence and directions

Year 1 Puffins continued their understanding of writing instructions when they used a program called Code for Life’s Rapid Router.

Puffins worked through the levels as they programmed a van to move from one point to another using programming blocks.

The blocks were as follows:

– Move Forwards
– Move Backwards
– Turn Left
– Turn Right

The children came across various challenges including working out the correct turn to use (left or right). Some children did really well working this out however the others had to use a BeeBot to help them work out the correct direction.

Sequence
The children were also introduced to a new Computing term called sequence. When programming, it is important to make sure that all the steps are presented in the correct order – this is sequence.

Here is an example of a real life sequence – in the correct order.

Directions using 2Go town map

In the last couple of lessons, Mr Baddhan asked the children to use the town map on Purple Mash to direct their car from the starting location to a destination provided.

It was great to see the children understand their directions and seeing their instructions written on paper.

The children also learned about a new word today – debug – fixing and correcting mistakes in a program.

Algorithms and debugging in 2Go

During today’s Computing lesson Puffins learned more about algorithms and a new word called debug. Debugging is when you fix a mistake in a program.

They used Purple Mash’s 2Go website to program a car along the racing track and then debug their mistakes.

Before the children were able to go on the computers, they were asked to write down their instructions which they then tested on Purple Mash.