Kindercoding Unplugged: Screen-Free Activities for Beginners Deanna Pecaski McLennan

Kindergarten teacher Deanna Pecaski McLennan, PhD, takes readers on a journey through her own kindergarten classroom and how she’s actively cultivating computational thinking in her students through a Reggio Emilia lens and emergent curriculum. Using photos, vignettes, narrative, and more than eighty unplugged coding activities, this book will help readers better understand what coding is and how they can begin to implement easy and developmentally appropriate coding games and activities into their early childhood programs.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: From Following a Map to Coding Our Own Journey Chapter 2: Connecting Reggio Emilia to Computational Thinking Chapter 3: Introducing and Manipulating the Coding Board Hardware Free Exploration Introducing Algorithms Reading and Writing Algorithms Grid Paper Coding Introducing Perspective Introducing Obstacles Looping Beads Loopy Exercise Lines Exercise Loops What’s Wrong with my Pattern What’s Wrong with my Code? Which Code Does Not Belong Chapter 4: Mindful Makers Using Read Alouds to Cultivate a Makerspace and Growth Mindset Chalkboard Roads and Chalk Block Structures Paper Sculpting Cardboard Pinball Games Pegboard Construction Complex Sensory Runs Rube Goldberg Machines Everyday Inventions LEGO Marble Runs Vehicle Races Chapter 5: Creating a Sense of Community Using Unplugged Coding Creating Coding Paths with Foam Mats Straw and Connector Paths Coding with Magnets LEGO Pathways Creating Coding Paths with Pentominoes Using Books to Explore Community Community Walks Mapping the Community Code the Classroom Secret Maps Introducing the Coordinate Grid Four in a Row Coordinate Game Race to Fill the Grid Game Secret Coordinate Codes 2/19/2020 Tip Sheet 25/36 Chapter 6: Creative Coding Creative Coding Dance Roll and Move Coding Dice Creative Movement Coding Race Code a Song (Water and Spoon Melody) Roll a Piece of Art Color Mixing Algorithms Pattern Block Tessellations Pixel Pictures Follow the Leader Grid Art ASCII Beading Codes Pool Noodle Binary Codes Coding Players on a Large Grid Outdoor Coding Card Lines Obstacle Course Coding Hopscotch Coding Sidewalk Coding Collect the Parts Race (Snowman Hunt) Chapter 7: Coding to Support Literacy Coder Says, Robot Does Coding with Sequencing Cards First, Then, Next, Finally Routine Retell Algorithm Directional Arrows in Dramatic Playscapes Pattern Block Barrier Game Unifix Cube Creations Lifecycle Sequence Coding Grid Retells Retelling Favorite Stories Using Coding Stones Story Maps Individual Blueprint Journals Code a Letter Alphabet (or Number) Sequence Crack the Code Boolean Logic Guess Who! ASCII LEGO Code Chapter 8: Coding to Encourage Playful Math Coding on Ten Frames Coding on the Hundreds Grid Superhero Rescue Find the Treasure Collect the Hearts Can You Build It? Sorting Algorithms Game Elevator Ride Pentomino Puzzle Coding Dice Build a Grid Shape Pentomino Coding Path

About the Author :
Deanna Pecaski McLennan is a full-day kindergarten teacher based in Ontario, Canada. She has a PhD in educational studies and is an expert member of NAEYC’s Teaching Young Children’s advisory board. Deanna has authored more than a dozen journal articles for Early Childhood Education Journal and Teaching Young Children, among others.

Review :
“These pages are full of inspiring ideas, emergent activities, authentic vignettes, classroom photographs, and ‘unplugged’ provocations about screen-free activities to nudge your thinking about what coding and computational thinking is, and can be, in your classroom. Deanna encourages you to become a co-learner with your children at the intersection of constructivist theory, the Reggio Emilia approach, screen-free coding ideas, the computational thinking process, collaboration and creation that inform her practice and pedagogy. —Chip Donohue, PhD, Principal, Donohue and Associates, Founding Director, Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center at Erikson Institute, Senior Fellow and Advisor, Fred Rogers Center