Teach creative programming with Turtle power!
The Blockly playgrounds, linked to below, can provide a resource for teaching programming concepts in KS1, KS2 and KS3.
Each playground provides a few more tools than the last. This will make moving on to later playgrounds for children simple, intuitive and accessible.
Playground A is for the youngest students, those who have never written programs at all and have only ever used a floor robot such as Bee-bot. Programs are written by dragging and linking simple code blocks into the workspace and then pressing Run.
A possible learning structure
- Children are given a direct link to the appropriate playground (rather than this index page).
- Children try challenges selected by their teacher
- Children get the chance to create their own programs
- When ready, children try self-marking, can-do, quizzes to see if they can move on to the next level
- Children get level awards, and teachers get a record of their childrens' progress
![]() Turtle Playground A transfer from floor robot sequence [ Challenge Cards - A ] [ First Student Grade Card ] [ Example First Quiz ] |
![]() Turtle Playground B drawing with turtle decomposition [ Challenge Cards - B ] [ Yellow Shell Grade Card ] |
![]() Turtle Playground C drawing with loops iteration [ Challenge Cards - C ] |
![]() Turtle Playground D drawing with logic abstraction |
![]() a simple puzzle for fun |
![]() Turtle Playground E maths and variables |
![]() Turtle Playground F functions more abstraction |
![]() Turtle Playground G advanced playground data types |
![]() text based programming |
Awards
All children start their journey as White Shell programmers. The most accomplished may become Black Shell programmers:
Downloadable Challenge Cards (more coming soon)
Challenge cards will be available for each playground. The Challenge Cards can be downloaded, guillotined and laminated.
Playground D Challenge Cards
Playground E Challenge Cards
Playground F Challenge Cards
Playground G Challenge Cards
Notes:
- Not all students have to do all challenge cards.
- Students should also be given the opportunity to play and create their own programs and art.
Assessments (not available yet)
Teachers need an OUCC teacher account to get access to these. After logging in the assessments can be found in the templates of the Quizzes section in the templates section (after pressing New). Students can attempt these whenever their teacher thinks they are ready. If at first they don't succeed they can, of course, try again.
Children's Grade Cards (more coming soon)
Students will also have a progress chart to take with them through their Turtle adventures. In it they record their achievements and the Turtle Programming Grades they have obtained.
Click on the image to download the student's grade cards where they can keep track of their progress and achievements.
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