Just a reminder, coding classes start again this week.
Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the holiday and had a good first week back at school. We look forward to seeing our young coders again and continuing our coding journey with Python.
Can you believe it, that’s half the year gone already!
In Term 3, we’ll be continuing to explore the main principles of computer programming. While the first two terms have focused on text-based outcomes, we’ll be shifting towards more graphical results using the Python Turtle module.
Classes are after school on either Tuesdays (Churchill Park School), Wednesdays (Glendowie School) or Thursdays (St Heliers Centre) and for students in Years 5-8.
If you’re interested in a place in Term 3 (or perhaps looking ahead to next year), please get in touch and we can send you further information.
Great coding this week. All groups managed to finish their ‘Aliens’ game, then personalise it with some changes of their own.
There was also a ‘debugging’ test where our young coders had to find errors in a piece of code. They did fairly well, especially considering they have only been using Python for a few weeks.
Next week, we’ll be coding a multiple choice quiz. I’ve asked the class to prepare some questions to use. It’s not meant to be a huge job or too onerous and if they don’t have time to do it, no worries. Even if they just come up with some ideas for two or three questions, that would be great. It’ll mean less time next class thinking up questions and more time actually coding.
During the term, students have been receiving information sheets with examples of the code that we’ve been using. If you’d like a digital copy, or a reminder of Dropbox folder access, let us know at info@codechampions.nz
Next week, there’s no class at Chruchill Park School on Tuesday (as it’s a school holiday), but there are classes at Glendowie School (Wednesday 7 April) and St Heliers Community Centre (Thursday 8 April).
It was great to get a first full week of coding under our belts.
Students got their first taste of the coding language Python. They did well and I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead.
If you’d like to practise at home, the Python program can be downloaded for free at python.org.
We explored simple in-built functions, like print(), bin() and round(), as well as user-defined functions. For example, we personalised the ‘Hello World!’ message.
We finished by looking at the code behind a a simple ‘guess the number’ game.
Learning computer coding is one of the best ways to prepare your child for the future. It enhances not only a knowledge of digital technology but also helps to develop important life skills, like confidence, focus, accuracy, problem solving, collaboration, and logical thinking.
Join our after-school classes
Code Champions’ courses help to develop computational thinking and understanding for Year 5 to 8 students. In 2021, we’ll focus on the Python coding language. We have three options for classes:
Tuesdays at Churchill Park School;
Wednesdays at Glendowie School; and
Thursdays at the St Heliers Community Centre (100 St Heliers Bay Road).
Turn a passion into purpose
Whether it’s to support school studies or just for fun, our engaging and effective sessions will get your child on the front foot with this important digital skill.
codechampions.nz 