After doing the Thing 11 lesson in November of 2014, I registered my 5th grade students (and some 3rd & 4th) to participate in the Hour of Code event. They loved it! I was very excited to try something new, and look forward to doing more coding in school. I had one girl tell me after the Hour of Code that her mom signed her up for a coding summer camp. That's the carry over to the real world of my students that I'm always hoping for. I of course also added coding links to my website, and students used it regularly, even staying in form recess to do, for several weeks after the coding event.
Next on the agenda is a Scratch Jr. coding app activity with 1st grade students, reinforcing story setting, sequencing in a story, and estimation in math. They will create a story, and will have to code the character's movements with first, then, etc. and by how many spaces (estimation) to get to the character's destination. Another librarian in my district, Kate Kirkpatrick, did this and the unit went very well! An article about this unit is below.
http://yourniskayuna.com/blog/2015/04/23/birchwood-elementary-students-first/
