Coding for Kids
Thousands of schools are participating in Hour of Code, a global initiative to get more kids engaged in computer science — using Tynker’s all-new set of free coding activities for kids of all ages, experience levels and interests.
Our unique approach motivates kids to learn because they can create their own characters, animate them, and rapidly build their own games and interactive stories that can be saved and shared with others.
Table of Contents
Hour of Code 2014 – All New Activities
- Candy Quest – Design a candy troll and use programming to get the candy.
- Dragon Dash – Go on an epic quest for treasure with your own custom dragon.
- Trailblazer 1 – Program your spaceship to trace various patterns and shapes.
- Debugger – Help your character fight bugs and save the motherboard!
- Animated Card Creator – Create an interactive holiday card with special effects and animations.
- Comic Creator – Make an interactive comic with speech bubbles and sound effects.
- Arcade Shooter – Create a top-down arcade shooter game with bad guys and a good guy ship.
- Brick Breaker – Recreate an arcade classic using physics, with multiple levels, sound effects and bonus bricks.
- 2-Player Cannon Game – Build a physics-based game with structures and knock them down with friends.
- My Art Studio – Create a drawing tool with pen drawing commands and stamping.
Here are a few tips that Tynker teachers suggest, to make the experience engaging for students:
1. Start by having kids create their own characters, for an adventure that’s uniquely theirs with Candy Quest, Dragon Dash, or Debugger.
2. Then, let kids pick projects of interest to apply what they’ve learned and share what they’ve created with others. Comic cartoons, animated greeting cards, multi-player and multi-level games, math art and more.
3. If kids have experience with Tynker, have kids create their own tutorials for other students based on projects they’ve already built, or design custom tutorials for them, tied to a specific topic or curriculum theme.
Classes can easily get started without creating Tynker accounts, but with Tynker accounts, teachers can track student progress and quickly see what students have created.
Resources
Get started today! Get an overview of Hour of Code activities.
- Hour of Code activities can be accessed directly at tynker.com/hour-of-code
- A Teacher’s Guide is available to help plan and tailor Hour of Code for students: tynker.com/hour-of-code/teacher
- Tynker tablet apps can be downloaded for free from iTunes and Google Play.
When students (at school and home) log in, they will see a new Hour of Code card on their dashboard to access all of the Hour of Code activities.
Projects and certificates will be saved in their accounts.
Tracking Student Progress
Teachers will see a new metrics tab on their dashboard, for viewing Hour of Code activities completed and projects created. Whether students do their Hour of Code with Tynker on tablets or on the web, teachers will be able to view their progress, and students can see all of their projects in one place, whether they were created on the web or tablets.
