For this generation, computer and coding skills are becoming necessary skills to learn. Today we share some offline activities we found to help begin building those skills.
Little Bins for Little Hands – Superhero Coding Game –With these instructions that teaches basic programming concepts to young children, create and play a homemade computer coding game using a few simple items and LEGO building blocks.
Teach Your Kids Code – Coding Unplugged – On this index page of this website, discover pages for great ideas for building tech skills while offline such as "Hopscotch Reimagined", "Water Gun Coding Activity", egg carton coding, learn to code with Hotwheels, cause and effect activity in the dark with glowsticks, "Don't Step on the LEGO," using a deck of cards to code and more.
All Done Monkey – Coding for Kids: X Marks the Spot – Kids can have fun learning about algorithms with this simple activity using checkers pieces.
JDaniel4's Mom – Amazing Offline Coding Games to Try Right Now with Your Kids – Blogger and teacher, Deirdre, shares links to great ideas and printables for teaching algorithms, binary code and more to kids using children's books, animal life cycles, LEGOs, games and more.
Brain Power Boy – 14+ Unplugged Coding Games for Learning to Code Offline – Check out these ideas to loads of coding skill activities and games some of which are downloads and others are videos or links to instructions on other websites.
Mama Smiles – STEM Fun for Kids: Code Your Name in Jewelry – This is a neat idea for introducing binary code to children that could be expanded on for variety with a little imagination.
Left Brain Craft Brain – If-Then Backyard Coding Game for Kids – Kids will enjoy playing this game and learn how the conditional statement works in programming.
Research Parent – Coding a LEGO Maze – Challenge kids of all ages to solve mazes using code. The author provides detailed explanations of the process for four levels of difficulty depending on the students experience level and provides a free printable for you to use. No LEGOs in your house? No worries. There are printable templates included to do the activity on paper instead.
Code.org – Unplugged – Check out 4 activities that can be done offline that teach computer tech and coding skills. Use the upper left menu to browse the website for other "Hour of Code" activities.
Kodable Hour of Code – Lesson Plans for Teachers – Find grade specific lesson plans with step by step instruction for using the activities to teach about programming, coding and more.
CS Unplugged – Activities – You will most definitely want to bookmark this website. At this page of the larger website you will find links to all types of learning activities that teach computer skills without having to be online. All the activities use things you probably have at home and are available in a downloadable PDF format so you can use them anytime, anywhere. While you are at the site, check out the "Videos" link to find video presentations of computer and coding concepts as well as "The Book" link to download the 243-page book of all the activities and more. One other thing worth noting is that the activities and/or book are also available in many different languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and more.
Have fun!