Preschoolers learn counting, coloring … and coding
On a recent Thursday morning, preschool students in Sharon Baillie’s child development class sang out the days of the week while sitting in a circle on the floor.
This was after they programmed a robot to draw a circle and gave a series of commands to control an onscreen game character.
In Baillie’s class at Burgettstown High School, preschool students not only participate in traditional activities, but are learning programming and coding skills, as well.
“Everything in the world now has to be programmed,” said Baillie. “These are 21st-century skills they’ll need to know for years to come.”
Baillie, a family and consumer sciences teacher who also leads classes in fashion and interior design, was awarded a $5,000 grant from the National Education Association Foundation in the fall, which she used to purchase programming and coding toys and games. High school students in her child development class learn how to use the equipment before teaching it to the preschool students, who attend class three days a week.
Natalie Reid Miller/Observer-Reporter
In addition to technology and programming, preschoolers in Sharon Baillie’s program also participate in traditional pre-K activities, like singing and crafts.
“Part of the goal is to get the big kids to learn programming,” Baillie said. “The idea is to get coding and programming throughout the high school, and built up to computer programming.”
Katelyn Northcraft, who graduates this year, said the program piqued her interest.
“It has shown me a lot of new stuff about programming and tech,” she said. “I didn’t have much interest before, and now I do.”
Katelyn said the preschool students love using the toys because they are so hands-on and interactive.
“They like the technology and I like it, too,” she said.
The class has a one-to-one ratio, meaning every high school student is assigned only one preschooler for the day, and guides them through 10-minute rotations with the programming toys.
With Osmo Coding, students snap tiles together in a sequence to control an onscreen game character. The Code Code & Go Mouse is programmed to find the hidden “cheese” by going through a maze. With Spero, students knock pins down by using an iPad to control a bowling ball.
Natalie Reid Miller/Observer-Reporter
Natalie Reid Miller/Observer-Reporter
Katelyn Northcraft, left, and Mia Ward wait to see if their Cubetto robot will draw a square. Katelyn and Mia gave the command with the interface board that directs Cubetto.
In addition to purchasing Tiggly, Osmo, Ozobots, Dash and Dot and Code & Go Robot Mouse, Baillie has Cubetto robots for her students.
Cubetto is a wireless robot that gets commands from an interface board, which has slots for blocks. To tell the cube where to go, students place blocks in sequence into the slots, then hit the ‘Go’ button. Cubetto performs each command in order.
Baillie, who has been running the preschool lab for three years, said noticed right away that the little ones enjoyed the new toys.
“They’re really responded well,” Baillie said. “They love it.”