Course C: Learning to Code

Course C is made for students around second grade. It uses simple shapes and basic math ideas that students already know.

In this course, students will build programs using loops, events, and conditionals. They will turn their initials into binary code, try out different ways to solve problems, and talk about how to handle cyberbullying. By the end of the course, students will make their own interactive games to share with others. Every new idea in Course C starts simple and grows step by step, giving students a fun and creative way to learn programming.

Journaling

Each lesson includes journal writing prompts. Journals are also great for scratch paper — students can use them to plan, build, and fix problems. Later on, students can look back at their journal to help them solve harder problems.

Debugging

Debugging means finding and fixing mistakes in your code. Even experts spend a lot of their coding time debugging! To help students get comfortable with this important skill, there is a handy guide they can use while they work.

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Chapter 1: Digital Citizenship

Lesson 1: Screen Out the Mean
Unplugged | Cyberbullying
Students learn what to do if something online makes them feel angry, sad, or scared.

Lesson 2: Powerful Passwords
Unplugged | Online Safety
Students learn how passwords keep information safe and how to create a strong password.

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Chapter 2: Sequencing

Lesson 3: My Robotic Friends Jr.
Unplugged | Sequencing
Students pretend their classmates are robots and give them step-by-step directions to build stacks of cups.

Lesson 4: Programming with Angry Birds
Skill Building | Sequencing
Students learn about sequences (the order of steps) and algorithms (sets of steps to solve a problem) using Angry Birds.

Lesson 5: Debugging in Maze
Skill Building | Sequencing
Students find and fix problems in puzzles to practice debugging.

Lesson 6: Collecting Treasure with Laurel
Skill Building | Sequencing
Students write step-by-step directions to help Laurel the Adventurer collect gems.

Lesson 7: Creating Art with Code
Skill Building | Sequencing
Students create pictures by programming the Artist.

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Chapter 3: Binary

Lesson 8: Binary Bracelets
Unplugged | Binary
Students make their own binary bracelet and learn how computers store information using binary, a code made only of 0s and 1s.

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Chapter 4: Loops

Lesson 9: My Loopy Robotic Friends Jr.
Unplugged | Loops
Students program their classmates again, but this time they use loops — repeating steps — to solve bigger, trickier problems.

Lesson 10: Loops with Rey and BB-8
Skill Building | Loops
Students use loops to help BB-8 get through mazes.

Lesson 11: Harvesting Crops with Loops
Skill Building | Loops
Students use loops to help a harvester collect vegetables.

Lesson 12: Looking Ahead with Minecraft
Skill Building | Loops
Students avoid lava while starting to learn about conditionals — instructions that only happen if something is true — in Minecraft.

Lesson 13: Sticker Art with Loops
Application | Loops
Students use loops to make even cooler pictures with Artist.

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Chapter 5: Events

Lesson 14: The Big Event
Unplugged | Events
Students play a game to learn about events — actions that make something happen in a program.

Lesson 15: Build a Flappy Game
Skill Building | Events
Students build their own Flappy Bird game and share it with friends.

Lesson 16: Chase Game with Events
Skill Building | Events
Students get creative and build a game using Play Lab.

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Chapter 6: Data

Lesson 17: Picturing Data
Unplugged | Data
Students learn that data (information) can help them understand the world and answer interesting questions. They collect data from a Play Lab project and show it using different kinds of graphs.

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Chapter 7: End of Course Project

Lesson 18: End of Course Project
Students get their hands ready for lots of coding as they build their final project!

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Lesson 1: Screen Out the Mean

Overview

This lesson helps students understand that it's important to tell a trusted adult if something online makes them feel angry, sad, or scared.

Students learn that some people act like bullies when they're online. They explore what cyberbullying means and what to do if it happens to them. After reading a story about someone being mean online, students talk about what cyberbullying is, how it makes people feel, and how to respond. At the end, students use what they learned to make a simple tip sheet about cyberbullying in their journal.

Purpose

Students might never experience cyberbullying themselves, but it's important that they know what it is and how to handle it if they ever see it happen. Students will learn how to recognize cyberbullying and what steps to take to stop it. This can be especially helpful later in the course, when students share their own work online. If someone says something mean about a student's project, this lesson gives them the tools to handle it.

What Students Will Learn

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Recognize online behaviors that could be cyberbullying
• Explain what to do if cyberbullying happens
• Understand why it's important to tell a trusted adult about cyberbullying

Key Vocabulary

• Cyberbullying — Doing something on the internet, usually over and over, to make another person feel angry, sad, or scared.
• Online — Connected to the internet.

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Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes): Introduction

Ask students to share what they already know about bullying.

Ask: What kinds of things count as bullying?
Students should understand that bullying means being purposely mean or scary to someone else — like making fun of how someone looks, telling lies about them, or threatening to hurt them.

Ask: How does bullying make people feel?
Hurt, angry, upset, or scared.

Ask: What's the best thing to do if you feel bullied, or see someone else being bullied?
Students should know to always tell a trusted adult.

Explain: Today, students will learn about a kind of bullying that happens when people use the internet.

Main Activity (35 minutes)

What Is Cyberbullying?

Define these words:

• Online — connected to the internet
• Cyberbullying — doing something on the internet, usually over and over, to make someone feel angry, sad, or scared

Discuss: Some kids don't go online very much — maybe because of family rules or because they just don't enjoy it. Other kids go online often to do different things.

Ask: What do you do online, or what would you like to do?
Students might mention messaging friends or playing games.

Share: Most of the time, going online is fun. But sometimes people are mean to each other online — that's called cyberbullying.

Ask: Have you ever seen someone make another person feel bad online?
Answers will vary. Remind students not to use real names when sharing.

Explain: Students will now learn more about how cyberbullying happens and what to do about it.

What to Do About Cyberbullying

Discuss these two stories with the class:

• Kyle keeps getting messages from someone saying mean things about him. The person doesn't use their real name, but Kyle can tell it's someone who also makes fun of him during gym class at school.
• Sasha is new at school and is making lots of friends. Then she finds out that another girl sent around an email with a picture of a cow that had Sasha's name on it.

Questions to discuss:

• What do you think happened in each story?
• How do you think Kyle or Sasha felt?
• How do you know if someone is cyberbullying you?
• Why is it important to stop using the computer if someone starts cyberbullying you?

(If you stay online, the cyberbullying might continue or get worse.)

Activity: Hand out the "Screen Out the Mean" worksheet. Read the story about Jada at the top together. Students then work in pairs or small groups to finish the worksheet.

Discuss Jada's story as a class. Explain the specific steps for handling a cyberbully:

• Jada should STOP using the computer.
• Jada should TELL an adult she trusts what happened.
• Jada should not go back online or visit the pony website until an adult says it's okay.
• If Jada and Michael are friends, she may want to tell him how his actions made her feel — but only after getting help from an adult first.
• If Michael keeps cyberbullying her, she should play with other kids who are kind instead.

In general, here are four steps to take if you or someone you know is being cyberbullied:

1. Stop using the computer until it's safe.
2. Tell an adult you trust.
3. Go online only when a trusted adult says it's okay.
4. Play online only with kids you know who are nice.

Wrap Up (15 minutes): What Did We Learn?

Ask: What is cyberbullying, and how does it make people feel?
Students should recognize that cyberbullying is any online behavior that makes someone feel sad, scared, angry, or upset.

Ask: What four steps can help stop cyberbullying?

• S – Stop using the computer until it's safe.
• T – Tell an adult you trust.
• O – Go Online only when a trusted adult says it's okay.
• P – Play online only with kids who are nice.

Ask: What's the most important thing to do if someone starts cyberbullying you?
Telling a trusted adult is always the most important step.

Journaling

Have students write about what they learned, why it matters, and how it made them feel. This helps them remember the lesson and gives them something to look back on later.

Journal Prompts:

• What was today's lesson about?
• How did you feel during today's lesson?
• Write down the names of some trusted adults you can go to if you ever feel bullied.
• What are the four steps you should take if you or someone you know is being cyberbullied?

Assessment (5–10 minutes)

Students complete the "Screen Out the Mean" assessment on their own.