Hour of Code Unplugged Activity Packet
Coding is something everyone can do! You can even learn the basics of coding without
a computer. This activity packet is designed for children and their grown ups to learn
some of the fundamentals of coding together through interactive activities. Print this
packet (double-sided is fine!) and get coding at home!
Table of Contents
1. Everybody Dance Now (pages 2-8) - Ages 4-11
2. Graph Paper Programming (pages 9-11) - Ages 6-13
3. Use Binary to Make Pictures (pages 12-21) - Ages 10-18
4. More Unplugged Resources (pages 22-23)
1
Everybody Dance Now
Ages: 4-11 years old
Lesson Objectives:
● Students will recognize actions of the choreographer as signals to initiate a
command.
------------------------- Lesson Guide ------------------------------
1. Description: Programmers use “events” to change the way a program responds
to a user’s actions, like the push of a button or the click of a mouse. When you
touch the screen on your tablet to scroll, that’s an event. When you press a
button on your controller to play a video game, that button press is an event, too!
For this lesson, you’ll use a paper controller to choreograph a dance for your
family member.
2. Vocabulary: Read this vocabulary card together.
3. Activity
a. Make connections: Ask your child “Where else have you seen “events”
that give signals in the real world?
i. What about something like something like a dance? How do
dancers know when to do a certain move?
b. Let’s learn some dance moves so we can program a new dance together!
2
The Star
● Step 1: Start by standing up straight with your arms by your
side.
● Step 2: Kick your right leg out and put both arms in the air to
make your body look like a star.
● Step 3: Come back to standing position.
● Step 4: Kick your left leg out and put both arms in the air.
● Step 5: Repeat!
3
The High Clap
● Step 1: Start by standing up straight with your arms by your
side.
● Step 2: Clap your hands to the right, above your head.
● Step 3: Come back to standing position.
● Step 4: Clap your hands to the left, above your head.
● Step 5: Repeat! (Bonus: try moving your hips to the side that
you’re clapping on)
4
The Dab
● Step 1: Start by standing up straight with your arms by your
side.
● Step 2: Drop your head into the bent crook of a slanted,
upwardly angled arm while raising the opposite arm straight in a
parallel direction (see image above).
● Step 3: Repeat! (Bonus: Lift a knee up while dabbing)
5
The This or That
● Step 1: Start by standing up straight with your arms by your
side.
● Step 2: Raise your right hand like you’re a waiter holding a tray
and tilt your head towards it.
● Step 3: Come back to standing position.
● Step 4: Raise your left hand like you’re a waiter holding a tray
and tilt your head towards it.
● Step 5: Repeat!
6
The Body Roll
● Step 1: Start by standing up straight with your arms by your
side.
● Step 2: Bend your knees and snake your body to the right,
moving your head first and then your hips in one direction.
● Step 3: Repeat!
7
Activity Continued:
● Choose one choreographer and a dancer (or many dancers).
● Whenever the choreographer touches a button, the dancers will do the
corresponding dance.
● As a reminder:
○ Star is the Star Dance
○ Triangle is the Dab
○ Hexagon is the High Clap
○ Circle is the Body Roll
○ Rectangle is the This or That
● Turn on your favorite song and hit the dance floor!
8
Graph Paper Programming
Ages: 6-13 years old
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to reframe a sequence of steps as an encoded program.
------------------------- Lesson Guide ------------------------------
1. Description: By "programming" one another to draw pictures, you and your child
will get an opportunity to experience some of the core concepts of programming
in a fun and accessible way. Your child will use symbols to instruct you to color
squares on graph paper to reproduce an existing picture.
2. Introduce the Topic: Ask your child, how do robots know how to do the things
they do? Do they have brains that work the same way that ours do?
a. The goal of this quick discussion is to call out that while robots may seem
to behave like people, they're actually responding to their programming.
3. Practice Together: In this activity, students will act as both programmers and
robots, coloring in squares according to programs that they have written for you.
Say to your child:
a. Today, you’re going to get to program a robot… Me! You’ll write programs
using symbols with special meanings to help me recreate a picture.
b. These are the only instructions that I understand.
i. Move one square right
ii. Move one square left
iii. Move one square up
iv. Move one square down
v. Fill in square with color
Let’s practice! Here is an image. Pretend
that I am the drawing robot.
Starting at the star, tell me instructions to
recreate the image to the left.
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c. You just gave me a list of steps to finish a task. In programming, that’s
called an algorithm. Great work! Hmm, but what happens when we want
to write down the algorithm for a drawing like this?
i. What would the code sound like to recreate this picture?
ii. What if you had to write it all out? Is there an easier way than
writing all the words?
d. Show your child this list of symbols:
e. Discuss: How could we use these symbols to make our instructions
easier?
f. Look at the sample solution using symbols below and discuss the benefits
of using symbols shorthand.
10
Now you try!
Choose one person to be Partner A and another person to be Partner B.
Partner A, choose one of the images below. Don’t let your partner know which one you pick!
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
1) Partner A, write a program.
(Use → ← ↑ ↓ )
Step 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
2) Give your program to your partner.
3)Partner B, draw your partner’s program:
Switch!
1)1) Partner B, write a program.
(Use → ← ↑ ↓ )
Step 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
2)Give your program to your partner.
3) Partner A, draw your partner’s program:
11
Use Binary to Make Pictures
Ages: 10-18 years old
Lesson Objective: Students will learn how to use binary to represent colors and images.
----------------------------- Lesson Guide-----------------------------
Description: We’re going to look at one way that Binary can be used to represent Color
Images and you’ll be creating your own Pixel Art.
In this activity, we’ll use binary coding
to represent pathways through a
series of “high” and “low” choices. For
example, to the right are a group of
colors at the tail-ends of a small
tree-like diagram. Starting from the
left, we can choose a color by using a
sequence of High & Low decisions to
move from left-to-right and ultimately
end at a color.
For example, the color Orange would
be “High Low Low”.
Check Yourself:
1. How would you represent the color Pink? _____ _____ ____
2. What color does this represent: Low Low High? _____________
(The answers are on the last page of this activity.)
12
Hey! We Can Use Binary For This!
A 0 will represent a Low / Down choice and a 1 will represent a High / Up choice. For
example: the binary number 1001 could be read as “High Low Low High”
Using the same color map from before, we can use a binary number to represent a
color. For example, the number 010 represents the color green
Now You Try!
1. Use this chart to determine what color would be coded by the number 111. _____
2. Use the chart to determine what binary number would represent the color orange.
(The answers are on the last page of this activity.)
13
Representing Multiple Colors
If we wanted to represent a sequence of colors, we can write a sequence of binary
numbers to represent those colors. Here’s an example:
101011110000
This longer binary number secretly represents 4 different colors. We can see each
individual color by breaking this number up into chunks of 3:
101011110000 → 101 011 110 000
Each chunk represents a single color. We can use the same chart to figure out
each of these individual colors:
101 → Red
011 → Yellow
110 → Pink
000 → Purple
So the number 101011110000 represents the colors Red Yellow Pink Purple
Now You Try!
1. What colors are represented by 110011010 (hint: 3 colors)
2. What binary sequence represents Blue Orange Black? (hint: 9 digits)
14
An Introduction to Pixels
Most electronics like smartphones, computers, and television screens are made of
millions of tiny pieces called pixels. Each pixel is like a tiny little box on your screen that
is used to represent the images we see. Usually the pixels are so small that we don’t
even notice the boxes, but when we zoom-in we start to see them more clearly.
Source: csunplugged.org
Our electronic devices use binary signals to determine what types of images to create
using these pixels using the following steps:
● They receive a binary sequence
● They decode the sequence to determine what colors the sequence represents
● Each color represents a certain pixel. The computer draws that color in the
appropriate box
For Example:
15
You Try!
Use colored pencils / markers / post-its / crayons / etc to draw in the colors for each of
the grids below. Use this new choice-map to determine which colors to use. The
answers are on the next page for you to check when you’re done.
100111001
110101011
100010001
(Color This In!)
100001100
001100001
100001100
(Color This In!)
16
More Practice Drawing Pictures with Binary
Binary Encoding for 10x10 image
111 111 000 000 111 111 000 000 111 111
111 000 100 100 000 000 001 001 000 111
000 100 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 000
000 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 000
000 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 000
000 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 011 000
111 000 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 111
111 111 000 110 101 101 011 000 111 111
111 111 111 000 101 011 000 111 111 111
111 111 111 111 000 000 111 111 111 111
17
Binary Encoding for 10x10 image
111 111 000 000 111 111 000 000 111 111
111 000 100 100 000 000 001 001 000 111
000 100 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 000
000 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 000
000 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 000
000 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 011 000
111 000 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 111
111 111 000 110 101 101 011 000 111 111
111 111 111 000 101 011 000 111 111 111
111 111 111 111 000 000 111 111 111 111
18
Binary Encoding for 8x8 image
000 111 111 111 111 111 110 110
000 000 000 010 010 100 110 110
001 000 010 010 010 100 100 100
001 001 001 001 101 101 101 100
110 011 011 011 111 111 101 101
110 011 001 011 010 111 111 000
110 110 001 010 010 010 111 000
110 001 001 001 010 000 000 000
19
Binary Encoding for 8x8 image
000 111 111 111 111 111 110 110
000 000 000 010 010 100 110 110
001 000 010 010 010 100 100 100
001 001 001 001 101 101 101 100
110 011 011 011 111 111 101 101
110 011 001 011 010 111 111 000
110 110 001 010 010 010 111 000
110 001 001 001 010 000 000 000
20
Answers
Page 12
1. Pink would be “Up Up Down”
2. Low Low High would be “Blue”
Page 13
1. 111 represents “Up Up Up” which is the color black
2. Orange is “Up Down Down” which is the number 100
Page 14
1. 110011010 → 110 011 010 → Pink Yellow Green
2. Blue Orange Black → 001 100 111 → 001100111
Page 16
100111001
110101011
100010001
Red
White
Blue
Yellow
Purple
Cyan
Red
Green
Blue
100001100
001100001
100001100
Red
Blue
Red
Blue
Red
Blue
Red
Blue
Red
Using binary numbers to represent Pixels, we can make some really creative designs. In
the next few pages, you’ll have a chance to create some of these Pixel Art designs.
21
More Unplugged Resources
These lessons were designed for classroom use for teachers and students, but they’re easily
suited for at-home learning.
Description
URL
QR Code
Secret Handshakes
Age Group 4-11yrs
In this lesson, students develop their
own secret handshake sequences
using three or more moves. They
record their sequences with symbols
and revise them based on challenge
criteria.
https://sites.google.com/sfus
d.edu/k-2cs/red/unit-1-unpl
ugged-cs/3-secret-handsha
ke-sequencing
What is a Computer?
Age Group: 4-11yrs
In this activity students develop a
preliminary definition of a computer
through brainstorming ideas and
sorting pictures into “is a computer”
and “is not a computer” categories.
https://curriculum.code.org/c
sd-19/unit1/4/
My Robotic Friend
Age Group: 7-11yrs
Using a predefined “Robot
Vocabulary” your student will figure
out how to guide you to accomplish
specific tasks without discussing
them first. This segment teaches
students the connection between
symbols and actions, as well as the
valuable skill of debugging.
https://csedweek.org/files/C
SEDrobotics.pdf
22
Representing Numbers
Age Group: 7-11yrs
In this lesson, students learn about
the binary number system. With a
set of cards that represent the place
values in a binary (base-2) number
system by a collection of dots,
students turn bits "on" or "off" by
turning cards face up and face
down, then observe the numbers
that result from these different
patterns.
https://curriculum.code.org/c
sd-20/unit5/5/
Paper AI
Age Group: 10-18yrs
Play a game that they are probably
all so familiar with that they may
have stopped playing it altogether
because it’s not a challenge
anymore. It’s Tic-Tac-Toe!
https://minecraft.makecode.
com/courses/csintro/ai/unplu
gged
Will it Crash?
Age Group: 11-18yrs
Students trace simple robot
programs on paper to develop a
sense of how to read and reason
about code with if statements in it.
Students also try their hand at
writing code by hand to handle a
robot situation.
https://curriculum.code.org/c
sp-19/unit5/7/
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