Coding Express Set

First Trip

This getting started activity will allow the children to explore the action bricks and different bricks in the set.

30-45 min.
Beginner
PreSchool
First-trip12

Prepare

  • Review this lesson plan and choose what you need from the Teacher Support box.

  • If necessary, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: action brick, stop (as a noun), destination, most, train station, journey.

  • Consider the abilities and backgrounds of all your students and decide when and how to introduce and differentiate lesson content, activities, or concepts.

Engage

  • Ask the students if they’ve ever taken a train, subway, or tram. Where did they go?

  • Tell them they’re going to play the choo choo train game!

  • Have the students line up and put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.

  • Explain that when you say, “go” they’ll move around the classroom like a choo choo train, and when you say, “red light” they’ll slow the train down and stop.

  • Play a few rounds of the choo choo train game.

Explore

  • Share printable model card 1 (image shown below) and have students build a model from it. Alternatively, they may use the Building Cards from the LEGO® Education Coding Express set as inspiration or build any destination they like.

  • When the students have finished building, ask them to work together to build a double-ended track.

  • Make sure the track is long enough to fit the train station and the destination (using eight track pieces is recommended).

  • Start at the train station and use a LEGO® DUPLO® figure as a passenger.

  • Tell the students that the passenger would like to go fishing at the harbor. Can you help them get to the harbor?

Tip: The students don’t have to build what’s on the building cards. They can build any destination they’d like.

first-trip-1
  • The students are likely to stop the train one of three ways:

    • By hand, which they’ve learned in the getting started activities
    • Using the red action brick
    • Using the red stop brick
First-trip-2

Explain

  • Show the three different ways of stopping the train.

  • Talk to the students about the red action bricks.

  • Ask questions like:

    • How many red action bricks did you use?
    • Where did you place the red action brick(s) and why?
    • Where did the train stop?

Elaborate

  • Encourage the students to build a longer track and to create more stops.

  • Pique their interest in using the green action bricks on the track.

  • Ask questions like:

    • What did you see when the train went over green bricks?
    • How can we help the train get back to the station?
first-trip-3

Evaluate

  • Ask guiding questions to elicit students’ thinking and their decisions while ideating, building, and programming.

Observation Checklist

  • Review the learning objectives and educational standards addressed in this lesson (Teacher Support box).

  • Share specific student responses and behaviors at different levels of mastery.

  • Use the following checklist to observe students’ progress:

    • Students work in collaborative groups to build a model and the double-ended track and then take turns using their model as the destination.
    • Students create and follow an algorithm (step-by-step actions) for the train to move from the train station to one or more destinations along the track.
    • Students use the action bricks (or appropriate elements) to program the train to start at the train station and stop at the destination.

Teacher Support

Students will:

  • Understand the function of action bricks
  • Understand how to use the different types of bricks
  • Use action bricks to complete tasks

For up to six students

Coding Express set (45025)

  • CSTA 1A-AP-08 Model daily processes by creating and following algorithms (sets of step-by-step instructions) to complete tasks.

Extension

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.