Coding Express Set

Journey - Trouble on the Road

In this lesson students will explore and understand various traffic signs and be able to solve common problems on the road.

30-45 min.
Advanced
PreSchool
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Prepare

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

  • If necessary, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: remind, police officer, traffic sign, potential, avoid.

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

  • This lesson is designed to be used with the Coding Express app. Download the app for student devices at legoeducation.com/downloads.

  • To use this lesson without the Coding Express app, see the unplugged version.

Engage

  • Talk to the students about traffic rules.

  • Ask questions like:

    • Do you know any traffic rules? What are they?
    • Why do we need to follow traffic rules?
  • Tell the students that everybody needs to follow the traffic rules.

  • Explain that traffic signs are one way of reminding people of the rules.

  • Show the four traffic signs from the set and ask the students if they can guess what they mean.

  • Tell them they’re going to play a game!

  • Place the traffic signs around the classroom and ask the students to pretend they’re each driving their own high-speed train.

  • Explain that they should slow down or stop when approaching marked areas.

  • Act as a police officer controlling the flow of traffic, or ask one of the students to do it.

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Explore

  • Have each group of students pick a building card and build the model shown.

  • Have the students work together to build a Y-shaped track and place their models alongside it.

  • Place the action bricks in random places along the track.

  • Now experiment with the app.

  • Put the train on the track and allow the students to explore the different functions of each button.

  • Let’s start the train!

  • Have the students take turns using the app to “drive” the train.

  • What happens after the train passes each action brick?

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Explain

  • Talk to the students about the problems they’ve seen in the app.

  • Ask questions like:

    • What did you see after the train passed each stop?
    • How will you solve the problem?
    • Which traffic sign do you need in order to solve each problem?

Elaborate

  • Encourage the students to play and to use all of the traffic signs.

  • Ask if they can think of any other important things to keep in mind in order to stay safe in traffic.

  • Encourage the students to create their own traffic signs or models to help keep them safe in traffic.

  • Have them place their creations along the track and explain why they placed them where they did.

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 can create a y-shaped track and use it to describe the journey the train is taking.
    • Students can use their models to add additional details to their descriptions of the journey.
    • Students can describe, with prompting, the repeating sequence of events on the trip.

More Ideas

  • Use this lesson’s format to create lessons for the Passengers and the Four Seasons in the app.

  • In the Engage phase, talk about the passengers’ accessories and how the seasons should look; explore more interesting destinations with your kindergarteners.

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Teacher Support

Students will:

  • Understand that the action bricks’ behavior can be changed using the app
  • Understand various traffic signs
  • Be able to solve common problems on the road

For up to four students

  • Coding Express set (45025)

  • Coding Express App

  • CSTA 1A-AP-10 Develop programs with sequences and simple loops, to express ideas or address a problem.

Extension

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail..