Naperville preschoolers learn building blocks of coding

Before a bunch of young Naperville students ever will learn to code a computer, they started in preschool, coding a caterpillar, a bumblebee and their classmates.

Coding, in preschool, effectively means giving directions:

Attach a left-arrow piece at the end of the caterpillar's body to make the toy turn left. Push the right-arrow button to make the bumblebee toy turn right. Tell a friend to jump forward three times to get from one side of a grid on the hallway floor to the other.

Give this direction, see this result. Think, plan, code, test.

The skill of giving directions - in a logical order to achieve a desired effect - is a precursor to the more complex skills kids will need when they begin to learn true computer coding later in their youth, said Kim O'Neill, learning commons leader at Ann Reid Early Childhood Center in Naperville Unit District 203.

"We're teaching these skills through play," she said. "This is how our students learn best."

In a world where STEM is seen as the future, and science, technology, engineering and math are elements of success, educators say they want kids thinking in code as early as possible.

That's why O'Neill worked with teachers at the school for roughly 280 preschoolers to get them involved with the Hour of Code movement, which introduces kids to the basics of computer science.

Instead of writing some lines in the computer coding language Python, as advanced coding students might, the kiddos went through five stations involving cones, mazes, grids, fellow students, Velcro arrows and educational toys called the Code-a-pillar and the Bee-Bot.

The Code-a-pillar came first. The blue and white toy comes with several hind pieces marked with arrows, so students can arrange them in order to get it to travel in different paths. The activity during the Hour of Code challenged preschoolers to make the toy go in a circle around an orange cone.

"We're telling the kids, 'You're helping the Code-a-pillar think,'" O'Neill said. "'What should the Code-a-pillar do?'"

Success created delight.

"It's turning!" little Javion Stevens said with a grin as the Code-a-pillar circled the cone.

Failure created learning.

"The best thing about coding is teaching kids it's OK to make mistakes," O'Neill said.

Another activity allowed students to direct a computerized Code-a-pillar to a destination while playing on an app within a tablet.

"Unplugged coding" used Velcro arrows students arranged on a grid as they pretended to take "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" character from Eric Carle's book to a bite of food several squares away.

Gross motor coding was more like a brief interlude of gym class within the splendor of science. Led by the school's physical therapist, students directed each other to "hop like a bunny" or make other silly motions as they traversed a grid drawn on the floor. Each direction was like a segment of code, programmed by one kid and received by another.

And then there was the Bee-Bot, another educational toy, this one a buzzy character with several small buttons.

Here, Colleen Cannon Ruffo, project manager of learning services, placed a piece of toy food on one grid square and helped the preschoolers pick the right sequence and number of arrow-button pushes to get the Bee-Bot to its sweets.

"Go ahead and code away, my friend," Colleen Cannon-Ruffo said as little Ezra Akrong took his turn.

The preschool Hour of Code was a first for the early childhood center, and it came after eight weeks of in-class activities. O'Neill said she's already seen students grasp new concepts in giving and following directions, counting, sequencing and math.

"It's OK that we're making mistakes," she reminded a few kids when the Code-a-pillar or Bee-Bot went awry. "We're learning."