📚 Teaching Algorithms to Grade 1 with Google Slides
This lesson plan provides a structured approach to introducing basic algorithmic thinking to first-grade students using visual aids in Google Slides. The lesson focuses on sequencing and simple instructions.
🎯 Objectives
- 🌱 Students will be able to define an algorithm in simple terms.
- 🚶♀️ Students will be able to arrange a set of instructions in the correct order to complete a task.
- 💻 Students will be able to create a simple algorithm using pictures in Google Slides.
🧰 Materials
- 🖼️ Google Slides (one presentation per student or group).
- ✂️ Pre-made images representing simple actions (e.g., brushing teeth, making a sandwich, getting ready for school).
- ✏️ Worksheets with sequencing activities (optional).
- 🌐 Internet access (for Google Slides).
Warm-up (5 minutes)
- 🗣️ Begin by asking students what they do to get ready in the morning. Write their answers randomly on the board.
- ❓ Ask: "Does it matter what order we do these things in?" (e.g., Can you put on your shoes before your socks?).
- 💡 Explain that an algorithm is like a set of instructions that tells you what to do in the right order.
👩🏫 Main Instruction (20 minutes)
- 🖼️Introduction to Algorithms with Pictures: Show a Google Slides presentation with a simple, everyday algorithm (e.g., making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Each slide should depict one step.
- 🚶♀️Step-by-Step Demonstration: Narrate each step clearly, emphasizing the sequence. For example:
- 🍞 Slide 1: Get two slices of bread.
- 🥜 Slide 2: Spread peanut butter on one slice.
- 🍇 Slide 3: Spread jelly on the other slice.
- 🥪 Slide 4: Put the two slices together.
- 💻Interactive Activity: Have students create their own Google Slides presentation. Provide them with pre-made images (or have them draw their own) for a different algorithm (e.g., brushing teeth).
- 🧩Sequencing Task: Students arrange the slides in the correct order to show the steps of the algorithm.
- 🤝Group Discussion: Have students share their algorithms with the class and explain the order of their steps.
📝 Assessment (10 minutes)
- ✅Observation: Observe students as they create their algorithms in Google Slides, noting their ability to sequence the steps correctly.
- ❓Questioning: Ask individual students to explain their algorithm and why they chose that particular order.
- ✍️Worksheet (Optional): Provide a worksheet with pictures representing steps in an algorithm. Students cut and paste the pictures in the correct order.