PRINT ACTIVITY

Program My Robot

Your child will write directions that teach a pretend robot how to do a task.

Learning Area(s): Language and Communication; Reading and Writing

MATERIALS

  • paper
  • pencil
  • crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.

LET'S PLAY

To begin, talk with your child about things they would like to program a robot to do for them. You can ask, “If you had your very own robot, what would you tell it to do?” Make a list of your child’s ideas. The ideas can be: 

    • practical: make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, clean my room for me, make dinner for my whole family, feed or care for a pet
    • humanitarian: clean up trash or litter from a public space, build a house for a homeless person, help a neighbor
    • zany: fly me to outer space, make a slime factory, perform a funny dance to my favorite song

After your child comes up with some ideas, have them choose one to break down into steps. 

Explain how they will write a list of directions or steps to program the robot. You can say, “Robots don’t know how to do things, so we need to tell them exactly what to do, step by step. That’s called programming the robot. Now, let’s write a list of instructions to program your robot to ____.  We can break it into steps. What does the robot need to do first?” Continue to guide your child in listing the steps. 

If your child skips a step, you can ask questions to get them back on track. For example, if your child is writing about how to make a bracelet and starts with “Step 1: Put the beads on the bracelet,” you might discuss how usually beads go on a wire or a string. You might ask, “How do you know how much string to use?” Help your child add “Cut the string to fit my wrist” as one of the first steps. In some cases, it might be helpful to encourage your child to make a list of supplies the robot will need to do a particular task before starting to write the steps. 

To test out your child’s “programming,” have someone else pretend to be the robot who has to follow the steps. Have your child review and edit their writing as needed.

TIPS

  • Encourage your child to sound out the words as they are trying to write. It’s okay if they spell some words incorrectly!
  • If your child becomes frustrated or is not ready to write independently, you can share the writing job with them. You might help them spell some words, help them remember what to write by asking them to say it out loud, or write some parts for them.
  • Celebrate your child’s writing by: 
    • inviting them to read it to family and friends
    • posting it in a place others can see or read it
  • Invite your child to draw a picture of the robot after they finish writing the instructions.
  • Your child might like to make a robot out of household items and craft supplies.

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