Kindercoding Unplugged: Screen-Free Activities for Beginners

by Deanna Pecaski McLennan

Kindergarten teacher Deanna Pecaski McLennan, PhD, takes readers on a journey through her own kindergarten classroom and how she’s actively cultivating computational thinking in her students through a Reggio Emilia lens and emergent curriculum. Using photos, vignettes, narrative, and more than eighty unplugged coding activities, this book will help readers better understand what coding is and how they can begin to implement easy and developmentally appropriate coding games and activities into their early childhood programs.

Genres: Nonfiction

184 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2020

About the author

Deanna Pecaski McLennan, Ph.D., is a passionate full-day kindergarten educator, researcher and writer from Southern Ontario, Canada who has spent over twenty years working with young children. Deanna has authored more than thirty articles for early childhood education journals. She has devoted her research and practice to exploring the potential for rich mathematics learning through playful inquiry and exploration. Integrating math into the arts and outdoor learning is a favourite activity! Deanna is also a mom to three children and knows firsthand the important of supporting and improving their confidence, fluency and accuracy in mathematics. Deanna has spent the last several years transforming her classroom into a safe and supportive space where children can take risks without the use of rigid programming, rote practice, or worksheets. Deanna believes that educators benefit from sharing their journeys with one another and actively uses reflective writing, technology and social media to connect with others from around the world. She sees herself a life-long learner and spends her free time reading, exercising and playing with her dog Harlow.

Reviews

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible!! This is filled with really interesting, doable, creative activities to introduce coding to young children. There is a lot of talk about the Reggio Emilia approach, which I have no frame of reference for, but it's easy enough to just skip over. All in all, I am really excited to try out some of these ideas with kids!