Start UP Activites
Introductions
Purpose: This is a great activity for students to get to know other students, perhaps on the first day of class.
Process: Students and instructors stand in a circle. For each iteration, students are instructed to walk into the center of the circle and stand back to back with another student for each iteration.
Hand Shake: Student pairs create a unique handshake, and learn each other’s name, and what they hope to get out of the class.
- Students form back up into the circle, and each student shares what they learned about their partner with the class.
High Five: Student pairs create a unique high five, and learn eachother’s name, and their concerns about learning to code.
Future uses: students meet back with Hand Shake partners or High-Five partners to checkin and give feedback.
Zip/Zap/Zop
Purpose: This is an improvisation game designed to encourage students to react to new challenges. *Level 1: Students stand in a circle. Someone starts by saying “Zip” and pointing with their hand to another student to prompt a response. Responding student says “Zap” and points to another student. Third student responds with “Zop”. The next student starts back with “Zip” and the game continues until a student makes a mistake. To make this harder, students should react faster. * Level 2: After the first “Zip”, the second student can choose to stay “Zip” or “Zap”. After every “Zip”, another “Zip” can be applied, but once a student has said “Zap”, then every response after that has to respond to as many Zaps as Zips were said. Continue this with Zop. When back to the beginning, the game returns to the default pattern.
*Level 3: First student can choose a different word to start the game. Second word and third word should relate to the first word. Once that iteration has been completed, that set can be called upon again, along with the normal “Zip/Zap/Zop”. Also, the rules to Level 2 can be applied
*Level 4: Students stand in a circle, and move one position clockwise. Now, when a call is sent to the student’s original position, that student must respond. This can continue to get harder by changing positions again.
Standup
Purpose: Students answer three questions for the whole group. This is a great way to check in with where everyone is at so that everyone can move forward.
Questions for students: 1. What have you accomplished since the last time we met? 2. What are you going to accomplish today? 3. What are your blocks?
Keep responses focused on the domain of the class.
A block is something you’re stuck on and you don’t know what to do next.
Three Sylable word groups
Purpose: This is an improvisational game designed to help students think outside of what they’ve been doing all day. *Level 1: Students stand in a cirle. In turn, each student says a word or group of words that have only 3 sylables. *Level 2: Students must wait to think of their 3 syllables until their partner says their 3 syllables and must respond to that 3 syllables.
Memory Train
- Stand in a circle
- Think of a vocabulary word specific to html
- You’re going to say that word to the person to your left after the person to your right says their word to you (do this, encourage students to get faster)
- Change direction: now say the word to the person to the right of you
- Now you can choose which direction you want to go in
- Next, change standing spots in the room. You still keep the same partners.
- Switch languages, try css
- Add both languages moving at the same time. Instructor starts one train, then starts another
- Add another language: javaScript