Poudre River Public Library District Blog
LIBRARY HOURS
Old Town Library
Harmony Library
Council Tree Library
LIBRARY HOURS Old Town Library
Harmony Library
Council Tree Library
(970) 221-6740
  • Catalog
  • Articles
  • Events
  • Site
Advanced Search

(970) 221-6740

Prospector
Front Range Community College
Business | Genealogy

(970) 221-6740

Prospector
Front Range Community College
All Events | Classes | Programs | Storytimes

(970) 221-6740

Prospector
Front Range Community College
Site Map

(970) 221-6740

Prospector
Front Range Community College
My Account Library Locations What's New ResearchDownload How do I? Events KidsTeens
  • Home
  • Using the Library
  • My Account
  • Hours & Locations
  • eResources
  • Calendar
  • Ask a Librarian
  • en español
Skip Navigation
My Account
Locations
What's New
Research
Download
How do I?

1-2-3 Brain Break: Program a Robot

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Jennifer Zachman in Book Recommendations, Library Blog, Library Programs

Brain Breaks are short activities, often only 1-3 minutes long, that help kids get ready to learn or refocus on the task at hand. They often involve physical activity and movement though relaxing activities can also boost mental brain power. 

So in addition to encouraging your kids to participate in these fun breaks, join the kiddos and have some refreshing, stress-free fun yourself, too! 

Supplies needed

  • You and your child 
  • A chair or two or some other physical obstacle

Here’s what you do 

  1. Place a chair or other obstacle in an open space. For an added challenge, add an extra obstacle or two. 
  1. Have child stand somewhere in the open space. 
  1. Instruct your child to go around the obstacle to reach a target destination using only your voice commands to get there. Use only one command at a time and be sure they are specific. 

Some sample commands: 
Take one step forward. 
Take one step backward. 
Turn right. 
Turn left. 

  1. Laugh along the way and celebrate reaching the target destination. 

Activity Extensions 

For the little ones: 

Still giving one command at a time, speed up a bit. See how quickly your child can respond to the commands as they get faster and faster. This can get really silly! 

For the older kids: 

Have your child give you the commands to get around the obstacle to the destination. They may find this is harder to do than it sounds! 

“The Why” behind the Activity 

The goal of the activity is to build critical thinking skills in an unplugged setting. This coding activity introduces basic concepts like sequencing and algorithms which are foundations for understanding the machine language of computers compared to human language. 

Check out these books for more coding fun! 

All about Coding Loops by James Bow  

All about Coding Sequences by George Kulz 

Coding with Hopscotch by Alvaro Scrivano and Sue Downing  


Related

brain break, children's books, kids and family, programming, robots

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

  • Poudre Libraries Staff

    2023: A Look Ahead

    December 29, 2022
  • Harmony, Education, and Determination through the Decades

    December 16, 2022
  • Exploring Pebble Go

    December 6, 2022
  • We Have Work to Do: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Identity, History, and Stories

    November 21, 2022

Try our App! Try our Mobile App!

Facebook Twitter River's Mouth Blog Instagram Pininterest Google Plus LinkedIn FourSquare Flickr You Tube

Navigation

  • Download
  • Events
  • How Do I?
  • Locations
  • My Account
  • Research
  • Site Map
  • Site Search
  • What's New

  • English

  • en español

Community

  • Birth to 5
  • Book Clubs
  • FRCC
  • Kids
  • Outreach
  • Teens

My Library

  • Bookdrops
  • Checking Out Items
  • Computer Classes
  • Computers
  • - Assistive Technology
  • - Printing
  • - Printing (3D)
  • - Wireless
  • Library Cards
  • Meeting Rooms
  • Suggest a Purchase

Resources

  • Answer Center
  • Ask-a-Librarian
  • Business Center
  • Job & Career Center
  • Nonprofit Resources
  • Genealogy
  • History Connection
  • InterLibrary Loan
  • Prospector
  • Readers' Cafe
  • - Reading Level Search
  • Research

Get Involved

  • Donations
  • Friends of the Library
  • Library Trust
  • Volunteers

About us

  • Board of Trustees
  • Executive Director
  • Jobs
  • Leadership Team
  • Library Newsletter
  • Policies
  • River's Mouth Blog
  • Sign Up for E-News

  • Help

  • Contact us

Poudre River Public Library District, 301 Olive Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524, (970) 221-6740
Including the collection of Front Range Community College, Larimer Campus