Gingerbread House STEM Coding Activity - Hour of Code

Code a Gingerbread House! In this digital Google Slides activity, students will be introduced to introductory through intermediate coding concepts and techniques. They will then decode a pseudo code (not written in a language but in similar format to some coding languages) and create a digital gingerbread house based on the algorithms in the code.

The preview above shows a sample of one of the intermediate follow-up activities, but the main activity is similar in what students will be doing.

TOPICS COVERED

• Coding vs. Programming, including simple examples of several languages
• Sequencing
• Algorithms
• Conditional Statements / Branching
• Loops (for and while loops)
• Morse and Binary Code
• Google Slides skills such as duplicating, copying, pasting, resizing, positioning, recoloring, text formatting, rearranging slides, and slide element animation

ACTIVITIES INCLUDED

• The main activity is a 27-page Google Slides document with overviews of the topics covered and opportunities to practice the skills. This includes skills such as sequencing, practicing algorithms like sorting, number patterns, and directional coding algorithms, and decoding simple codes.
• Bonus activities include differentiation options: building a simple gingerbread house using the components provided (if decoding the pseudo code is too challenging, or just for fun!), decoding and building a simple gingerbread house (The Candy Cabin), 3 intermediate decoding activities to build gingerbread houses (The Sweetest Thing, Cookie Cottage, and The Sugar Shack), 1 expert level activity for students to write their own pseudo code for a gingerbread house.

TEACHER TOOLS

• Complete Samples for each of the activities are provided
• I have provided an 11+ minute walk-through video of The Sugar Shack activity. If you are new to coding or get stuck, I would start with the video!