Tag KIPP STEM on Social Media for your chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon!

What is the Hour of Code?

• The Hour of Code International movement created by Code.org bringing together millions of students around the world to try coding for just one hour during Computer Science Education Week! Computer Science Education Week is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).

• Students (K-12) complete a fun, interactive 45-60 minute lesson to learn the basics of computer science or continued learning in computer science.

• ​Learn more and join the movement by watching this KIPP Hour of Code Video.

How can my class participate?

STEP 1: Preview our KIPP Hour of Code Video: ​Preview the video now and use it to jump start your class on the big day!

STEP 2: STEP 3: Select your coding lesson below!*

STEP 3: Complete a form for your participation to be entered into the raffle! See above!

* KIPP has scripted lessons for many projects, so even if you don’t know ANYTHING about computer science, YOU CAN TEACH THIS! KIPP has developed model lesson plans for each grade level that include PPTs, Worksheets, and Lesson Guides) for each grade-level. All lessons come with matching student worksheets and teacher presentations. Each lesson contains the objective, key points, teacher preparation, and scripted agenda.

Don’t like these activities? You can select ANY activity from Code.org’s activity bank! Here are some other favorites:

• Code Monkey Sequencing (K-2) - Teacher Plan, Activity

• Angry Bird Maze Challenge (3-5) - ​Teacher Plan, ​PPT Presentation, Student Worksheet

• Dance Party (5-12) - Teacher Plan, Activity

• Code with Anna and Elsa - Frozen (6-12) - Teacher Plan, Activity

• Grok Learning Cyber-Security Lesson (9-12) - Teacher Plan, Activity

• Pong Game Challenge  (9-12) - Teacher Plan, PPT Presentation, Student Worksheet

• Google’s CS FIRST - Offers a variety of 1-2 hour coding activities with instructional videos.

• Need Something unplugged? - Try Scratch Jr. Simon Says Game (K-5)

Need advanced activities for students with CS experience? Try these: Drawing with Khan, CodeMonkey Python, Flappy Bike Codestar
Want to do more than one hour?

• For K-4, check out KIPP’s K-4 Computational Thinking Units.

• For 5-12, considering following after KIPP New Orleans by hosting “STEMcember”! During December, KIPP New Orleans science teachers teach an entire unit of computer science. See some of their 5-8 grade units here. OR you could teach a unit of Code.org’s Computer Science Discoveries Curriculum.

• For 4-12, CoderZ is offering 6-month licenses for Title 1 Schools. Register for this opportunity, here. ​

Want to tie in literacy? Check out our Computer Science Education Reading List!

Looking to use instructional technology tools more effectively in class? Check out the resources below?

• EdPuzzle for Elementary Students 

• Nearpod in the Classroom 

• Formative Assessments with Nearpod 

• Kami Overview 

• Creative Uses for Padlet 

• Formative Overview 

• Essential Guide to Google Classroom 

STEP 4: Create your celebration materials:

• Certificates: Print these blank certificates provided by Code.org to celebrate your student’s success!

• Posters, Videos, Handouts, and more: Check out Code.org’s celebration materials to get your school excited for the big day.

• Stickers: Hand out stickers to your students after they complete the Hour of Code! ​​

STEP 5: Get the word out! Take pictures, video, and post to social media using the following tags as your students complete the Hour of Code!

• Like KIPP STEM on Facebook (follow our page!) and tag us in posts!

• Use these hashtags: #KIPPHourOfCode #KIPPCodes #KIPPSTEM

• Sample posts to share -

  • ​We’re so excited to participate in the #KIPPHourofCode! Here’s to more students embracing and demystifying code. #KIPPCodes @KIPP [attach picture/video]

  • @KIPP [School] just completed the #KIPPHourofCode! Over X students learned to code for the very first time. Way to go, KIPPsters! #KIPPCodes [attach picture/video]

  • [Name] participated in the #KIPPHourofCode today! She can animate her name. What can you do? #KIPPCodes @KIPP [video of student]

What tips do you have for school and regional leaders?

Check out the tips below from regional leaders around the network who have pulled off AMAZING Hour of Code events. You can read about their events here.
​
Create an Hour of Code Unit:
“Treating this initiative as a content unit, complete with daily guidance and a unit plan helped teachers execute this unit. We used an internalization PD to train teachers on the hardware. Computer science is all about letting kids problem solve and create. The more balance we can find with direct instruction and letting kids tinker, the better. Management takes care of itself when kids are invested and have clear CFS (criteria for success). – Emily McGrath, KIPP New Orleans Schools

Provide resources and start planning early:
“Discussions with each teacher and coding alongside them, planning logistics of laptops with teachers and admin, placing HOC date on the calendar, infusing teacher feedback from last year into how to coordinate it this year. Definitely talk about having HOC at summer PD, then mention it again and plan logistics 1-2 months before, then keep repeating it at least 3 weeks before. Some of the lessons and guides from the KIPP hour of code site were useful again this year.” - Hilda Aganga-Williams, KIPP DC

“Start the Hour of Code conversation months before. Check in with your school sites/Tech Leads beforehand to assure they are set up for success. Provide resources and pre-made lesson-plans as guides for your teachers but also give them the freedom to be creative with their implementation.” – Shawn Jackson and Mario Almaraz, KIPP Los Angeles

Offer incentives:
“We did a Zoom call to announce the campaign, also notified school leaders that this week was coming. Offering incentives to participating schools and sent emails with resources to pull off a successful event. Plan a bit earlier to ensure we could recruit more volunteers and panel discussions.” – Chela Wallace, KIPP New York City

Here is a slide deck from last year that Regional Leaders can utilize to create their own regional planning call. KIPP Foundation used this in 2018 to have regions pre-plan their Hour of Code.

What have other regions done to celebrate the Hour of Code?

Hilda Aganga-Williams (Science Director), KIPP DC, 2018 HoC:

“Over three thousand students from 1st-11th grade participated and most teachers coded on that day (Dec 14th) with students or on the day before. Kristin Jackson from our KIPP HDQ team has volunteers from IBM at some of our campuses!

All teachers mentioned kids having fun and coding for longer than an hour if they had classes longer than 60 mins. Teachers/students would love to integrate more coding and CS (computer science) into science classes (beyond when they take CS classes in the future).”

Student creations!

• Get energized with this awesome dance video coded by a 7th grader

• See other pictures of DC in action here!

Emily McGrath (Science Directors), KIPP New Orleans, 2018 HoC:

In KIPP New Orleans, for instance, students in grades K-2 learned about and programmed Bee-Bots to move and turn based on coded commands. The unit culminated in a Bee-Bot Bee! Check out this short video of the Bee and a Bee-Bot unit plan created by Emily McGrath (Elementary Science Director) and Paola Valdivia (Middle School Science Director) from KIPP New Orleans Schools.

“We decided to have a month of code! We included a coding unit into our core curriculum in K,1st, 2nd, 6-8th! Each grade level coded a specific software and an aligned hardware. K-2 worked with Bee-Bots, 6th and 7th grade worked with Scratch, Makey Makey and hummingbird.8th grade worked with Lego.
We are teaching kids how to think and seeing so many strengths in kids that we will need to continue to develop as we go back to content units.”

Student creations!

• See folder here of all the photos and videos ​​

Unit plans:

• Bee-Bot Unit Plan

• See all 5-8 Unit Plans here!

Chela Wallace (Science Director), KIPP New York City, 2018 HoC:

“Kids want to code every day! The HoC campaign aimed to have all of our schools participate by supplementing one lesson for an Hour of Code lesson. All 13 schools participated making it a total of 4,000 students. We recruited volunteers for interested schools: the following schools that had volunteers from SST or outside KIPP included KIPP Academy MS, KIPP Infinity MS, KIPP AMP ES, KIPP Academy ES, KIPP STAR MS. Volunteers included a pharmacist, product engineer and former NY Jet.”

Wyman Khuu (Elementary Science Director), KIPP New York City, 2021 H0C: Check out the NYC Hour of Code programming for elementary school students!

Shawn Jackson and Mario Almaraz, KIPP Los Angeles, 2018 HoC:

“This year, over 75% of our school sites participated in Hour of Code. Ranging from K-8th grade, our KIPPsters dove deep into coding and explored the wonders of computer science. We implemented Hour of Code through in-class teacher-guided sessions and free exploration. Some of our after-school programs created an informal learning environment and incorporated Hour of Code as a form of skill development. Also, one of our K-4 sites, KIPP Vida Prep, is planning to implement Hour of Code activities when our students return from break as a fun way to transition back to the school year.

This not only an exciting experience for our students but an opportunity to grow interest in a field they are not exposed to as often. It also provides our teachers more experience with integrating blended learning in their classroom.”

Artifacts: KIPP LA Public Schools - Hour of Code 2018 , One teacher’s resources for Hour of Code Communication to teachers - Mariella Magana at KIPP Corazón Academy.