Lightbot by the folks at ABCYa! is another fun favorite! All the activities on this site are spot-on, Lightbot is no exception! Essentially, the bot needs to be moved throughout the maze to turn on the light at the end. I like the easy step by step instructions, showing how to get the bot to move and the encouragement along the way. Nicely done!
Friends in K-2 were all the giggles with codeSpark's The Foos especially when you click on the belly and the character dances a jig when it gets to the end of the puzzle! The characters are cute and relateable. A word to the wise, however, this one does get tricky pretty quickly with loops and repeating functions, so younger friends may need a buddy to help out in a pinch. Still, Students kept wanting more of The Foos - I guess that is a good sign of the program!
And, we can't leave Kodable off the list - this is a program that is played in Centers, during free-time, in the Tech Lab and at home by all our younger Students - online as on their tablets. An account is not necessary, but having one gives more whistles and bells, as well as progress can be saved for later, which is a nice enough feature. Fuzzy friends roll around the puzzle collecting gold coins and more for the younger challenges. For the older player's challenges, they're battling asteroids and bugs in the Bug World, oh my! I like how it shows the coding language in these challenges.
Great programs from exceptional companies - job well done!
