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3 Coding Games to Learn Shapes and Geometry with a Cool Coding Toy

3 Coding Games to Learn Shapes and Geometry with a Cool Coding Toy post image

Can you teach shapes and geometry with computer coding games? Today I am excited to share a new coding toy that I used to just do that. Teaching kids Coding has become a popular topic nowadays. We all know today’s kids will grow up into a new world that computers and robots are essential parts of life. Even if they don’t want to be a programmer to write computer codes, it is important to understand how programs and coding work, so the world is less mysterious and they will feel more empowered in their life. Since coding is in so many different aspects of life and used in so many different fields of work, it is a wonderful idea to embed coding in all subjects in kids learning today. That’s why I love Sphero Edu program. With the new design, the newly updated coding toy can be used in so many different subjects, and shapes and geometry is just one of them.

Coding Games for kids to learn Shapes and Geometry with a cool coding toy, for preschool to grade 6. Great for hour of code, math center or homeschool

With the SPRK+ Robot, kids can code in 3 ways: Draw, Blocks, Text. I am showing here one example of each.

Game Set Up:

Use the floor measuring tape (provided in the Sphero package) to mark on the floor the shape kids are learning. We created a triangle and a square. Make sure you have all the measures, like the length of the edges and the angles. It is nice Sphero also provides a protractor to measure angles.

Game Objective:

To write / draw a code for the SPRK+ Robot ball to follow the shape marked by the tape as closely as possible. We put LEGO pieces at certain spots on the shapes for kids to hit with the SPRK+ Robot ball.

Coding Game 1: Command by Drawing

For young children, who have none previous coding experience, drawing is a great way for them to learn shapes and to experience the wonder of robots taking instruction from coding commands. One of the features come with the free Sphero app is coding by drawing. Kids can easily draw the shape as the route they want the Sphero ball to move and watch the path the robot travels on the ground, and later on the iPad screen through the Sphero app‘s recording feature.

Drawing itself is easy, but drawing as coding that the robot can actually follow is not necessarily as easy as it looks. Our first try was a total failure, as the ball traveled twice the distance as the size we wanted it to.

Things to consider when drawing the path besides the geometric shapes:

The smoothness of the surface: the ball will function differently on hard wood floor vs. carpet.

How leveled the floor surface is: we learned quickly that the robot definitely is much more sensitive than our human’s senses, and we need adjust the lines that going up-slope a little longer than lines going down slope. Since the robot can sense a very tiny difference that we can’t, we ended up adjusting by trial and error.

Robot orientation alignment: each time before running the code, you should align the robot with your code. The instruction is in the free app. We also talked about reference system and perspectives in our coding game series too.

After several adjustments, we were able to have the robot travel along the line pretty well.

Coding Games for beginner kids to learn Shapes and Geometry, fun Sphero activity for preschool to grade 6, girls and boys. Great for hour of code, math center or homeschool

Coding Game 2: Command with Block Codes

Block code is for kids who know basic concepts of coding, but are not ready for real line codes. They can drag and connect coding blocks, and the program will translate the blocks into JavaScript codes. This is a great transition stage. Kids can learn coding concepts without worrying about the detailed codes, which could be very tedious.

With the coding blocks, kids can define the traveling length by code parameters, such as the time the robot moves, and the speed it moves.

Kids also need have better understanding of each shape to write the parameters. For a square, they need specify the angles to be 90-degree different from the last edge the robot rolls over. For equal lateral triangle, the angles need be 60 degrees. This is a good practice of perspective thinking skill

Things to Consider when commanding by Block Code:

In addition to all the factors mentioned under Drawing Code, kids need consider the relationship between time, speed, and distance.

Additionally, the angles in the code may not necessarily the angle of the shape, depending the reference direction. For example, if the first line of the square is going at 90 degree in the code, the 2nd line should go with 180 degree or 0 degree depending the alignment between robot and app device.

Coding Games for beginner kids to learn Shapes and Geometry, fun Sphero activity for preschool to grade 6, girls and boys. Great for hour of code, math center or homeschool

Coding Game 3: Text Coding

For kids who are ready to write JavaScript codes, they can use the line code section. One thing to note is even kids are using drawing and code block, after they run the program, the app automatically translates they drawing code and block code into line code. Kids can learn JavaScript code from these examples that they are already familiar with.

To start, kids can play around simply by changing parameters in the auto-translated codes. Via changing small parts of already working codes, they can see how line codes structure and function. When they are ready, they can write the code directly in the line code section without using drawing or block codes.

For more coding activities, please visit DIY Coding Camp at Home. You will find a series of 5 printable coding games teaching kids 5 crucial coding skills. Just print the game on paper, no computer needed.

For more coding toys, check out 15 Best Coding Toys for Kids

You may also like 11 Off-Screen Activities for Kids to Learn Computer Coding

coding camp for kids at home
program coding learning toys for kids
kids activities to learn computer coding without computers

For more STEM Activities, visit 28 days of STEAM Challenge.

STEAM Activities

{ 87 comments… add one }
  • TechyKids Canada

    The benefits of coding for kids are not just limited to a great career. It can help them to develop many skill useful not just in school but also in life. In your article you have shared an interesting way to make shapes and geometry easy for kids through coding games. Must say, it’s useful and was a good read. Thanks for sharing!

  • Leela

    Teaching shapes sounds great!

  • Tabathia B

    My daughter likes the maze

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

  • Audrey Stewart

    The girls said they would love to do the maze first. This is a great product.

  • Mary West

    My son thinks the water rescue looks like fun!

  • Leah Shumack

    My daughter would probably want to do a maze first! lshumack at gmail dot com

  • Miranda Ward

    The maze activity looks awesome!!!

  • LIza Vladyka

    not sure if answer you want but my daughter <3 the lighting race car

  • kelly woods

    the drawing one- how cool is this, thank you

  • Casey Mclendon

    I love that there are things to do for different ages! My son Logan is 10 he’d love the maze and water one but for Lucas and Landyn they would love the shapes and spelling!

  • jeremy mclaughlin

    Would like to try the maze.

  • Natalie

    I love the drawing feature

  • elizabeth miller

    My daughter really wants to use it to learn java script for text coding and writing new games.

  • Mary Beth Elderton

    Drawing sounds like awesome fun–not just for the littlest, but for the middle size kid, too.

  • Latanya

    the maze mayhem

  • Gabrielly

    We would love to try the maze.

  • Amber Cheras

    My family would love to try the water rescue first!

  • Audra

    My daughter would like to navigate a maze

  • Sally Gearhart

    I think he would enjoy the water rescue and he would love to draw as well. These are really cool toys and thanks for sharing!

  • Tina Mccrummen

    My daughter wants to use it to draw, and my son wants to use it in the water. They are both super excited!

  • Michelle Levine

    My kids would love to try the maze.

  • Dee

    My nieces would love to try the Water Rescue first. Thanks for the chance! 🙂

  • Margaret S Porter

    We would try the bridge activity first. This looks like a great way to teach my grands

  • Kathryn Hyatt

    I think we would all enjoy the Water Rescue

  • Katrina Brockavich

    My son wants to try the bridge activity first. Everything looks so fun!

  • Katherine S

    My kids would love to do the maze first. Thanks for the chance

  • Katherine Span

    My kids would love to do the maze first. Thanks for the chance

  • Rachelle Thomson

    He says the maze!

  • Heather D

    My kids saw a Sphero about a month ago and have been asking me for one. I think they would enjoy that the most. They have a pretty cool selection of other toys too.

  • Christina Graham

    My daughter wants to use it to draw and my son says the maze.

  • Ellie Wright

    I think my boys would like to do the maze first.

  • Jennifer L

    The drawing shapes activity

  • Stephanie

    I think we would like the Water Rescue one. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to try.

  • Candace Miller

    The maze would be a great starter game for my 7 year old.

  • monique s

    Would use Sphero with drawing shapes and spelling the kids would love it

  • Cami Valenzuela

    My son says drawing. They say it would be fun and different.

  • Abigail

    My kids declared that really really want to try painting and drawing with sphero!!!

  • Elizabeth Newsome

    I think Water Rescue would be a lot of fun!

  • Tina West

    Hello! After taking his time and studying each of the pictured activities quite intently, my autistic 7 yr old decided that he would not do one of the pictured activities. Instead, he would combine the water boat race and the articulating spider looking maching to create his own contraption in order to go across the water with the device! Im not exactly sure what design his wonderful little mind has in store, but his creativity and inginuity is amazing!

  • Nancy Bowers

    My grandson would love the drawing activities.

  • RACHELLE ANDERSON

    We would love to do the block coding. My husband has wanted to get one for the kids forever!

  • Megan Evans

    This looks so fun! We would start out with shapes or spelling.

  • Sunnie

    I didn’t look at the activities, but they have a lot of great resources! I saw the Pixar car on the news where I live! The dvious robot looks cool!

  • Geebers

    My son and I would go straight to drawing pathways for a bb8 droid, amazing!

  • Vicki

    The maze look amazing. I will add color too!

  • Beth

    We will try the bridge first, since we are doing a bridge challenge now.

  • Shennon

    I don’t know what to pick first!! In my preschool classroom I would probably do the drawing one to start out and then ask the kiddos what else they think we could do. Then take that list, hang it up and go through each one while documenting the results. At the end we can vote on which was the most successful and why as well as what new things we learned.

    • Drawing definitely is a good starting place for preschool kids.

  • Sheenah Pedersen

    This looks amazing! My kids would love to learn with fun tools like this!

  • Rita

    Our school would love to be able to have the opportunity for a coding toy , our students would learn so much!!!

    Sincerely
    Rita

    • There are so much kids can learn from it. I love all the teaching ideas people put out there.

  • Maciorowski Erin

    We have Dash and dot but would be fun to combine the two!
    I would love to explore using the robot in the water.
    Maybe to create a water monitor sampling machine?

    • Oh I’d love to hear more about the water sampling machine idea.

  • Jennifer Doyle

    We would use Sphero with drawing shapes and spelling!

    • We had great time with shapes. Spelling sounds like a fun idea.

  • Laurie Banks

    My kids would love to see if they can figure out how to do all the letters of the alphabet, in cursive and print. This is a great way to learn angles and measurement, by playing!

  • Adriana

    What a great toy! So many teaching/learning possibilities. I would love to get one of these to share with students.

  • Eva Griffin

    This looks very cool! I am not very familiar with Sphero, but there’s no doubt the kids will love it. Thanks so much for sharing.

  • Obaynne

    Wow! Fabulous giveaway! We will be into the block coding aspect but honestly I think I’ll just enjoy having them play around with all the different aspects of this and see what they learn from it all. See what inspires them.

  • Katie

    I love the drag and drop blocks coding!

  • Smita

    I would love to do Draw writing with inspirational words. Personally would love to try Hydro-Hypothesis as the students and my kids love water play. This would be a great way to teach children science and fun.

  • Claire

    My preps would love this! Creating a maze around the classroom that it has to follow! Getting excited just thinking about it!

    • It is exciting. I have so many ideas running in my head and can’t decide which one to try first.

  • lola

    Funny one.this way of learning will attractive my daughter and she will not feel boring

  • rebecca

    I really wish I could learn to code…..via game!

  • Dini Wulansari

    Looks a lot of fun
    We (me and my girl, haha) want to do all the activities. Guess we better start with the loop activity since it look familiar with the an hour code class we did earlier (we did some through our android play store).
    Hope we can win this amazing toy since it not available here in Indonesia.
    Thank you for the opportunity to win this toy.
    Regrads from us all here..

  • Denise Touchberry

    The kids would love to make a replica of our local Science Museum and have Sphero visit the exhibits. Great learning experience.

  • Catherine

    This looks awesome! I have a whole troop of girl scouts who would love to make a maze for this.

  • Nicole H

    I bet my daughter would love Maze Mayhem and then she’d want to try the Planetary Motion activity. The drawing shapes activity looks awesome, too.

    • It will be neat to add real paint to have them draw the path on paper.

  • The Sphero City game looks like so much fun!

  • My kids want to navigate Sphero through a maze by drawing.

    • I think that is most amazing feature they added for the younger kids. It sparks the wildest imagination for them, and inspire kids from a young age to do something cool.

  • Ashley Moore

    Mine had the chance to paint with one a couple weeks ago at art camp, and they loved it. I think they would love the light painting or the maze!

  • Sandra Modersohn

    It would be super fun to do that bridge activity. LOTS of STEM learning going on there! ♥ Thanks so much for this fun write up and excellent review of this learning toy. I’m looking into it even more for our local homeschool group. It looks like this could be a seriously fun class to run! THANK YOU!

    • It will be a great teaching tool for a homeschool group. Now that I have started, I am trying to add it to all the learning activities.

  • Tricia Louis

    Would love to do something with a maze – or building a bridge for the sphero – FUN!

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