This afternoon in the AT&T Classroom the Streetsboro second graders had their first coding lesson using the Daisy the Dinosaur iPad app. Daisy the Dinosaur is designed to introduce children to the basic elements of coding through a challenge mode and a free play mode. The challenge mode tutorial shows the student how to use drag-and-drop steps to make the dinosaur move, jump, shrink and grow. There is also a free play mode in which children can design their own program to animate Daisy. 
Later this afternoon the second graders learned to use ABCya Story Maker a free web-based writing and design platform that students can use to draw pictures and then write text to describe their scene and create a story. ABCya Story Maker offers a variety of drawing tools that can be used for creating the pictures. Story projects can encompass one page or multiple pages. Finished story projects can be printed and saved. This past week the second graders used ABCya Story Maker for a writing assignment about what they want to be when they grow-up. The second graders used the platform’s drawing tools to add an illustration to accompany their written text.
