I can’t even remember what circuitous route I followed on the internet the other day that landed me on the Trinket site. Two things piqued my interest about it: that it offers some Hour of Code tutorials, and that it works on any browser with no downloads required.
You can sign up for Trinket for free. However, you don’t even need to do that to try out one of the Hour of Code tutorials. You can just click on the Hour of Python link and get started. I definitely think it’s a good option for my older students. There is a lot of reading involved, so I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone below 3rd grade – and really 4th grade and up is better, depending on the ability level of your students. These tutorials might also be good for students who try other activities during the Hour of Code, and want to pursue coding independently. They also work well for teachers-who-know-practically-nothing-about-coding (or so I hear).
If you aren’t sure what I mean by Hour of Code, here is the post I did about it last week. If you’re looking for something that you can use with your younger students, check out yesterday’s post (and the Hour of Code site, which has ideas for all levels of age and experience – including activities that require no devices). And, if you want to find other resources for Programming for Kids, here is my Pinterest Board with tons of links.
