Introduction to Programming using Small Basic - (KS2-KS3) - Lesson 1

A free introductory lesson (part of a series) on Small Basic programming. This worksheet introduces simple programming concepts in a fun and visual way by using the 'Turtle' to draw shapes.

I used these lessons with Year 7 and 8, and they were very popular with pupils as well as colleagues who used them in their own lessons. Now that primary pupils are being introduced to computing principles much earlier on, I think these lessons would also be suitable for KS2 pupils.

I think the key to success is encouraging pupils to be creative and experiment with the commands they learn in these lessons. Before you know it they will be making all sorts of shapes and discoveries of what else can be done.

This could follow on from use of 'Bee-Bots' or other similar tools pupils will be familiar with from KS1, or could be used independently to get pupils interested in the use of a text-based programming language.

Small Basic is a good choice of programming language for KS2 or KS3 as there are very few commands to learn, yet quite advanced programmes can be designed.

Further lessons will be available for a small cost that follow the style of this lesson but introduce programming concepts including loops to repeat commands , subroutines (like 'teaching' the language a new command, e.g. to make it draw a square whenever you type 'square'), and even how to interact with the mouse (e.g. draw a square wherever the mouse is clicked).

I have included a PDF and Word version as you may need to edit the first paragraph about how to open Small Basic (depending where it is located on your school computers), and a zip file containing an example of a solution to an extension 'challenge task'.