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How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk tells the story from young Pearl’s point of view of how she teaches her robot, Pascal, to code a sandcastle.
Themes: summer, STEM, robotics, persistence
Here are a few ways to maximize the use of this text as a read aloud to support a variety of literacy-based skills.
BEFORE READING
Activate prior knowledge. What do you know about building a sandcastle? What do they know about robots? Have they ever heard of the term coding?
DURING READING
What is the setting and who are the characters?
Why hasn’t Pearl been successful in building a sandcastle all summer?
What is a code and what problems does it solve?
What does it mean to be “specific with instructions”?
WhenPearl tells Pascal it is time to take a break, which meaning of the word break is she referring to?
Discuss the challenges Pearl faces trying to code a sandcastle.
What are the following coding terms mean?: sequence, loop, and if-then-else?
Sequence the steps for coding a sandcastle. List the materials and the steps taken to complete this project. Which comes first, next, then, after, and finally? (Build a moat; fill, dump, and repeat; gather sand; shape and decorate; find the right spot) This activity can be done orally, or for writing practice, completed as a writing activity with illustration.
AFTER READING
If you could choose anything to code, what would it be? What would you need? How would you do it?
For phonics work, focus on long o spelling patterns. Use these words from the text: moat, code, robot, & know. Discuss where the long o sound is heard in the word and its corresponding spelling pattern. Which other words have the same spelling patterns for this sound?
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