From Procedural Writing To Coding
Recently I was visiting my grandson's first-grade classroom to watch his class present their procedural writing — Julian's book was titled How to Make Scrambled Eggs. After I listened to him read each step I told him that the procedural writing they were doing in class was similar to the coding activities we do during our visits together. His eyes lit up!
On the way out, I mentioned this to his teacher and she invited me to come back as a special guest to introduce this idea to both the first grade and second grade classrooms (My grandson, Oliver, is in second grade in the same school). I was excited to bring one of my STEAM residency
When I was planning the visit, I followed the same design thinking process I use to customize all my STEAM integrated maker/CS residencies. I asked the teachers what their students were currently studying. The first graders were exploring change and cycles. The second graders were working on measurement. I LOVE the challenge of connecting STEAM and CS to curricular content. Soon an idea started buzzing around in my head: bees making honey.
As I was thinking about the change from nectar to honey, it seemed the perfect way to introduce computer science concepts to younger learners. PLUS-- I had access to a fleet of little coding robots that looked like BEES! The journey from flower to honeycomb gave us a chance to understand how an algorithm is a a series of steps where a bee flies to flowers (inputs), collects nectar (data), returns to the hive (processing), passes it bee-to-bee (transformation), fans it dry in the honeycomb (output). Every step matters. Every step is in order. Change the sequence and there's no honey. I couldn't wait to get started designing this lesson.
Why Bee Bots?
I have access to a variety of robots that my grandchildren (and other younger learners) love to code, but I decided on the BeeBots for several reasons:
- Of course, they looked like BEES and provided a strong visual connection to the 'change' process we would explore.
- There was no need to install apps/software/logins. As a guest teacher, I didn't have a relationship with the IT staff in the building, nor was a I familiar with the process that would be required.
- It reduced the 'screen time' element from the lesson. We were working with our hands, our minds, and our manipulatives. We were NOT introducing TWO new elements (software AND a robot we can code).
- The limited time that comes with being a guest teacher, meant that the lesson objectives had to be achievable in a shorter amount of time. (Of course, I hoped to inspire the teachers to explore additional resources I would leave with them about introducing computer science to younger learners.
If you're new to BeeBots , I highly recommend watching this model introductory lesson from Mr. Vacca introduce Coding with BeeBots to first and second graders (7 minutes)
Creating the Read-Aloud and Coding Challenges
I knew I wanted to ground the lesson using a read-aloud. I have been working on designing STEAM and CS residencies. inspired by literature for the past few years, and love to watch students' response to literature. I prompted my AI assistant with just the right information from my evolving lesson plan to come up with a draft story.
After tweaking the draft story to better fit my lesson design, I added some coding challenges that would engage the students while learning computer science concepts. When seeking to engage students with hands on projects, I strike for the those projects to be minds-on experiences where the learning takes place -- not just dessert projects.
Every page has a coding challenge embedded right in it. The goal is for the story to be read aloud, one page at a time, then to have the students experience the coding challenge --not as a worksheet, but as as a puzzle to solve with their robots, right then and there, on a story map spread out on the floor in front of them.
Example from Page 1: Buzz wakes up and wiggles her wings. Challenge: Can you make your BeeBot wiggle — without moving forward? (Students use creative problem solving to discover that left-turn + right-turn = a wiggle.
Creating the Story Map
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I often create a grid using blue painters tape on the classroom floor to use with Bee-Bots. But because this was not my classroom and I had limited time 'in the classroom' I created a half dozen story maps using poster board. First I drew a 3×4 grid where each square is exactly 6 inches, which is exactly one BeeBot step. I pasted story images in each cell: the hive, the old oak tree, the babbling brook, the sunflower patch, the lavender and clover, the pollen field, the marigold garden, additional bees, and the honeycomb.
A 4×3 grid of 6 inch squares fits perfectly on one piece of standard poster board. You can use this PDF to help you construct the story map-- you don't have to lay out the images in the same order. Also, feel free to resize as desired. Make sure to paste the image corners down flat. Even a slightly lifted corner will catch the BeeBot's wheels and throw off the whole path.
Introducing computer science to younger learners
I started the lesson by introducing the concept of computer scientist as a career. I asked students: "Does anyone know what a computer scientist does?. We spent some time talking about ways that computer scientist influence our lives - from video games to practical inventions we use every day.
Research tells us that foundational ideas about who belongs in certain careers begin forming around ages 7 and 8. If students — especially girls and students from underrepresented communities — have never been invited to see themselves as coders, that window begins to close before we even know it was open. A single hour with a BeeBot won't change everything. But it can plant a seed. It can let a child hold a robot and think: I did that. I made it go there. I'm a programmer. This is a career that people like me can choose.
Then I had students try to "program their teacher" — She stood in the middle of the classroom and I asked them to give her directions to reach the tissue box. Just like a robot, she followed their instructions literally. When they said "go forward," she went forward. When they forgot to tell her to turn, she walked in the wrong direction. They learned immediately: computers do exactly what you say, not what you mean. This started to really understand the computer science concept of programming or coding.
Introducing the robots
Before we started the read-aloud of our story, I let the students freely explore how they might get their robot to reach the tissue box (which was still on the floor of their classroom). This quickly turned into a chaotic huddle of students and their robots as they approached the tissue box, but it also filled the room with exciting energy.
To transition to our next activity, I selected a student to demonstrate how to "code" the robot more intentionally and think ahead of the task you wanted the robot to complete.
The Read-Aloud and Coding Challenge
As we prepared for the Read-Aloud, I distributed a poster board/story map to each group of 4 students. Two pairs of students (previously assigned by their teacher) worked on each map simultaneously — one student physically coded the robot, while the other planned and verbally directed the next move. I reminded the students to switch roles frequently. This kept everyone engaged and gave each student meaningful time with the robot.
Before we started our read-aloud, we practiced a classroom signal for each student to STOP, TURN OFF the ROBOT, and LISTEN for the next instruction. We practiced this a few times, since I knew that transitioning from "freely coding your robot" to LISTENING to the next page in the read-aloud might the tricky part of my lesson design.
Introducing CS Concepts and Vocabulary
I was intentional about introducing computer science vocabulary throughout — but always anchored to what students were already doing. Here's how some CS concept appeared naturally in the lesson:
Algorithm sounds like a big word, but the students loved saying it and quickly understood it to mean a series of steps that you can repeat to achieve a tasks.
Sequencing was everywhere. Every time a student planned a path from one story stop to another, they were sequencing. I kept returning to the procedural writing connection: "You know how Julian's scrambled eggs recipe wouldn't work if you cracked the eggs after you cooked them? Same thing here. Order matters."
Debugging became the most powerful mindset shift of the day. When a BeeBot veered off the poster board instead of toward the sunflower, I didn't let students feel like they'd failed. I said: "You just found a bug. That means you're a real programmer." By the end of the session, students were using the word "debug" naturally instead of 'its not working."
With the help of my AI assistance, I created some additional resources to help both teachers and students gain confidence with Computer Science Concepts and Vocabulary. You might, also, want to experiment with a Bee-Bot Emulator on our interactive white board as an additional station.
CS Concepts and Vocabulary Cards can be used by both teachers and students to gain confidence with computer science.
Adding measurement skills
For second graders, the BeeBot provided an opportunity to practice using the measurement skills they had been learning. Make sure to have rulers or measuring tapes handy as you ask questions like: "How far does the robot move when you code it to GO forward. How wide is each square on the storymap? " After completing a path, students counted how many squares their robot had traveled, then measured and calculated the total distance in inches. Some pairs compared two different routes between the same stops and asked: which is shorter?
What I'd Do Again (And What I'd Tweak)
Programming the teacher first grounded the abstract idea of "giving a machine instructions" in something students already understood from their own bodies and daily language.
Letting students play freely with the BeeBot before the story began — "can you get it to the tissue box?" — built confidence that made the structured coding activity feel safe to attempt.
Following the Mr. Vacca model lesson, I asked a student (my grandson Julian, who'd been practicing) to demonstrate coding the BeeBot for his classmates. Peer modeling worked better than I expected.
I photocopied coding planning worksheets for each students, but ended up not using them during our limited time together. I decided to not interrupt the exploratory flow of the creative problem solving that accompanied each coding challenge. Instead I recommend that the classroom teacher use these planning sheets during a followup activity to review, reinforce, and reflect the computational thinking process that the students experienced. Not using the planning sheets on the first day is more inline with constructivist learning. However, I do feel that using them during a follow up session provides our younger learners an opportunity for deeper learning and metacognition.
Everything You Need to Try This
I've packaged everything from this lesson so another teacher can pick it up and run with it. You don't need to be a CS expert. You don't need to have done this before. You need a BeeBot (or two), a piece of poster board, and a desire to let your students explore the joy of computational thinking.
Lesson Resources
- Buzz and the Honey Journey — Read-Aloud StoryAn illustrated read-aloud with a coding challenge embedded on every page. Print as a booklet or display on a screen.
- BeeBot Story Map — 3×4 Grid (Poster Board)A landscape-format map with 5 numbered story stops, decorative landmarks, coordinate labels, a legend, and a BeeBot button reference. Print landscape, mount on poster board. Each cell = 6 inches.
- BeeBot Coding Cards — Full SetSequencing, loop, debug, algorithm, event, and decision cards — each tied to the honey journey story. Includes a teacher guide explaining how and when to use each card type, plus key discussion questions.
- 90-Minute Lesson Plan Lesson Sequence, timeline, objectives, NGSS + ISTE standards alignment, vocabulary table with kid-friendly definitions, differentiation strategies, and formative assessment prompts.
🐝 Thank you to Ms. Manolis and Ms. Gargiulo and their first and second graders in NYC public schools for iniviting me into their classroom to introduce computer science to them.
You don't need to be a computer science teacher to teach computer science. You just need a story worth following, a robot worth coding, and the belief that every child in your classroom is already a computational thinker — they just haven't been told yet.
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