Ask students to think up additional rules for the game that they could use

Get students to design some different boards for Marty to move around, maybe even a small maze!

Design, cut out and build 3D models for the game

Plan a route for Marty to take, thinking about where the presents are and things to avoid

Create a program that will help them to direct Marty towards the presents and away from Percy

In this lesson, students will be faced with the challenge of planning and programming Marty to find presents that have gone missing in Santa’s workshop to help Marty save Christmas. Students must also take in account whilst planning, Percy the Penguin who will try and take away some of the found presents to re-hide them again!

2. Hand out present and sleigh cut out and fold worksheets either one per group or one per student

a. Colour in and design your own sleigh and presents (ask student groups to do specific coloured presents so that we have groups of different coloured presents)

b. Then cut out, fold and stick edges together using either glue or tape

3. Attach the sleigh to Marty using string, getting students to think about where and how this should be attached

a. Get students to try different positions and ways of attaching the sleigh to Marty then ask them to test it out by programming Marty to take a few different steps to see how the sleigh moves with him

4. Get students to build and test some remote-control programs so that when you click on a certain sprite or type a specific action then that controls Marty’s movements

5. Set up the game board using either the grid provided or by asking students to come up with small obstacle courses/mazes using tape or pen and paper

a. Randomly place some of the presents around the board and some Percy the Penguins

6. Ask the student group to collect the GREEN (or whatever colour) presents on the board and return to the same space that they started on

a. Ask other students to help referee, for example, to keep an eye on whether Marty bumps into Percy then steal one present from the sleigh and place it somewhere else on the board

b. Students may be timed to see which group does this the fastest

7. After students have completed the challenge, ask them to reflect on how they did and what they would have done differently

Introduction to Programming with Marty using Scratch/Python (depending on which language is being used in the lesson)

Access to either Scratch or Python editor

Either the movement board or design your own using pen & paper or tape

Percy Penguin

Build Present

Build Sleigh

Instructions

Movement Board

Christmas Lesson - Marty Saves Christmas

Students could edit their videos to add in some different sounds or additional images

Make it more challenging by saying that students have to use one specific prop like a magnifying glass so that has to feature in the story and planning

Write a short story/play featuring Marty and Christmas

Program Marty to act out the story using different props

Students will be given the chance to write a short festive story featuring Marty as the star of the show. With the scripts ready, Marty will take stage with the help of his coding friends to act out the story that can be recorded and shared with the whole class later!

1. Break the class up into small groups of 2-3 that will be working as a team to write, program and record the story

2.Student groups write a small story/play using the Storyboard worksheet to plan out their story and Marty’s movements

3.Have half of the group work on props like speech bubbles and other objects while the other group plan and program Marty’s movements throughout the story

4.Show time! 1 student will be in charge of recording the story while the others manage tasks like moving props around, making sure to run the correct code blocks at the right time (get students to pick roles that they want to take up!)

Storyboard

Bubbles

Christmas Lesson - Marty's Christmas Tale

• What other songs could students recreate with this setup? (Music/Technologies/Numeracy) 

• What other instruments could be added to the setup? Drums? Boomwhackers? (Music/Technologies/Numeracy) 

• Include functions into the program to play different repeating sections of a song (Music/Technologies)

• Breakdown classic Christmas songs and consider where repetition happens 

• Code a sequence of different musical notes in time with the song

Create or grab some musical instruments and code Marty to play your favourite Christmas carols by breaking down these classic songs into sections that can be played by each student group. Build up your musical robot group by adding more instruments!

1. Class discussion of what an orchestra is and the different roles played within one 

2. With the selected set of instruments, break students into groups to explore how they can code Marty to play the instruments 

3. Student groups should research different Christmas songs that they could code Marty to play with the instruments by analysing the musical notes required to play each song and checking if they could replicate this with their class set-up 

4. Either working as a class or small groups (depending on how many Marty’s and instruments you have) begin to sequence the different notes that need to be played and code them to happen in time one after the other 

5. Encouraging students to make small changes and frequently testing their programs and set aside some time at the end of the lesson to demonstrate the full song from the whole class/different groups

• Example of our Marty orchestra using bells

Marty the Robots (number will depend on songs and instruments being used)

 • Access to compatible devices connected to Marty on Scratch/Python 

• Instruments for Marty to play (e.g. bells)

Cards, Curriculum & Solutions

Christmas Lesson - Marty Christmas Orchestra

To make things even trickier, only show the student teams the challenge card once for a few seconds and ask them to try and remember which symbols they need to collect!

Ask students how they would improve the game or what changes they would make, get them to plan this (using our game planning worksheet) and test it with other students in the class

lan a route for Marty to take around a game board, taking into consideration the symbols that they want to pick up and what other obstacles may be in the way

Program Marty to carry out this plan and reflect on the plan afterwards to think about how they could improve their approach

In this festive lesson, students will split up into teams and race each other to collect more symbols than the other team that have been randomly placed on the game board. Students will need to plan out a route taking into consideration how close the symbols are that they want and what other obstacles may be in the way before programming Marty to follow this route.

1. Setup the game board either using the board/mat layout provided or by making your own using paper/tape. Randomly place some or all of the symbols on different spaces around the board

2. Break class up into teams of around 3-4 students, each with their own Marty

3. Two teams at a time can play so you can either have multiple boards around the classroom or one that everyone watches and takes turns playing on

a. Place the two Marty’s at opposite sides of the board

b. Ask students to take some time to test and work out how many steps it will take their Marty to get from one space to another or how many steps certain turns will take that they might want to use

4. Show teams the selected challenge card (either starting with 1 symbol cards to practice, working your way up to 5 symbol cards or doing a random mix of any of the cards)

5. Give them 10-15 minutes to prepare, thinking about what route they are going to take and programming Marty to carry out that route

6. Game time! Both teams start up their scripts at the same time and see who can collect the most symbols from the challenge card

a. You might want to ask additional students to act as referees to make sure that both of Marty’s feet are on the space before collecting the symbol

7. Ask students to reflect on how their team did afterwards – what went well and what didn’t? Is there anything that they would change?

Game board or tape/paper to make your own

Symbols cut out to be placed on the board

Rules & Instructions

Game Board Print Guide

Symbols

Challenge cards

Christmas Lesson - Marty's Winter Race

How fast can students collect all the snow from their town? (Technologies/Numeracy)

Research other ways our Marty scoop to help local communities? (Technologies/Social Studies/Literacy)

Design an attachment for Marty to scoop snow with

Consider the best practices for clearing snow from roads using robots

Code Marty to move around the streets and collect 

Snow can be great but can also cause several problems for traffic and transport. Students will be tasked with the challenge to design and code Marty to clear the streets of snow so that everyone can get out and buses can start running again!

1. Ask students what happens when it snows a lot (paying attention to how their daily routines and in particular transportation)

2. Since it’s difficult to keep roads clear when it is snowing, we are going to design and code our own snow patrol robot

3. In small groups, students should use A3 paper to design an area of a town with roads and houses for Marty to walk around and collect snow from using cotton wool balls as snow on the roads (reminding students they will need to think where in their town the collected snow should go)

4. Using cardboard, tape and scissors, ask groups to design a scoop that Marty can carry around to collect the snow on the road

5. Ask students to try testing out their design on the A3 paper that has roads and snow on and hopefully they should realise that the built-in walk command on Scratch moves Marty’s arms which may not work with their scoop design

6. Students should code their own walking function (see Lesson 1.13 for more details on this) before testing how much snow they can collect now and discuss how efficient their snow collecting system is

Access to compatible devices connected to Marty on Scratch/Python

Christmas Lesson - Snow Patrol Party

Could you add a small incline for Marty to ski down? (Technologies/Sciences)

What other winter sports could we code Marty to take part in? Curling? Ice hockey? (Technologies/Literacy) 

How could you use less lines of code in your skiing program? (Technologies/Numeracy)

Design and build skis for Marty that are functional and fit for purpose

Evaluate ski designs to improve the prototype

Code Marty to slide along the table by breaking down the individual movements

In this lesson, students are tasked with creating a cross country skiing robot using Marty where they will need to design and build skis and code Marty to slide along the table to win gold at your robot winter olympics. Students will need to consider how Marty moves to influence the design of the skis and poles.

1. Reveal today’s topic as the Winter Olympics with a class discussion on what kind of sports they think are involved in this and what sports they think that robots could possibly do

2. Show students the video from the world’s first robot ski tournament and discuss whether they think Marty could do this

3. In small teams, students are tasked with designing and building some skis and poles for Marty along with the design criteria that they should fit Marty and be functional for skiing along a table (students may find it useful to do some research into what skis and poles typically look like)

4. Once students are happy with their first prototype, discuss how Marty should move to ski - they might want to think about how they broke down the walking command in Lesson 1.13 and what they would change to code Marty to slide instead of step

5. Encourage students to test out their design and programs and make changes to their designs afterwards

6. Near the end of the lesson, bring all the student groups together to test out their designs in a small race and a discussion on what kind of designs work well and what doesn’t work well

Video of the World’s First Robot Ski Tournament

Cardboard/paper/materials to make skis and poles

Cello-tape/bluetac to attach skis to Marty

Learning Portal

Christmas Lesson Plans & Resources

Lesson Pack Overview