Summer Lesson - Packing for a Picnic
Lesson Overview
Students will be helping Marty to pack for a picnic in this summer lesson plan. Using Scratch, students will program Marty to move around a board and select the correct ingredients based on the picnic packing list that the students have. They will need to think about planning a route for Marty to take as well as breaking down what ingredients are needed!
- Scratch, Movement , Ingredients , Functions, Loops, Turning,
Content Sections
Summer Lesson - Packing for a Picnic
Lesson Overview
Students will be helping Marty to pack for a picnic in this summer lesson plan. Using Scratch, students will program Marty to move around a board and select the correct ingredients based on the picnic packing list that the students have. They will need to think about planning a route for Marty to take as well as breaking down what ingredients are needed!
- Scratch, Movement , Ingredients , Functions, Loops, Turning,
- Lessons 1.2, 1.5, 1.6, 1.12
- Laptop, PC or Tablet
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- Marty the Robot
- Laptops/Computers/Tablets
- Access to Scratch (X or 3)
- Game board or paper and tape to create your own
- Paper and pencils to draw food ingredients
- Scissors to cut out the food ingredients
- Paper and pencils to write out picnic lists
- Activity tutorial for the Packing for a Picnic game
Learning Objectives
- Plan a route for Marty to take around a game board
- Break down the picnic list into a detailed list of ingredients needed
- Program Marty’s movements thinking about not only walking forwards but other ways to move around (like sliding, turning, backwards steps)
1. Ask students to write down a list of food that they would want to pack for a picnic, including food that requires more than one ingredient (e.g. cheese sandwiches)
2. Students should form small groups of 2/3 people (each group should have access to one Marty)
3. Setup the game board either using the board layout provided or by making your own using paper/tape and demonstrate to students how big each square on the board is
4. In their groups, students should draw some of the ingredients needed to make up their picnic list (where each ingredient will fit into a single game board square)
a. For a cheese sandwich, students might want to draw bread, butter and cheese!
5. Two teams can play at a time and students from other groups will be needed to help decide what they should pack for the picnic!
a. Place two Marty’s at opposite sides of the board
b. Ask students who are currently not competing in the game topic k some items that they want the teams to collect for the picnic (not individual ingredients but foods like cheese sandwiches!)
c. The student teams should then program their Martys to get towards the ingredients needed – students should take turns one at a time to run a block of code and the first one to touch the ingredient wins that one
d. Once all of the required ingredients have been gathered, the team who can make up most of the picnic list wins!
6. Teams and other students should discuss how they could have made their route/plan better!
Extensions & Support
- If students go to collect an ingredient not needed for the picnic list, then they should miss a turn
- Make sure that the food students are collecting require 2 or more ingredients to make them
- Ask students to run their scripts at the same time and see who can collect them all first!
Additional Reading
- Educator’s Guide
- Introduction to Programming with Marty using Scratch
- Activity tutorial for the Packing for a Picnic game