Kindercoding Unplugged - by Deanna Pecaski McLennan (Paperback)

About the Book

More than 80 screen-free, Reggio-inspired coding games and activities for the kindergarten classroom.

Book Synopsis

Kindergarten teacher Deanna Pecaski McLennan, PhD, takes readers on a journey through her own kindergarten classroom and how she's actively cultivating computational thinking in her students through a Reggio Emilia lens and emergent curriculum. Using photos, vignettes, narrative, and more than eighty unplugged coding activities, this book will help readers better understand what coding is and how they can begin to implement easy and developmentally appropriate coding games and activities into their early childhood programs.

Review Quotes

"These pages are full of inspiring ideas, emergent activities, authentic vignettes, classroom photographs, and 'unplugged' provocations about screen-free activities to nudge your thinking about what coding and computational thinking is, and can be, in your classroom. Deanna encourages you to become a co-learner with your children at the intersection of constructivist theory, the Reggio Emilia approach, screen-free coding ideas, the computational thinking process, collaboration and creation that inform her practice and pedagogy." --Chip Donohue, PhD, principal, Donohue and Associates, founding director, Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center at Erikson Institute, senior fellow and advisor, Fred Rogers Center

"Kindercoding Unplugged is a must read for all kindergarten teachers. After reading this book, you will feel comfortable and familiar with the basics of coding and how to build on children's natural interests and play experiences. Kindercoding Unplugged offers dozens of coding games and activities that children will love and will help them enhance their inquiry and computational thinking skills. This book makes a great addition to any Kindergarten classroom and equips teachers with the skills and classroom strategies needed to prepare our twenty-first century learners." --Jean Barbre, EdD, award-winning author of Baby Steps to STEM

"In Kindercoding Unplugged, Deanna Pecaski McLennan beautifully demonstrates that our goal, as teachers, is not to teach children to code but to teach them to think. Pecaski McLennan expertly guides us through her insights and reflections based on direct classroom experience. She provides inspiration, activities, and anecdotes that will lead to rich teaching and learning experiences." --Ann Gadzikowski, director of early learning for Encyclopedia Britannica, and award-winning author of Robotics for Young Children

About the Author

Deanna Pecaski McLennan is a full-day kindergarten teacher based in Ontario, Canada. She has a PhD in educational studies and is an expert member of NAEYC's Teaching Young Children's advisory board. Deanna has authored more than a dozen journal articles for Early Childhood Education Journal and Teaching Young Children, among others.