It’s always exciting to hear someone somewhere has enjoyed reading your book, and no less when it’s a teacher sharing your creation with their class.

But when Andrew got in touch from Our Lady of Hartley Primary School there was even more to smile about; Andrew had used ‘Aerodynamics of Biscuits‘ to develop and enhance his teaching of Computing, which is an area I hadn’t used personally before.

Andrew is a Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) in ICT and together we have created these lesson plans and activities for you to use at home and in schools.

Andrew has also developed some programming challenges using Scratch.

Why not follow the links below and have a try?

 

PROGRAMMING AND USING ALGORITHMS WITH SCRATCH

Challenge 1 – Can you program the Jolly Dodger to fly to the moon? (Y1/2/3)

Using ‘move’ blocks, can you program the Jolly Dodger so that it travels to the moon? Extension – Can you use a repeat loop in your code?

Challenge 2 – Can you program the Jolly Dodger to fly to the moon and then back to Planet Earth? (Y2/Y3/Y4)

Can you program the Jolly Dodger to travel to the moon, turn around and travel back to Earth?

Challenge 3 – Can you debug the code? (Y2/Y3/Y4)

The Jolly Dodger needs to go to the moon. Wait ten seconds and then fly and back to Planet Earth. Oliver and Captain McSqueaky have all of the right code but it’s in the wrong order. Can you help them by debugging the code?

Challenge 4 – Can you program the Jolly Dodger to fly to the moon and back to Earth (diagonal)? (Y4/Y5/Y6)

Can you program the Jolly Dodger to fly to the moon, turn around and then fly back to Earth?

Challenge 5 – Can you debug the code? (diagonal) (Y4/5/6)

The Jolly Dodger needs to go to the moon without using the ‘glide to’ function. Oliver and Captain McSqueaky have all of the right code but it’s in the wrong order. Can you help them by debugging the code?

Here are even more suggestions:

IDEAS FOR COMPUTING (with thanks to Andrew Baldock, SLE)

Create a stop-motion animation that portrays a scene from this story.

Create a trailer for the book using video editing software.

Design a poster using publishing software to promote the book to other children.

Use a green screen and internet device to superimpose a model or prop into space.

Computing is a large part of the National Curriculum now, so we really hope you find these activities and plans useful. Please get in touch and let us know if you did!

A big, rocket sized ‘thank you’ goes to Andrew and his pupils for kickstarting this exciting adventure. And also to Sophia and Maverick Books for their permission to use the story’s images in this way.

Further teaching ideas and lesson plans can be found here , including some exciting activities for English, Maths, Science, DT and History.