Computing & ICT Lesson Plans for the Primary School

This book was randomly recommended to me on Amazon, and I was so thrown by the idea of computing lessons for kids so young that I had to give it a try. Sure, that’s valuable information, but isn’t it a bit too soon?I’m happy to say my opinion has dramatically altered. This book makes an incredibly strong argument for why children of this next generation absolutely need this in their curriculum. We had to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic in school – but how often do I interact with computers, and how many times have I had to use algebra? Yeah. Computing is the new main topic the education system needs – and as early as possible.With that in mind, I loved how intuitive this book is. It doesn’t waste time going into the philosophy or complicated explanations. The name is true – it’s a collection of lesson plans, making it easy for non-tech-savvy teachers or parents to still equip their children with new knowledge and information. There are pictures and graphs that make it easy for a kid to understand, but – more importantly, at least for me – easy for the adult to understand. As such, you can help convey the information even if you’re completely new to it yourself. I’m not ashamed to say I learned quite a bit from this book!There are lessons covering the entire UK computing curriculum, but I found it translated easily to an American perspective. I was also impressed about how well it broke down the lessons and strategies by age, ranging from 5 to 11 years. From e-safety to robotics to programming to 3D design, it covers a lot of ground and gives actionable steps. Equipping a kid with this knowledge would give them an outrageous advantage in the internet age.Although some lessons mention using iPads or peripherals, most of the lesson activities outlined can be done using just standard desktop computers. There are also some great, free, online apps suggested, such as TinkerCAD, which was excellent for those just starting out and needing each lesson plan to be extremely detailed. The e-safety and programming lessons using Scratch looked especially useful, and I have to say – I made more progress following along that lesson plan than I did in an actual programming class I took a few years back.The only downside is that, sometimes, the book didn’t explain how to use the apps themselves clearly enough. Details were mentioned, but not always expanded on. But that’s reasonable, since the apps themselves usually provide a tutorial. It just threw me now and then.I don’t have kids myself, but I’ll definitely be gifting this book to my sister for her kids. For teachers, homeschoolers, or parents who just want to give their kids an edge, this book is very step-by-step and actionable right from the get-go. Would recommend!

This book is very thorough - it has a complete collection of lesson plans for the Primary Computing Curriculum. Easy to follow with lots of great ideas and links to useful online resources.

I really like this book. It includes lesson plans for year 1 to year 6. Although I only teach years 5 and 6, I still found the earlier years helpful in providing context and seeing the progression over the years. Each year has lessons for digital citizenship (which is good to see), with different topics being introduced at different points. For example, 3D modelling and robotics are introduced in year 5. Normally I'd be a bit reluctant to try these topics with students so young, but the lesson plans are a great guide to working through the topic. Each unit starts with a clear "Must, Should, Could" table and a summary of assessment focus areas. As I am more experienced with older students I found these really helpful in planning lessons at the right level and setting correct expectations.The lesson plans themselves have a lot of variety in terms of activities, and there are quite a few resources suggestions that I haven't seen before. Everything is focused on getting students creating and working, with minimal teacher-led material - which is exactly how it should be. The plans are written in such a way as to be clear, but they ar open enough to be flexible and allow you to easily adapt them to your/yours students' needs. The extra resource suggestions at the beginning mean it is easy to customize them for your students and their needs.Overall, a very good value book - over 35 units of work, each with 6-7 lessons, covering 6 years. A book I will keep next to my desk for a long time!

If you do not use ipads for ICT then this book is of very limited use. Most lessons rely on iPad apps or peripherals with no alternatives if you use Windows or other is devices.

Computing and ICT Lessons Plans is a well-written book that is super easy to understand for teachers. It has some great ideas (and even taught me a few new things whilst reading through it). I feel more confident now delivering computing lesson plans to children in a way they would understand too. A must for primary school teachers!

As expected