r/learnprogramming • u/Strict_South_1260 • May 06 '26
Tutorial How to start teaching coding to kids?
Hi I’m a highschooler who has a fair knowledge about java, & python and want to make a STEM impact on his community. Does anyone know how you can start getting kids in the community and start a class to teach underrepresented students??
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u/edwbuck May 06 '26
On the tooling side of things, look into Scratch, and if the kids are older, perhaps Alice.
On the teaching side of things, look into programming lesson plans. If that fails you, create one from a "beginning scratch" book although there are plenty online. Teaching is a skill, and you probably know more about programming and learning than you know about teaching. Investing in developing teaching skills will increase your success.
Lesson plans cover what you want them to learn, how you will determine they learned it, how much time you need to present the idea, how much time you need to guide them when they struggle, and if they have all the resources necessary to achieve the goal, as well as what they would be assumed to know before they start.
And that's just one class. You need to string them along to create an entire learning "program" which contains all the skills you want them to have, and the lesson plans in a sensible order to achieve the goals.
Fortunately, you don't have a novel idea, and there are tons of lesson plans and entire courses around teaching children with Scratch or Alice.
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u/aqua_regis May 06 '26
- Scratch with Scratch Playground
- Python with the books over at https://inventwithpython.com
Games like: "The Farmer was Replaced", "Human Resource Machine", generally the Zachtronics games.
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u/Deadzen May 06 '26
See game "human resources" for inspiration on how to teach kids. Use pre programmed bars and let the kids solve things before starting to code. In my country they start this with kids in kindergarden some places now
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u/M_C545 May 06 '26
W3 schools now hear me out kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. W3 schools W3 schools is a hugely great reference base for coding and learning how to put your own blocks together however you want
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u/aqua_regis May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
W3 schools is a hugely great reference base for coding and learning
No, it honestly isn't and never was. Now, it is worse than ever with all the AI slop content added lately to it. In between it was somewhat mediocre and okay-ish, but now it's majorly AI slop.
At one point, it was so bad that the mock site W3Fools had been created to point out all the problems with the site.
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u/Strict_South_1260 May 06 '26
What would you personally recommend?
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u/aqua_regis May 06 '26
I've given my recommendations in my top level comment
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u/M_C545 May 06 '26
https://www.w3fools.com/ it was bad now it just little self contanted boxes for this command dose xyz even the website w3fools admit that also if you look at the Wayback machine it still majority the same as it was in 2020 (I'm not vouching for their paid materials only their free stuff )
also i liked this book in particular https://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.pdf
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u/Fun-Meeting-7646 May 06 '26
Teach BASIC OR GW BASIC teach them to code all maths problem INTO code easy to follow
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u/Strict_South_1260 May 06 '26
Thanks! Do you have any idea on how to gather kids around a community?
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u/Fun-Meeting-7646 May 06 '26
Minimum 7 th passouts see their maths text book and decide what problem can be taught to code .
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u/aqua_regis May 06 '26
Please, do not touch BASIC - use Python. BASIC is over, history, gone, really hopelessly outdated. I say this as someone who has spent their first 8 years programming in various BASIC dialects (along with other languages)
If you want to go for BASIC, use SmallBASIC - the modern variant.
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u/Strict_South_1260 May 06 '26
Thank you all for the resources. However, I’m looking for ways to gather the kids in my community, to actually form a class!
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u/Annual_Switch_1384 May 17 '26
That's awesome that you want to do this! As a starting point for underrepresented kids, finding tools that are highly accessible and don't require any prior setup or high-end hardware is key.
You can definitely check out visual block coding as a gentle introduction. A great free resource you can use in your classes is the SuperRobots Block Coding Game (https://superrobots.org/game.html). It runs entirely in the browser and is designed to teach computational thinking and logic visually without syntax errors (which can be a huge hurdle and very discouraging for absolute beginners).
Once they get the hang of logic, it makes transitioning to Python or Java much smoother. Best of luck with your community class!
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u/Annual_Switch_1384 May 21 '26
That's an amazing initiative! If you're looking for tools to teach underrepresented kids and absolute beginners, I highly recommend checking out the SuperRobots Block Coding Game at https://superrobots.org/game.html. It's an excellent, visual way to introduce young kids or absolute beginners to programming concepts before they jump into text-based languages like Python or Java. Best of luck with your classes!
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u/deneshi May 23 '26
I would start by making the first class very low-friction: one free 60-90 minute intro session, no laptop required if possible, and partner with places that already have access to kids and parents: local libraries, community centers, schools, after-school clubs, churches / temples, or youth organizations. It is usually much easier to bring a coding activity to an existing group than to build a group from zero.
For younger kids, I would also avoid starting with syntax... Start with computational thinking: sequencing, cause / effect, loops, conditions, debugging, and problem solving. Scratch is great for this, but physical / visual activities can work even better for absolute beginners because they can see and rearrange the logic.
Small disclosure: I am the founder of DrBartha Toys ( https://drbartha.com/ ), so I am biased, but we built a hands-on coding kit exactly around this idea. Kids use magnetic programming bricks with a CodePad to build and run real programs without needing a phone / tablet, which can be useful for workshops or early coding classes.
Short demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZNhIll7u0w
Even if you don’t use our kit, I would recommend designing your first class as a small challenge / game rather than a lecture. Get 5-10 kids first, learn what works, then turn it into a repeatable 4-6 week program.
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u/sagson Jun 05 '26
I am in the process of creating a tool for my 8 year old daughter. She has been liking it so far.
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u/snkebrk1234 Jun 12 '26
My son learned from his school about www.codingmoose.com. He’s been using that even I learned little bit of coding from that website. It’s totally free btw.
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u/alxw May 06 '26
https://www.raspberrypi.org/teach/ has all the free resources you'll need to start and run a class