Science & Mathematics Lesson Plan

“Coding Paths: Arrows”

Marco Carreiro

Department of Education, Concordia University

EDUC 395: Internship III - Kindergarten Teaching

Prof. Nathalie Rothschild

October 23, 2023

 LESSON PLAN
Preschool Cycle – Grade K4
______________________________________________________________________________
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Marco Carreiro
School: Beacon Hill Elementary
Cooperating Teacher: Nathalie Mancini
Lesson’s Date: October 23, Monday
Lesson’s Time: 11:00 - 11:30 AM
Grade & Age of Students: K4, 4 years-old
Number of Students: 9
______________________________________________________________________________
LESSON INFORMATION
Lesson’s Title: Coding Paths: Arrows!
Brief Description:
- The students will be seated at the carpet and will be re-introduced to the topic of arrows
(left, right, forward, backward) and will be given examples of arrow directions that they
must answer. After a brief discussion on arrows, the students will be re-introduced to
arrow paths on the floor. During this mini-activity, the students will answer how many
steps are taken and in what direction. Students will also be able to interact with the
arrows and take the physical steps needed to reach the end of a path. Once that is
complete, students will be explained that each table has a different path where their toy
must reach the car to get to school. Students will be explained that they must use arrows
and directions to help their toy get to the car. Once the students have completed their
table in groups, they will switch to another table and another path until all 3 tables are
complete. Once the lesson is complete, the students will all meet at the middle table and
practice arrows and directions on a coding mouse as a group.

Lesson’s Source:
- This lesson was inspired by a workbook I had purchased for preschool called “First
Coding Book for Kids” (Amazon Link). I used paths in the book as examples but instead
of having students draw in the book, I made the activity more physical and interactive.

Prior Knowledge and/or Experience Required:

- Previous Lesson on Introducing Arrows
- Arrow directions
Materials & Resources:
- 30x Small Arrow Printouts
- 30x Arrow Placemats (black construction paper cut-outs)
- 3x Toy Cars
- 3x Toy Figurines
- 1x Coding Mouse (Amazon Link)
- 5x Big Arrow Printouts
- 3x Small Bowls
- Tape

Organization of Space:
- The students will sit on the carpet at the front of the class, facing the teacher. During the
introduction, there will be 5 large arrows placed on the ground in front of the students for
them to interact with. There will be 3 circular tables separated in the classroom, allowing
for space around the tables. There will be at least 3 chairs per table. The door will be
closed. On each table, there will be 10 small arrows, 10 arrow placemats, 1 car, 1 toy
figurine, and 1 bowl for the arrows. The arrow placemats will be taped to the table prior
to the activity. The toy figurine is placed at a starting placemat, and the car is placed at
the finishing placemat.

Transitions:
- This activity will take place after free-play at 11:00 AM
- The students will clean up all their toys and then sit on the carpet on the red or dark green
squares, ready to listen.
- After the introduction, the students will be assigned to each table. After they are told
where to go, each student will walk to their table calmly, without rush. They will also be
told not to touch any of the materials ahead of time.
- Once each table completes their path, they must place the arrows back in their bowls and
reset the toys in their correct positions. Then, the groups of students will switch tables at
the same time and may start right away.
- After the activity, the students will reset their tables and then will all meet and sit at the
red table. Students may grab a chair and sit around the table or stand.
- At the end, students must put back their chairs in their proper places and then head into
free-play for 15 minutes.

______________________________________________________________________________
TARGETED PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY
Competency #3: Plan teaching and learning situations
Competency #6: Manage how the class operates
______________________________________________________________________________
CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES, OBJECTIVES, AND ASSESSMENT PLAN
Targeted Curricular Evidence of Meeting
Objectives Assessment
Competency and Feature the Objective
- If the objective
- By placing
has been met,
directional arrows
students might
on a path,
Cognitive Development: place their Observations/
students will be
- Explores Different arrows down in Photographs
able to explore
Actions the correct (see appendix A)
actions to find a
directions to
solution to a
reach their
problem
goal.
- If the objective
has been met,
- By explaining
students might
why they rotated
explain why
Cognitive Development: the arrows,
they chose a Questioning
- Explains The students will
right arrow .
Actions Taken describe the
instead of a
actions they
forward arrow
chose.
at a turning
point.
______________________________________________________________________________
PROCEDURE
Introduction (10 minutes):
- As the students are seated at the carpet, they will engage in a quick discussion on the
topic of arrows. The students will be re-introduced to arrows and directions using arrow
drawings from a previous lesson. In the previous lesson, students were taught the
directions of an arrow using the tip of the arrows to help.
- The students will be asked if they can name the directions of arrows that are pointed to
(i.e. right, left, forward, backward)
- The students will be reminded that the arrow pointing up means forward in this context,
and that the arrow pointing down means backward.
- Once the students have had a chance to give their answers for the directions of arrows,
the students will be shown an example of a directional path using arrows.
- The students will see 5 large arrows on the floor facing a direction. The students will be
asked a few questions:
- 1. “In what direction do I move on this path, and how many steps?”
- 2. “After I move forward this step, where do I go next? …How many steps now?”
 - After the students attempt to answer these questions, they may also be involved and
practice being the person moving and the person guiding.
- Ex: “Student L, move forward 1 step!”
- Once a few students have had a turn to try, the students will be explained that they will
practice these arrows but in mini-paths using toys.
- The students will be shown an example of a forward arrow being placed on a place mat,
and then a right arrow being placed at a turn. During this time, the students could be
asked which arrow should be placed next.
- The students will be explained that they will all be given 10 arrows for their paths. For
the goal of their game, they must help their toy figurine reach the car to go to school
using the path and 10 arrows.
- After the instructions are complete, the students may head to their assigned tables.

Development (15 minutes):

- Once each group of students are at their tables, the students will work together to place
their arrows down on the placemats. Each table has a different path targeting different
difficulties and will be given roughly 5 minutes per table.
- The 1st table focuses on turning left, 2nd table on turning right, 3rd table goes backwards
(see appendix B).
- Students may choose to complete the path 1 person at a time or as a group, having 1
person place an arrow per turn.
- The students must start at the place mat in front of the toy figurine and must place one
arrow at a time in the proper direction to reach the toy car which is seated at the last
placemat mat on the other end of the path.
- Before starting, the students could be asked “Which direction are we going and how
many steps is it?”
- The students can count how many steps/placemats they go before the path turns.
- A student may respond with “We must go forward 3 steps!” and the teacher may respond
with “Great, so which way should the arrow point to go forward? Do we put the arrow
facing sideways? Facing up? Facing down?”
- Once the student points the arrow on the placemat in the correct direction, it can be
another student’s turn.
- Once the students reach a turning point, they must decide which direction they should
place their arrows.
- Students may be asked “Now that we have to turn, which direction should we place our
arrows, and how many steps are there?”
- Students may continue by counting the steps and may rotate their arrow until the tip is
facing the correct direction.
 - If the student placed their arrow in the correct direction, the student may be asked “Why
did you turn your arrow now instead of continuing forward?”, and the student may reply
with their answer.
- Once the students have all had time to place arrows down to reach the goal (the car), the
students will reset and switch to a new table with a new path.
- These steps are repeated at each table until every student has had a turn with a new path
and has practiced placing different directions of arrows.

Conclusion (5 minutes):
- After the activity, the students will meet at the same table and will be shown a Coding
Mouse named Charlie (see appendix C).
- The students will be explained that this coding mouse is similar to their paths because he
works with arrows and directions.
- The students will be shown that clicking different arrows on the back of the mouse will
make Charlie move in different directions (i.e. If you click the forward arrow, he will
move forward. If you click the right arrow, he will turn to the right)
- After a quick demonstration of Charlie’s abilities to move and turn, the students might
feel intrigued to try Charlie themselves.
- For the final part, the students will all have a turn clicking only 1 arrow on Charlie’s back
and then must pass the mouse to the next person.
- Once each person has had a turn clicking an arrow of their choice, the teacher will press
the green button and the students will see Charlie move in the directions they all chose.
- After Charlie the Coding Mouse has finished his path, the students will be told that
Charlie moved that way because they told Charlie to move that way by clicking the
arrows and telling him where to go. Charlie followed a path of arrows similar to the toy
figurine in the previous activity.
- After the explanation, the students may continue to practice with Charlie by trying it
again or may transition into free play.

______________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOWING THE LESSON
Assessment of Lesson Objectives:
- The students’ objectives were assessed through the use of observations, photographs (see
appendix A), and questioning.

- The first objective of the lesson was to have the students explore actions to find a solution
to a problem and this was assessed through observations and photographs. The students
were tasked to find a way to get their toy figurine to the car at the other end of the path,
all by using arrows in their correct directions. In the first photograph of appendix A,
students are shown starting the path by placing arrows facing forward, allowing their
 character to move straight ahead. In the second photograph, students are shown
continuing the path at a turn and changing the direction of their arrows to face right.
Lastly, in the third photo, students are shown passing another turn as they continue to
place arrows down in their correct direction. To add, the students recognize that they
should move their character on the arrows as they count the steps. All of the students
understood that they must reach the car using the arrows and that the arrows must face a
specific direction to succeed in the objective.

- The second objective of the lesson was to have the students practice explaining their steps
by describing the actions they chose and why. While the students were placing their
arrows, the students were also questioned during the process and asked why they chose
that direction for their arrow or why they placed that specific amount of arrows in a given
direction. Example:
- “Why did you turn your arrow sideways?”
- “Because the black squares turned”
- “Which direction did you have to turn?”
- “Right!”
- A majority of the students were capable of explaining why they chose a specific direction
or the amount of steps in a specific direction. However, a student (student O) was unable
to answer when asked and did not fully understand why they were changing the arrows
directions. This student, and a few others, were also not fully able to get the direction
names correctly, but the other students understood why they were changing rotating their
arrows (because the path changed direction) and were able to say why they chose a
certain amount of steps (because they were able to count the amount of steps they needed
in a given direction).

- Overall the students were very strong and capable in placing their arrows in the correct
direction to reach their goal. They were mostly all able to complete all the paths with
very little assistance. However, some students still need improvement in understanding
their choices and actions.

Self-Evaluation:
- My professional competency focused on my abilities as a teacher to plan teaching and
learning situations, and manage how a class operates during a lesson.

- For my first professional competency, my goal was to create and plan a lesson that would
match my students’ strengths and interests. Prior to this lesson, I knew my students were
capable of understanding arrows and what their directions meant because we had
practiced it in the previous week. They were very strong at being able to tell the direction
of an arrow and move in that direction. I created this lesson to match their capabilities but
 also challenge them to try actions on their own. In the previous week, we practiced
directions but as a group, but in this lesson, students were in smaller groups but were also
able to attempt their choices on their own. To add, I also created a goal for the game
including toys that the students usually play with (cars, figurines). These toys were used
to help gain their interest as they manipulated them during the activity, and a majority of
the class loves to play with the cars. Lastly, I included the Coding Mouse because it was
an additional challenge for the students. The Coding Mouse follows the same steps as the
paths (using arrows to move), but instead of placing arrows down and moving a toy
manually, the students would practice clicking the button of the arrow they want, having
the toy move itself in the chosen direction. Although I believe I did a great job at
matching the students capabilities, strengths, and interests, I do believe my lesson could
have included more steps rather than just 10. Perhaps I could have also included more
paths on the tables so that students were not waiting their turn for too long.

- For my second professional competency, my goal was to see how well I could manage
the classroom and the students during a lesson. Ahead of the lesson, I organized the
activity with the classroom setup in mind. I made sure to start my introduction on the
carpet and planned the students seating on the red or dark green squares, allowing for
space to place the arrows on the floor. To continue, I had students surround the 1st table
as I had set up a practice path for them ahead of time. I had also prepared the 3 tables
with their materials away from each other so that the students had space to work and
move around their tables. I had separated the groups into groups of 3, grouping students
with others of similar qualities or strengths. During the activity, I made sure to walk
around each table and observe their abilities to perform the task, making sure each
student was participating and sharing the materials for the activity. Lastly, I did my best
to manage the time needed for each table, having them switch when I noticed students
were finished or started to get bored. I believe I did a great job in managing the groups of
students and the classroom during the lesson, keeping everything quite organized, calm,
and structured. However, I do believe that this goal was easier to accomplish because I
had the group was quite small, in comparison to other schools.

- Overall I believe I did a great job at succeeding in my professional competencies, but I

could still continue to improve at managing a larger classroom in the future.

Cooperating Teacher’s Feedback:

- Great lesson, maybe next time we could try to give them all their own individual paths rather
than groups? It might be more engaging for them
- Loved the Coding Mouse, a great addition to the lesson and the kids loved it!
Appendix A
Appendix B

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3
Appendix C