Skye Donzelli, an elementary computer teacher, recently released the short chapter book, Selfie Sam's Coder Club Adventures: in SCRATCH (Amazon affiliate link and also available for Kindle), the first book in her trilogy for the Selfie Sam Series. I absolutely LOVE the theme of her books as she focuses on being a creator of technology and not just a consumer.
This book is intended for 6-10 year olds (Level M) who are beginning coders. It is jam packed with coding vocabulary as well as coding challenges. Vocabulary terms are bolded throughout the book and a glossary is provided at the back of the book.
Not only would this story make a great addition to any elementary classroom, library, or makerspace. I think it would be wonderful to use in guided reading. Children who might not necessarily enjoy reading may have interest in this technology themed story. Furthermore, technology teachers could use this book as a read aloud when they have a few extra minutes left at the end of a class period.
**If you purchase the Kindle version you can project it on the board for students to follow along as you read if you use it as a read aloud!**
**If you purchase the Kindle version you can project it on the board for students to follow along as you read if you use it as a read aloud!**
Summary
In a nutshell, this easy read is about a boy named Sam who likes to take selfies. His twin sister, Samantha, likes to create with technology by coding video games and apps. One day Sam tinkers with one of Samantha's inventions and his selfie obsession gets him into virtual reality trouble!
Interactive Element
On coderclubadventures.com you can find a FREE Digital Club Coder Notebook in Google Slides that students can use for their own coding projects.
Coding Challenges
Three coding challenges are provided at the end of the story for students to test out using Scratch. They simply remix the project and add their own code to change up the Scratch scenario. This is great for beginning coders!
Author's Bio
Skye Donzelli is an elementary computer teacher at a 1 to 1 laptop, Future Ready Certified school. She has a Masters in Educational Technology and earned her Media Certification during the Maker Movement. She also has her Assistive Technology Certification. You can see her school’s award winning, inclusive STEM Room featured on Classroom Close Up, an Emmy winning show that highlights innovative practices in NJ schools. http://classroomcloseup.org/segments/stem-stations/
Through Liberty Science Center, she shares her best practices as a STEM Coach by mentoring other schools to help develop their own school-based Makerspace and STEM programs.
Coding Vocabulary & Reading Comprehension Activities
I created a resource that you can find in my TpT Store to go along with this story. It comes as a PDF that you can print for students to use. Also included is a DIGITAL version in Google Slides™ that students can use on their Chromebooks, laptops, computers or iPads. This resource contains pre-reading, during reading and after reading activities that target basic coding vocabulary as well as reading comprehension.
Some of my Scratch Coding Resources on TpT:
