Computer Science Fundamentals for elementary school
No-Cost Teacher Workshops | Curriculum Overview | Other Resources
Now even the youngest students can explore the limitless world of computing. Code.org’s K-5 courses blend online, self-guided, and self-paced tutorials with “unplugged” activities that require no computer at all! Even kindergarten-aged pre-readers can participate.
High quality workshops for teachers, at no cost (US only)
Our curriculum is completely free for anyone, anywhere to teach. To help teachers implement our courses for grades K-5, Code.org offers high-quality, 1-day workshops for educators and content-area teachers (librarians, tech-ed specialists, etc.). These workshops are led by experienced Code.org facilitators in locations across the United States.
Attendees learn how to use Code.org's courses to introduce computer science basics in a format that's fun and accessible to the youngest learners (grades K-5). Attendees also receive all the supplies they need to teach—at no cost.
Want to partner with us to train K-5 teachers in your school, district, or region? Go here.
No workshop in your area?
Find a K-5 Affiliate near you or consider completing one of our online self-paced courses on your own.
Computer Science Fundamentals: Curriculum Overview
Our Computer Science (CS) Fundamentals curriculum is implemented within Code Studio, our online education platform. This completely free curriculum consists of multiple courses, each of which has about 20 lessons that may be implemented as one unit or over the course of a semester. Explore our courses below!
Course 1: Ages 4-6
- Early-readers
- Sequences
- Loops and events
- Meaningful collaboration with others
- Problem-solving and perseverance techniques
- Internet safety
Course 2: Ages 6+
- Beginner readers
- Conditionals
- Algorithms
- Binary code
- Debugging
- Societal impacts of computing
Course 3: Ages 8+
- Prereq Course 2
- Problem decomposition
- Functions
- Nested loops and conditionals
- Digital citizenship
- Internet transmission methods
Course 4: Ages 10+
- Prereq Course 3
- Algorithmic problem solving
- Abstraction
- Variables
- For Loops
- Functions with Parameters
- Binary code
By the end of each course, students create interactive games or stories that they can share with anyone.
The courses are flexible, too, so educators can adjust them based on their students’ developmental level and prior experience.
All lessons align to all relevant computer science standards, as well as to the ISTE standards. They additionally reinforce concepts and skills taught in other subject areas by integrating national Math, English Language Arts, and Science standards. Read more about our curriculum philosophy here.
Examples of student creations
In this puzzle, the student created a honeycomb pattern.
This student created a game with multiple levels in which you play against different characters. Game on!
This student created a Flappy Bird game.
Teacher dashboard
The Code Studio teacher dashboard makes it easy for teachers to view lesson plans, create student accounts and monitor student progress. Students don't need an email address to have an account in Code Studio. Students can even log in with a picture instead of a text password.
Don't have computers?
No problem. You can still teach the fundamentals of computer science without any computers or devices. Try using these unplugged lessons in your classroom as a stand-alone course or as complementary lessons for any computer science course.
Tech support & teacher forums
Get online assistance while using our curriculum through product FAQs, technical support, and forums where you can communicate with other Code.org teachers! Learn more here.
Other resources
3rd Party resources for elementary school computer science
| Organization | Curriculum | Professional Development |
|---|---|---|
| Code Monkey | Over 300 story modes & skill mode challenges. Can be taught full year, 1/2 year, or quarterly. $10/student | Free online course, $250/webinar, $3500/onsite PD |
| Code Red Education | 150 lessons over 7 modules, $3500/site | Online PD included with site fee |
| Kodable | 38 lesson plans that blend online independent practice with "unplugged" activities. 8 Lessons, FREE, Full curriculum, $15/student, $1950/site | Online or in-person PD included for paying schools |
| Project Lead The Way | 6 10-hour computer science modules, $750/school | Face-to-face and online, $700 for school-level lead teacher |
| ScratchEd | A 6-unit intro to Scratch, FREE | In-person educator meet-ups and online MOOC, FREE |
| Tynker | Free tools, tutorials, and a 6-hr introductory lesson plan. 200+ lessons with assessments: $399/class, $2,000/school | 2-day PD, $2000/day + travel |
Inspire students to try computer science
Our Inspire a student page has all kinds of stuff you can use to get kids excited about computer science—like posters and videos featuring musicians, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and students!
Want even more videos? Check out the Video Library.
Find a guest speaker for your classroom
Want your students to hear from an inspiring computer science professional? Use the button below to find a guest speaker for your class from our list of volunteers! Local guest speakers are available in select areas; guest speakers via teleconference are available to all teachers.
Spread the word!
Use this email or share this one-pager with teachers, principals and district administrators.
