Welcome educators! You've come to the right place.

Here are some things you should do at least a few days before your Hour of Code with Bitsbox.

Read through the Grownup Guide.

You won't be instantly transformed into a software programmer, but you will gain a little better understanding of what's going on with the apps your students are building. Head to the Grownup Guide.

Try building the apps in the Let's App! booklet yourself.

It shouldn't take you more than half an hour, and typing them in yourself is a great way to familiarize yourself with the scope of the projects. Start by going to bitsbox.com/go and clicking Build Apps Now. If you want to know more about what the code actually does, take a look at our Code Translations.

Make sure the Bitsbox website works on the computers your students will use.

Some school districts block unfamiliar websites for safety reasons. Go to bitsbox.com/go and click Build Apps Now. If you get an error message, ask your school's IT person to allow access to the following websites:

• *.bitsbox.com
• *.firebase.com
• *.firebaseio.com
• *.googleapis.com
• *.gstatic.com
• *.codepops.com

If you can, have your students do some typing practice before the Hour of Code.

Introduce the following characters which are necessary for programming:

• parentheses ()
• commas ,
• apostrophes '
• curly brackets {}

Read our recommendations for the grade level(s) you teach.

We've put together a step-by-step flow for each of four different age groups:

• Bitsbox for Grades K & 1

  Bitsbox for younger kids: Grades K & 1

  The vast majority of K-1s aren't typing yet, and most aren't proficient readers, but that doesn't mean they can't learn something about coding from Bitsbox.

  Our recommendation for groups of students this young is for you (the grownup) to lead a coding session on a projector or screen that everyone can see.

  1. Go to bitsbox.com/go and ask the kids which button you should press to get started building apps.
  2. Go through the online tutorial, reading the prompts out loud and asking the group for input on what you should do next. Solicit suggestions for changes you can make to the code that will make it do slightly different things. This can be hilarious.
  3. Click the New App icon on your online tablet's Home screen to make a new app, and choose the "I have printed materials" option.
  4. Pass out the Bitsbox Let's App! booklets and collaboratively decide on an app to build together.
  5. Type in your chosen app's four-digit App Number and click Go.
  6. Type the code as it appears in the booklet, asking your students to help by reading what you should type out loud.
  7. Spend time modifying the code to change the app. Let your students decide what to do.
  8. If you have time, build another app from the booklet.
  
  
• Bitsbox for Grades 2 & 3

  Bitsbox for younger kids: Grades 2 & 3

  Students in 2nd and 3rd grades have generally done some typing and can read, but they're not very quick at doing either. If possible, you should strongly consider a "pair programming" setup; seat two kids at each computer and ask them to work together.

  Our recommendation for groups of kids at these grade levels is to model the activity before setting them loose on their own computers. It's also a good idea to tell students to start with the shorter apps in the booklet: Dancin' Hal, So Long, Homework!, and BlockCraft are all short and sweet.

  1. On a computer that's connected to a projector that everyone can see, go to bitsbox.com/go and ask the kids which button you should press to get started building apps.
  2. Go through the online tutorial, reading the prompts out loud and asking the group for input on what you should do next. Make sure to demonstrate how to type the following characters as you go along:
  • parentheses ()
  • commas ,
  • apostrophes '
  • curly brackets {}
  3. Click the New App icon on your online tablet's Home screen to make a new app, and choose the "I have printed materials" option.
  4. Pass out the Bitsbox Let's App! booklets and open to the Dancin' Hal app on page 2.
  5. Type in the app's four-digit App Number (which is 4356) and click Go.
  6. Type the first line of code as it appears on the page, asking your students to help by reading what you should type out loud.
  7. Send students (singly or in pairs) to their own computers.
  8. Have each student open bitsbox.com/go in their web browser and click Build Apps Now to begin.
  9. As each student completes the online tutorial, encourage them to build Dancin' Hal next.
  
  
• Bitsbox for Grades 4 - 6

  Bitsbox for younger kids: Grades 4 - 6

  Students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades are in the "sweet spot" for Bitsbox; they can read and write, and most can type fairly well.

  Tip: Save classroom time by pre-loading the Bitsbox Hour of Code website on each computer. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 11 are all web browsers that work great with Bitsbox. Open bitsbox.com/go on each machine.

  1. Lead a five-minute discussion about programming and building apps with students before they start working on the computers. You might ask the following questions:
     • Who knows what an app is?
     • What are some apps that you've used before?
     • Who creates apps and how are they created?
     • Wrap up the discussion by telling students that they'll be building their own simple apps by writing computer code.
  2. Send students to their computers and tell them to navigate to bitsbox.com/go
  3. As students are working through the online tutorial app, hand out the Let's App! booklets.
  4. Encourage students to choose an app from the booklet to work on. Recommending that they start with Dancin' Hal (the first app) is probably a good idea.
  5. If students complete their chosen app and there's still time left, encourage them to build another app from the booklet.
  
  
• Bitsbox for Grades 7 & Up

  Bitsbox for younger kids: Grades 7 & Up

  Bitsbox is designed primarily for elementary school students, but with a couple of challenging additions, the apps in the Let's App! booklet are plenty challenging for middle and even high school kids.

  1. Lead a five-minute discussion about programming and building apps with students before they start working on the computers. You might ask the following questions:
     • Who knows what an app is?
     • Who creates apps and how are they created?
     • Wrap up the discussion by telling students that they'll be building their own simple apps by writing computer code.
  2. Hand out the Let's App! booklets and send students to their computers.
  3. Direct students to bitsbox.com/go and ask them to work through the short online tutorial.
  4. Ask students to choose two or three apps from the booklet to work on.
  5. Encourage students to build a new app from scratch. Here are two suggestions you can write on the board:
     • Disappearing Ink: Build a drawing app where the "ink" disappears a few moments after you apply it to the screen.
       (This app is a mashup of BlockCraft and So Long, Homework!)
     • Drive Me Crazy: Build an app where a car drives all over the screen, entirely by itself.
       (This app is a mashup of Dig, Bunny, Dig! and Red Racer)