The Year 5 classes today participated an Hour of Code activity, with one Year 5 class going to a Year 1 class and the other visiting a Year 3 class to support them to use ‘Sketch Nation’ to make their own original Christmas game.
Sketch Nation is a game making app that the Year 5 classes used earlier in the year to create a game based on the Fantasy genre. So what did the Year 1 students do to get involved in this episode of game-making? First they had to choose their own Christmas character and draw it. Then a photograph was taken of their drawing – making it digital, and they had to crop it carefully, zooming in to ensure they did this in the most effective way. Aspects of Systems Thinking are being explored with this activity – one of the forms of thinking integral to the Digital Technologies Curriculum.
The students then were supported to select a type of game, at the beginner level of Sketch Nation, and to program their character to behave as a game element. Playing the game quickly gave them feedback as to what had to be modified. The engagement and joy on faces was evident with the Year 1 students loving being able to work with their older peers and to do something as digitally creative as designing their own game. The Year 5 students also enjoyed the experience of sharing their expertise and allowing the younger students to be at the controls in bringing their characters to life.
Aside from the fact that this was a really fun, engaging activity for the students, it’s interesting that think about the curriculum links that teachers could make in order to harness this engagement. There are clearly links with Digital Technologies. It could also serve to bring aspect of English alive, especially when thinking about character development, setting and plot.
Additionally, it is worth considering the Media Arts Curriculum which is only reasonably new. For Foundation – Year 2, these content descriptors are ones that the creation of digital games could certainly support:
