Continue Hour of Code with Resources from the Library

Hour of Code is just around the corner, and the upcoming school breaks are the perfect time to continue the fun of coding at home. You’ll have to travel no further than the KDBS Library to borrow low-tech, kid-friendly coding resources such games and books.


Low-Tech Coding Games


Borrow one of these puzzle games to build logic, flexible thinking, and problem solving skills, and have fun while doing it! 

Vikings Brainstorm
  • Single player
    Recommended for ages 6 and up
Help the Vikings navigate their ships home with this unique puzzle game featuring rotating, circular pieces.

Castle Logix
  • Single player
    Recommended for ages 3-8
Construct castles, block by block and tower by tower with this unique 3-D wooden puzzle. 

Trucky 3
  • Single player
    Recommended for ages 3-8
Place the pieces inside the trucks so that they don't stick out — but it’s harder than it looks!

Three Little Piggies
  • Single player
    Recommended for ages 3 and up
Help the Three Little Pigs build their houses, but keep them safe from the wolf!

Anti-Virus
  • Single player
    Recommended for ages 7 and up
Slide pieces around the board to create an exit path for the red virus.

Cat & Mouse Go Getter

Solve the puzzles by placing path pieces on the board to connect animals and objects.


Learn the Basics (and Beyond): Coding Instruction


Reinforce coding basics, explore coding concepts, and embark on fun projects with these coding books for kids.

Coding with Scratch
By John Woodcock
Recommended for ages 5-8

Young coders will learn about the history of coding, how to download Scratch, and how to create projects focused on animation, loops and movement, and clever control before putting it all together to create a Grand Finale. The perfect introductory practice book to build and sharpen vital skills in one of the fastest growing industries

Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding
By Bryson Payne
Recommended for ages 4-8

A little girl with a huge imagination teams up with her animal friends to solve a computer puzzle in a story that introduces young children to basic coding and programming concepts through a series of activities.
By Bryson Payne
Recommended for ages 9 and up
 
A guide to teaching basic programming skills for parents and teachers, with step-by-step explanations, visual examples, and exercises. Covers programming concepts including loops, lists, functions, and variables, and how to build games and applications.
 
How to Code in 10 Easy Lessons: Learn How to Design and Code Your Very Own Computer Game
By Sean McManus
Recommended for ages 8 and up
 
Provides 10 lessons on how to write simple computer code using Scratch software.
 
By Jeremy Kubica
Recommended for ages 3-7
 
It takes data structures, binary digits code, arrays, strings, variables, linked lists, stacks, queues, pointers, Boolean logic, algorithms, problem-solving techniques, and more for a 15-year-old princess to save her kingdom from doom.
 
By The Land Project
Recommended for ages 8 and up
 
Kids will learn programming fundamentals as they make their own playable video games. Full-color cartoons work hand-in-hand with step-by-step directions help kids learn to write computer programs.

Read About Computer Science and the Future of Computing


Enrich your understanding of computing, its history, and why it matters with this fiction and nonfiction literature about coding and computer-based concepts.
 
By Laurie Wallmark; illustrated by April Chu
Recommended for ages 5 and up
 
Late-breaking news: A Victorian woman is now considered an early inventor of computer programming, as recounted in this long overdue STEM-related biography. The daughter of a famed Romantic poet, young Ada sees numbers as her friends, mathematics and machines as her passions. Along with Charles Babbage, she created a machine that could solve problems such as fifteen times twelve and envisioned broad applications, then science fiction and today reality.
 
By Graeme Base
Recommended for ages 5-8
 
An elephant's 11th birthday party is marked by 11 games preceding the banquet to be eaten at the 11th hour; but when the time to eat arrives, the birthday feast has disappeared. The reader is invited to guess the thief.
 
By Carlos Bueno
Recommended for ages 10 and up
 
The basic premise: that you don’t need a computer to play with the basic ideas of computer science. Lauren, a clever girl lost in Userland, applies logic and problem solving skills to find her way home, encountering along the way such concepts as timing attacks, algorithm design, and the traveling salesman problem.
 
By Ashley Spires
Recommended for ages 3-7
 
Tinkering is at the heart of a charming picture book about a girl who wants to make “the most magnificent thing.” She “twists and tweaks and fastens” until she thinks it is just right. But it isn’t. There are accessible lessons here about impatience and persistence, failure and flexibility, mistakes and solutions.
 
By Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Recommended for ages 11-15
 
Think like a mathematician. That’s the challenge of this fantastical romp through the wonders of math from infinitesimal numbers to square numbers to Fibonacci’s. Bored with stupid word problems, a twelve year-old boy accesses elegantly sophisticated concepts in a dream sequence, frequented by a number devil.
 
By Herve Tullet
Recommended for all ages
 
A book is an iPad that doesn’t need a battery as evidenced in this impressive French import. Rub, tap, or shake sturdy, spanking white pages for a simulated interactive experience as colored dots morph, multiply, and move on command.
 
By Andrea Beaty
Recommended for ages 5 and up

Having had one failure, a now timid girl still dreams of becoming an engineer. When her great, great aunt (Rosie the Riveter of World War II fame) comes to visit, the young Rosie tries to help her fulfill a lifelong dream to fly. The girl invents a flying machine. Sadly, it fails too, but happily Aunt Rose is there to deliver an important lesson: It’s only a failure if you quit. Thus an important mantra: Keep trying.
 
By Kobi Yamada; illustrated by Mae Besom
Recommended for ages 3 and up
 
A young boy comes up with an idea, embodied by an egg. He gets no encouragement but nurtures the idea anyway. It turns out that with an idea, “you can change the world.” Kids (and adults too) will see important lessons here: Think big, be creative, think outside the box, have creative confidence, ignore the naysayers, and follow a dream.
Back
Burke's mission is to educate, encourage and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.
Burke's admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.