Hour of Code Unplugged Activity Packet  
 
Coding is something everyone can do! You can even learn the basics of coding without 
a computer. This activity packet is designed for children and their grown ups to learn 
some of the fundamentals of coding together through interactive activities. Print this 
packet (double-sided is fine!) and get coding at home!  
 
Table of Contents  
1. Everybody Dance Now (pages 2-8) - Ages 4-11 
2. Graph Paper Programming (pages 9-11) - Ages 6-13 
3. Use Binary to Make Pictures (pages 12-21) - Ages 10-18 
4. More Unplugged Resources (pages 22-23) 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

   

1
Everybody Dance Now 
 
Ages:​ 4-11 years old  
Lesson Objectives:  
● Students will recognize actions of the choreographer as signals to initiate a 
command. 
------------------------- Lesson Guide ------------------------------ 

1. Description:​ Programmers use “events” to change the way a program responds 

to a user’s actions, like the push of a button or the click of a mouse. When you 
touch the screen on your tablet to scroll, that’s an event. When you press a 
button on your controller to play a video game, that button press is an event, too! 
For this lesson, you’ll use a paper controller to choreograph a dance for your 
family member.  
 
2. Vocabulary: ​Read this vocabulary card together.  

 
3. Activity 
a. Make connections: Ask your child “Where else have you seen “events” 
that give signals in the real world?  
i. What about something like something like a dance? How do 
dancers know when to do a certain move?  
b. Let’s learn some dance moves so we can program a new dance together!  

2
 

The Star 
● Step 1:​ Start by standing up straight with your arms by your 
side. 
● Step 2:​ Kick your right leg out and put both arms in the air to 
make your body look like a star. 
● Step 3: C
​ ome back to standing position. 
● Step 4: K
​ ick your left leg out and put both arms in the air.  
● Step 5: R
​ epeat! 
 

3
 
 

The High Clap 

● Step 1: S
​ tart by standing up straight with your arms by your 
side. 
● Step 2: ​Clap your hands to the right, above your head. 
● Step 3: C
​ ome back to standing position. 
● Step 4: C
​ lap your hands to the left, above your head.  
● Step 5:​ Repeat! (Bonus: try moving your hips to the side that 
you’re clapping on)  
 

4
 

The Dab  
● Step 1:​ Start by standing up straight with your arms by your 
side. 
● Step 2:​ Drop your head into the bent crook of a slanted, 
upwardly angled arm while raising the opposite arm straight in a 
parallel direction (see image above).  
● Step 3:​ Repeat! (Bonus: Lift a knee up while dabbing)  

5
 

The This or That  

● Step 1: S
​ tart by standing up straight with your arms by your 
side. 
● Step 2:​ Raise your right hand like you’re a waiter holding a tray 
and tilt your head towards it.  
● Step 3:​ Come back to standing position. 
● Step 4:​ Raise your left hand like you’re a waiter holding a tray 
and tilt your head towards it.  
● Step 5: R
​ epeat!  
 

6
The Body Roll  
● Step 1:​ Start by standing up straight with your arms by your 
side.  
● Step 2: ​Bend your knees and snake your body to the right, 
moving your head first and then your hips in one direction.  
● Step 3: R
​ epeat!  

7
  
Activity Continued:  
● Choose one choreographer and a dancer (or many dancers).  
● Whenever the choreographer touches a button, the dancers will do the 
corresponding dance.  
● As a reminder:  
○ Star is the Star Dance 
○ Triangle is the Dab 
○ Hexagon is the High Clap 
○ Circle is the Body Roll 
○ Rectangle is the This or That  
● Turn on your favorite song and hit the dance floor!  
 
 
 
8
Graph Paper Programming  
Ages: ​6-13 years old  
​ tudents will be able to reframe a sequence of steps as an encoded program.  
Lesson Objective:​ S
 

------------------------- Lesson Guide ------------------------------ 

1. Description:​ By "programming" one another to draw pictures, you and your child 
will get an opportunity to experience some of the core concepts of programming 
in a fun and accessible way. Your child will use symbols to instruct you to color 
squares on graph paper to reproduce an existing picture.  
2. Introduce the Topic:​ Ask your child, how do robots know how to do the things 
they do? Do they have brains that work the same way that ours do?  
a. The goal of this quick discussion is to call out that while robots may seem 
to behave like people, they're actually responding to their programming.  
3. Practice Together: ​In this activity, students will act as both programmers and 
robots, coloring in squares according to programs that they have written for you. 
Say to your child: 
a. Today, you’re going to get to program a robot… Me! You’ll write programs 
using symbols with special meanings to help me recreate a picture.  
b. These are the only instructions that I understand.  
i. Move one square right 
ii. Move one square left 
iii. Move one square up 
iv. Move one square down 
v. Fill in square with color 

   

Let’s practice! Here is an image. Pretend  Starting at the star, tell me instructions to 
that I am the drawing robot.   recreate the image to the left.  

9
 
c. You just gave me a list of steps to finish a task. In programming, that’s 
called an algorithm. Great work! Hmm, but what happens when we want 
to write down the algorithm for a drawing like this?  
i. What would the code sound like to recreate this picture?  
ii. What if you had to write it all out? Is there an easier way than 
writing all the words? 
 

 
 
d. Show your child this list of symbols:  

 
e. Discuss: How could we use these symbols to make our instructions 
easier? 
f. Look at the sample solution using symbols below and discuss the benefits 
of using symbols shorthand.  
 

 
10
Now you try!  
Choose one person to be Partner A and another person to be Partner B.  
Partner A, choose one of the images below. Don’t let your partner know which one you pick! 

 
Image 1  Image 2  Image 3  Image 4  Image 5  Image 6 

1) P
​ artner A, write a program.   3)​Partner B, draw your partner’s program:
(Use → ← ↑ ↓ ) 
Step 1  2  3  4  5  6 

7  8  9  10  11  12 

13  14  15  16  17  18 

 
2) G
​ ive your program to your partner.   

Switch!  

1)1) ​Partner B, write a program.   3)​ Partner A, draw your partner’s program:
(Use → ← ↑ ↓ ) 
Step 1  2  3  4  5  6 

7  8  9  10  11  12 

13  14  15  16  17  18 

 
   

2)​Give your program to your partner. 

11
Use Binary to Make Pictures  
Ages: 1
​ 0-18 years old  
Lesson Objective: S
​ tudents will learn how to use binary to represent colors and images.  
 
----------------------------- Lesson Guide----------------------------- 

Description:​ We’re going to look at one way that Binary can be used to represent ​Color 
Images​ and you’ll be creating your own P​ ixel Art. 
 

In this activity, we’ll use binary coding 

to represent pathways through a 
series of “high” and “low” choices. For 
example, to the right are a group of 
colors​ at the tail-ends of a small 
tree-like diagram. Starting from the 
left, we can c​ hoose​ a color by using a 
sequence of High & Low decisions to 
move from left-to-right and ultimately 
end at a color. 
For example, the color Orange would 
be “High Low Low”. 

Check Yourself:  

1. How would you represent the color ​Pink​? _____ _____ ____ 
 

2. What color does this represent: L

​ ow Low High​? _____________ 

(The answers are on the last page of this activity.) 

   

12
Hey! We Can Use Binary For This! 
A ​0​ will represent a L
​ ow / Down ​choice and a 1
​ ​ will represent a ​High / Up​ choice. For 
example: the binary number ​1001​ could be read as ​“High Low Low High” 
 
Using the same color map from before, we can use a ​binary number​ to represent a 
color​. For example, the ​number​ 0
​ 10​ represents the c​ olor​ g
​ reen 

Now You Try! 

1. Use this chart to determine what color would be coded by the number 1
​ 11​. _____ 

2. Use the chart to determine what binary number would represent the color ​orange.  
(The answers are on the last page of this activity.) 
 
 

13
Representing Multiple Colors 
I​f we wanted to represent a s
​ equence​ of colors, we can write a ​sequence​ of binary 
numbers to represent those colors. Here’s an example: 
101011110000 
This longer binary number secretly represents ​4 different colors​. We can see each 
individual color by breaking this number up into c​ hunks of 3​: 
101011110000 → 1
​ 01​ ​011​ 1
​ 10​ ​000 
Each ​chunk ​represents a single color. We can use the same chart to figure out 
each of these individual colors: 
 
101 → Red 
 
011 → Yellow 
 
110 → Pink 
 
000 → Purple 

So the n
​ umber​ ​101011110000​ represents the ​colors​ R
​ ed Yellow Pink Purple 

Now You Try! 

1. What colors are represented by 1
​ 10011010​ (hint: 3 colors) 

2. What binary sequence represents ​Blue Orange Black​? (hint: 9 digits) 

14
An Introduction to Pixels 
Most electronics like smartphones, computers, and television screens are made of 
millions of tiny pieces called ​pixels​. Each pixel is like a tiny little box on your screen that 
is used to represent the images we see. Usually the pixels are so s​ mall​ that we don’t 
even notice the boxes, but when we zoom-in we start to see them more clearly. 

 
Source: csunplugged.org  
Our electronic devices use ​binary signals​ to determine what types of images to create 
using these pixels using the following steps:  
● They receive a b
​ inary sequence 
● They ​decode​ the sequence to determine what colors the sequence represents 
● Each color represents a certain ​pixel​. The computer draws that color in the 
appropriate box 
 

For Example: 

15
You Try! 
Use colored pencils / markers / post-its / crayons / etc to draw in the colors for each of 
the grids below. Use this n
​ ew​ choice-map to determine which colors to use. The 
answers are on the next page for you to check when you’re done. 

 
 

(Color This In!) 

100111001   
110101011       

100010001       

     
 

(Color This In!) 

100001100   
001100001       

100001100       

     
 

 
16
More Practice Drawing Pictures with Binary 

   

Binary Encoding for 10x10 image 

 

111 111 000 000 111 111 000 000 111 111  
111 000 100 100 000 000 001 001 000 111  
000 100 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 000  
000 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 000  
000 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 000 
000 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 
111 000 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 111  
111 111 000 110 101 101 011 000 111 111  
111 111 111 000 101 011 000 111 111 111  
111 111 111 111 000 000 111 111 111 111  
 
 
 
 

17
  
                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                     

                   

                   
 

Binary Encoding for 10x10 image 

 
111 111 000 000 111 111 000 000 111 111  
111 000 100 100 000 000 001 001 000 111  
000 100 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 000  
000 100 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 000  
000 010 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 000 
000 010 001 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 
111 000 001 110 110 101 101 011 000 111  
111 111 000 110 101 101 011 000 111 111  
111 111 111 000 101 011 000 111 111 111  
111 111 111 111 000 000 111 111 111 111  
 
 
 
 
18
 

   

Binary Encoding for 8x8 image 

 

000 111 111 111 111 111 110 110  

000 000 000 010 010 100 110 110  
001 000 010 010 010 100 100 100  
001 001 001 001 101 101 101 100  
110 011 011 011 111 111 101 101  
110 011 001 011 010 111 111 000  
110 110 001 010 010 010 111 000  
110 001 001 001 010 000 000 000  
 
 
 
   

19
 

 
               

               

               

               

               

               

               

                 
 

Binary Encoding for 8x8 image 

 

000 111 111 111 111 111 110 110  

000 000 000 010 010 100 110 110  
001 000 010 010 010 100 100 100  
001 001 001 001 101 101 101 100  
110 011 011 011 111 111 101 101  
110 011 001 011 010 111 111 000  
110 110 001 010 010 010 111 000  
110 001 001 001 010 000 000 000  
 
 
 
 
 

20
Answers
 

Page 12  1. Pink​ would be “Up Up Down” 

2. Low Low High​ would be “Blue” 

Page 13  1. 111​ represents “Up Up Up” which is the color b

​ lack 
2. Orange​ is “Up Down Down” which is the number ​100 

Page 14  1. 110011010 → 110 011 010 → Pink Yellow Green 

2. Blue Orange Black → 001 100 111 → 001100111 

Page 16   
100111001 
Red  White  Blue 
110101011 
Yellow  Purple  Cyan 
100010001 
Red  Green  Blue 
 

 
100001100 
Red  Blue  Red 
001100001 
Blue  Red  Blue 
100001100 
Red  Blue  Red 
 
 
Using ​binary numbers​ to represent Pixels, we can make some really creative designs. In 
the next few pages, you’ll have a chance to create some of these Pixel Art designs. 
 

     

21
More Unplugged Resources  
 
These lessons were designed for classroom use for teachers and students, but they’re easily 
suited for at-home learning.  
Description  URL  QR Code 

Secret Handshakes  https://sites.google.com/sfus

  d.edu/k-2cs/red/unit-1-unpl
Age Group 4-11yrs  ugged-cs/3-secret-handsha
  ke-sequencing 
In this lesson, students develop their 
own secret handshake sequences 
using three or more moves. They 
record their sequences with symbols 
and revise them based on challenge   
criteria. 

What is a Computer?  https://curriculum.code.org/c

  sd-19/unit1/4/ 
Age Group: 4-11yrs 
 
In this activity students develop a 
preliminary definition of a computer 
through brainstorming ideas and 
sorting pictures into “is a computer” 
and “is not a computer” categories.   

My Robotic Friend  https://csedweek.org/files/C

  SEDrobotics.pdf 
Age Group: 7-11yrs 
 
Using a predefined “Robot 
Vocabulary” your student will figure 
out how to guide you to accomplish 
specific tasks without discussing 
them first. This segment teaches   
students the connection between 
symbols and actions, as well as the 
valuable skill of debugging. 

22
 Representing Numbers  https://curriculum.code.org/c
  sd-20/unit5/5/ 
Age Group: 7-11yrs 
 
In this lesson, students learn about 
the binary number system. With a 
set of cards that represent the place 
values in a binary (base-2) number 
system by a collection of dots,   
students turn bits "on" or "off" by 
turning cards face up and face 
down, then observe the numbers 
that result from these different 
patterns.  

Paper AI  https://minecraft.makecode.

  com/courses/csintro/ai/unplu
Age Group: 10-18yrs  gged 
 
Play a game that they are probably 
all so familiar with that they may 
have stopped playing it altogether 
because it’s not a challenge 
anymore. It’s Tic-Tac-Toe!   

Will it Crash?  https://curriculum.code.org/c

  sp-19/unit5/7/ 
Age Group: 11-18yrs 
 
Students trace simple robot 
programs on paper to develop a 
sense of how to read and reason 
about code with if statements in it. 
Students also try their hand at   
writing code by hand to handle a 
robot situation. 

23