Code the robot
Plan every step
Games · 5 games
Coding and Logic Games for Kids Aged 5 to 10
Plan a robot through a maze with arrow blocks, and finish number and colour patterns. Block coding has a measured effect on problem solving.
The 5 games
Line them up
Sort by swapping neighbours
Move the tower
Never a big disc on a small one
Number patterns
2, 4, 8, 16, ?
Colour patterns
What comes next?
A wrong answer never passes: the task stays and the help grows. Anything missed comes back tomorrow, then in three days, then in a week.
Three games about planning ahead: a robot that only moves once the whole path is built, and patterns that hide a rule.
Code the robot
Five mazes. The child builds the whole path out of Up, Down, Left and Right blocks, then presses Run and watches it play out. If the robot hits a wall it bumps, says so, and goes back to the start — so a wrong plan costs a few seconds and nothing else.
Planning the whole sequence before seeing any of it run is the part that matters. Studies of block-based programming at primary age find a clear effect on problem solving, larger than the effect on any single subject.
Number patterns
2, 4, 8, 16 — what comes next? The rules grow from adding a fixed step to doubling and to a step that grows each time. After a correct answer the rule is named, so the child ends up with a word for what they spotted.
Colour patterns
Repeating sequences of two or three colours. Easier than the numbers, and a good first game for a younger child.