free coding websites for elementary students

Now that we had the hang of this cool secret code thing, it was time for us to try making our own! It’s a fabulous way to encourage a child who might not like writing, they will be so busy coding an de-coding messages that they won’t even know they are writing! Give it a try with your kids. Pigpen Cipher is a super fun secret code for written messages. You can download the free printable pigpen secret code sheet here. I left my boys a secret message in pigpen for them to decode when they woke up one morning!Īfter that first message I suddenly started to get little notes written in Pigpen, so I had to keep my decoder sheet handy so I could work out what they said! The Pigpen cipher is a really old code that is really fun to write. It’s loads of fun to send Morse code messages. Try sending Morse code messages with sounds, or actions (such as a flashing light), as well as writing it down. You can download the free printable Morse code sheet here. We even had a go at using a flashlight to send Morse code, which was tricky but lots of fun! We made a ‘cheat sheet’ and wrote some Morse code messages. Once a prisoner of war even sent a message in Morse code by blinking his eyes! You can write Morse code, or send it with flashes of light or sounds. Morse code uses dots, dashes and spaces to represent letters numbers and symbols. We started out with mouse… I mean Morse code because my 7 year old had read about it in a Horrible HIstories book (affiliate link). It didn’t take long for my kids to lose themselves in learning, deciphering and creating their own secret codes. The idea of being able to read and write in a secret code, or better yet, create your own secret code that no one else knows, is magical! Imagine being able to write notes to each other that no one else can read!

Free coding websites for elementary students