Free printable coding worksheets
Six sheets that go from reading code to writing it: follow a three-arrow code across a 3×3 grid, follow one that picks up an apple on the way, follow one that goes round two walls, circle the shortest of three codes that all land, then write the code for a drawn path, and the shortest code for another. Four arrows, a start square and a battery. Nothing plugs in. Drawn with the book's tools, and in none of it.
US Letter · 6 pages · black and white · no signup
What is on the sheets
Print at actual size (100%), not "fit to page". The target sizes on these pages are chosen for a particular age of hand, and scaling shrinks them.
Using them well
Predict before drawing
Each read-the-code sheet asks the child to circle where the robot lands before they draw. That guess is the whole skill: running the code in their head.
Be the robot
Read the child's code aloud and walk it on the kitchen floor, exactly, including the step that is wrong. Do not correct as you go. Walk into the wall.
Shortest is a real question
Two sheets ask for the fewest arrows that work. On one, all three codes land on the battery; picking the shortest is the first time a child chooses between working answers.
Questions
Do these coding worksheets need a computer?
No. Nothing on them connects to anything. The child needs a pencil, the printed sheets, and an adult willing to be the robot.
What age are these coding worksheets for?
Four to six. Reading a three-arrow code and drawing the path is a four-year-old's task. Writing the code for a drawn path is a five-year-old's, and the two shortest-code sheets are for five or six.
What do the arrows mean?
Up, down, left and right, one square each. The key is printed on every sheet, and it is the same four arrows on every page of the book, so a child who learns them here can read the book.
Do I need to sign up or pay?
No. One PDF, six pages, no email address. They are not pages of the book: they are six new activities drawn by the book's renderer and checked by its simulator, with our mark and this address where a page number would be.
Guides that go with these
Unplugged coding for preschoolers: where to start
Four ideas underneath every programming language, none of which need a computer, and the order a four-year-old can meet them in.
Choosing a bookWhich activity book for which age: 3, 4, 5 and 6
The maze book lists from three. The other three list from four. Here is what sits inside those ranges: the book for each age, the page to open it at, and the sign that says move up.
For grown-upsHow to sit beside a child doing a worksheet
The most challenging part of an activity book is not on the page. It is sitting there while a four-year-old gets it wrong.
How we make themWhy our activity books are printed in black and white
The research behind it, the one finding that argues against it, and what the child gets in return.
Where these came from
These 6 are not in the book.
Sequences, loops, conditionals and debugging, written in arrows on paper. No app, no tablet, no login. A locked symbol set of arrows and a grid. The child reads a code and traces it, then writes a code of their own, then shortens it with a loop, then finds the one wrong step in a code that does not work.
