Career day in kindergarten
- by Péter Török
I was invited to the kindergarten group of my elder daughter to talk and answer the kids' questions about my profession. There are 26 kids of age 4-6 in the group, plus 3 teachers who are fairly scared of anything related to programming and IT themselves, but bold enough to learn new tricks. I would have about 20-30 minutes, without projector or anything. They have an old computer though, which by its look may be a 486, and I am not even sure if it's functioning.
My research turned up excellent earlier threads, with lots of good tips:
How would you explain your job to a 5-year old?
Career Day: how do I make “computer programmer” sound cool to 8 year olds?
What things can I teach a group of children about programming in one day?
My situation is different from each of the above though: the latter ones are concerned with older children, while the first one is about talking to a single kid (or elder person)—a group of 20 is a whole different challenge.
How can I teach the kids and their teachers about programming in a fun way?