ONE KEY LOGO

One Key Logo is a very useful activity to develop in class, since it allows children to work together at their own levels to create a class resource or a tool for younger or less able pupils in school. It also offers an excellent way of assessing children's skill at creating and editing effective procedures.

What is One Key Logo?

Children create a range of procedures, initially on paper and then typed up later, to produce a wide variety of actions on screen. Children can work in groups or individually to create them. The procedures are given single letter or short names so that they are easily reused or applied by younger children. Over a week or two dozens of new procedures can be saved and added to the collection. A wall display can also be made for reference beside the computer.

Examples:

The procedure F could be made to move the turtle forward ten units...

to F
fd 10
end

The procedure L could be made to turn the turtle left by 45 degrees...

to L
left 45
end

The procedure J could be created to make the turtle jump forward...

to J
pu
fd 10
pd
end

Other procedures could include:

R - a procedure to turn the turtle to the right
C - a procedure to draw a circle
S - a procedure to create a square
FL - a procedure to create a flower
T - a procedure to create a tree
etc...

Other procedures generated by the children could change colours, create various polygons, print the time, draw letters, draw other common objects, etc.

The important part is encouraging the children to be both creative and challenged by the activity, creating procedures that are useful and matched to their ability.

Once a file of useful procedures has been created, other children can use the simple commands to quickly construct scenes and shapes.

The content and images within these pages is the copyright (c) of Mark Robinson and the children of Ambleside C.E. Primary School, 1999.