Colorado Computer Science: 5th Grade
- Level Elementary School
- Number of Lessons 35
- Grade 5th
This course is aligned to the Colorado 5th grade Computer Science standards and is designed to provide computer science and digital literacy instruction for Colorado 5th grade students. It is meant to be taught approximately weekly.
See the full syllabus for all topics and activities, or explore the course to try it out.
UNITS - 6 (35 lessons)
Students review foundational CS vocabulary, the coordinate plane, and drawing tools before beginning the year's units.
Students use computational thinking to design a neighborhood and practice identifying computing system components and issues.
Students use events, debug programs, and collaborate through pair programming to build a keyboard-controlled band.
Students explore digital literacy topics including cyberbullying, cybersecurity and privacy, cybersecurity laws, data analysis, networking protocols, and how AI and machine learning compare to human capabilities.
Students build and refine algorithms and use conditionals, operators, clones, classes/objects, and functions to build games, then apply design thinking to create an app.
Students apply programming to interdisciplinary content in social studies (civics), science (astronomy, ecosystems), ELA (book reports, informational texts), and math (fractions, algebra, rates).
Explore a sample lesson from this course!
5th grade students build advanced programs using events, algorithms, loops, conditionals, operators, clones, classes, objects, and functions, with projects like turtle graphics, a throwing acorns game, and an app design. They apply coding to rights and responsibilities, star brightness, ecosystems, informational texts, a multimedia book report, fractions, algebraic equations, and unit rates. Students also learn to report cyberbullying, practice cybersecurity and privacy, research cybersecurity laws, analyze data, explore networks, and learn how machines learn.
An Interdisciplinary Exploration unit uses coding to teach grade-level content in math, science, English language arts, and social studies, such as rights and responsibilities, star brightness and distance, balanced ecosystems, main ideas in informational texts, a multimedia book report, multiplying and dividing fractions, algebraic equations, and unit rates.
The course includes 36 lessons, each about 45 minutes long, providing a full year of instruction. Every lesson is built in a ready-to-teach format, with step-by-step videos that walk students through the lesson. Lessons are designed to be teacher-led using an "I do, we do, you do" format, and a self-paced option is also available. Many digital literacy lessons include unplugged activities with printable handouts. Concepts spiral across grade levels, so students build on what they learned even if not every lesson is completed in a single year. Optional review lessons at the start of the course are not counted in the 36 lessons.
No. There are no prerequisites, and the course is designed to support all learners regardless of prior computer science experience. Optional review lessons at the start of the course help students who are new to CodeHop learn the basics before moving into grade-level content.
Colorado Computer Science: 5th Grade is aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards for Computer Science, and the course syllabus identifies the standards each lesson addresses to support planning.
