Previously I’ve blogged about a picture book called Hello Ruby: Adventures in Computational Thinking. Well, recently I purchased another Hello Ruby picture book called, Hello Ruby: Journey inside a computer. Hello Ruby’s founder Linda is a programmer, storyteller and illustrator from Helsinki, Finland. Her books are published in over 24 languages, with the Japanese edition of Ruby being the most sold children’s book on Amazon and Rakuten for a week. Below is a TED talk delivered by Linda explaining her book.

I  used the picture book to create a program for year 1 teachers at my school. The Australian content descriptor which I needed to program for was for students to ‘recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose’. I looked at each chapters and the recommended activities in the back of the book and created a program which you can download at the end of this blog.

I wanted the program to integrate not only technology but science, engineering and maths. I also added a range of my own ideas including: students making a desktop computer out of recycled materials, viewing and touching parts of old computers, students making a laptop about of a folded piece of cardboard showing the components of the motherboard, designing the interface for a mobile phone and designing an app for a purpose.

Teachers at my school will work with the program this term and I’ll let you know how they go. My program can be downloaded below, please respect my copy right requests, share and use for non-profit and please note, you will need to purchase the text Hello Ruby in order to use my program. I have not, and will not profit in anyway from sharing my program.

Y 1 Digital Technologies – Journey inside the computer-2dnqlxa