Free preview. The G5 capstone idea (recursion) gets a hands-on warmup so kids feel it before we code it.
By the end of this week: describe a problem that contains a smaller version of itself, using a real-world analogy
You'll need
- Pencil and paper
- 5 cups or paper plates of different sizes
📘 Pairs with the print workbook, p8-13.
For grown-ups: Free preview week. Pairs to pages 8–13 of the print workbook.
The warmup (off-screen, 10–15 minutes)
[OFF-SCREEN ACTIVITY: Tower of Hanoi cup-stack puzzle]
Sibling task fills this in: structured guided activity with 5 nested cups, the “never put bigger on smaller” rule, and a parent prompt for what the kid notices. Authoring guide in the playbook.
What recursion is
[LESSON BODY]
Sibling task fills this in: real lesson content for the recursion intro: analogy, the formal definition, why programmers reach for it, and the key intuition (don’t try to solve the whole problem in your head; solve one step and trust the smaller problem).
In code
[INTERACTIVE EDITOR: Week 1, Code Block 1, recursive function tracer]
Sibling task fills this in: short recursive function in the kid editor with a “step through the calls” widget. Authoring guide in the playbook.
When you finish
Tap Mark week complete below. Next week: how the computer remembers where it is during a recursive call (the call stack), and when iteration is the better choice.