I love that at a young age my daughter is already interested in STEM concepts including engineering and coding. So I am always looking for books that encourage her to dive deeper into STEM topics. So I was thrilled when we had the chance to check out the follow up to How to Code a Sandcastle, and pair it with coding activities for kids!

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How to Code a Roller Coaster was written by Josh Funk and illustrated by Sara Palacios. Join Pearl, the code loving little girl, and her robot buddy Pascal as they head to the amusement park for the day. They cannot wait to ride the big roller coaster, but decide that the line is too long to wait in right now. So they head out to enjoy the rest of the park, and use code to keep track of their coins and help them decide when to go back to the roller coaster.

The text is easy for kids to understand and introduces lots of coding concepts in a situation that makes sense to kids. The illustrations are bright and colorful, and kids will love the adorable Pearl and Pascal.

Create Your Own Roller Coaster

This fun story inspired my daughter to create her own roller coaster. She is a recent fan of roller coasters, so she was super excited to put her mind to use building her own. We used LEGO blocks and a stamp pad to create our roller coaster plans on a long sheet of paper. She had a lot of fun adding hills and flips with different colors of ink and sizes of blocks.

Have kids come up with a plan for their own themed roller coaster and put pen (or crayons) to paper to bring their creation to life. Inspire them to think outside the box and add different twists, turns, flips, or other surprises to their path. You could even take this one step further and use blocks or a roller coaster building kit to bring their creation to life.

Related Post: How to Code a Sandcastle: Making Coding Fun

Coding a Coaster Game

This coding game for kids uses a die and piece of paper to teach kids about coding. Code tells a computer what to do next, and this game helps them to see that in action. Each side of the die represents a different “code”, and every time the child rolls the die, they will take a different action based on the “code” that comes up.

First I gave my daughter a sheet of grid paper and encouraged her to pick a starting block along the left hand side. Next I had her roll the die and move her crayon the direction that the die told her too. As she continued to roll, her crayon moved along the page. I encouraged her to keep rolling and moving around the board until she made it to the other side.

1. forward
2. left
3. right
4. up
5. down
6. flip

Fair Games

In the book, Pascal and Pearl play a Bullseye game to try to win prizes. We decided to create our own simple game to play on a rainy day. We drew a large bullseye on a piece of paper and stuck it to the wall. Next, we created little balls out of masking tape and marked a spot on the ground a few feet back. We took turns throwing our balls at the target to see who could get the closest. This is a really easy boredom buster that you can create with things you have on hand. You could change this up by making a larger target or adding point values too.

Related Post: The Best STEM Books and Activities for Kids Who Love STEM

Secret Code

In the story, Pearl and Pascal have to find all of the letters to figure out the secret code. Since my daughter loves scavenger hunts and figuring out puzzles, we were inspired by this book to create secret code hunts around the house. I cut a piece of red paper into squares and wrote a letter on each one. Then I hid them around the house. Once she gathered them together, I encouraged her to move them around until she was able to figure out the secret code word. This would be a fun way to practice names or spelling words too.

We love following the adventures of Pearl and Pascal, and they always inspire us to have fun with some coding activities for kids! What are your favorite ways to teach kids about coding? Share in the comments below!

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