So far, the students have been the acting as robots themselves, following instructions to make patterns and draw pictures. They have learned that to get the right result, the sequencing and order of our code has to be followed closely.

Today, we're going to meet a robot that lives on a screen. This robot can follow all the same commands we used to draw, and it will show us just how good it is at following our code.

Materials Needed:

• A Screen/Projector: To display the simple web application.

• Worksheets: Have the "Drawing Robot" worksheets printed for each student. You can also print the Grid Robot Worksheet for early finishers!

• Markers: To draw example shapes before moving to digital drawing.

Introduce the Paintbrush Path.

Pupils will direct the brush with clear commands  to try to recreate the target image shown on the left hand side grid.

Do a quick demo: point to the start, read one command at a time, and show how the brush draws a line after each move.

Then let the class suggest the next single command to build the picture step by step. This warm-up tunes their direction and sequencing skills for the rest of today’s lesson.

Tell the students you are going to code the digital robot to draw letters on the dot grid, just like they drew shapes with their markers.

Choose a simple letter (like L or T) and sketch it on the board using a 4×4 dot grid.

Click the arrow buttons in the order the robot must move to trace that letter.

As you click, the code will appear on the screen, building the sequence.

Once you are done, press the “Run” button. The digital robot will then draw the letter on the screen.

Explain to the students that this robot is very fast, but it isn’t very smart! It doesn't know what a 'square' or a 'staircase' is. It only knows four words: Up, Down, Left, and Right. To make a shape, we have to build our instructions of arrows in the queue. If one arrow is wrong, the robot will get lost!

Have the students use their fingers to trace the path on the screen first.

Click the arrow buttons. Watch the "Code Queue" fill up.

Press the green Run Code button.

If the path is correct, the Success Banner will pop up!

Tell pupils they are going to work through two coding missions on their own to practice writing and following instructions.

For the first mission (The Digital Robot), give each pupil the worksheet that contains a set of pre-written arrow instructions. Using their own grid sheets, pupils must follow the arrows exactly to reveal a secret shape or letter. Remind them to start at the top-left dot and draw their path carefully as they read the code.

For the second mission (The Grid Robot), pupils will become the programmers. On their second worksheet, they must choose a simple shape or letter—like a square, a T, or a staircase—and draw it onto the grid first. Once their shape is drawn, they must write the corresponding arrow code (➡️ ⬇️ ⬅️ ⬆️) that would allow someone else to recreate that exact path.

When everyone is finished, you can ask pupils to look at their code and see if it perfectly matches the shape they drew. If there is a mistake, tell them they have found a “bug” and should try to fix the arrows so the code is 100% accurate.

If you like, finish by asking a few pupils to share a code they wrote with the whole class to see if the rest of the class can guess the shape before you reveal the drawing.