Creative Coding with the Love Letters Project

“Love Letters” teaches students introductory coding with Turtle graphics and CoffeeScript using the “Make Art” platform by Kano. Students will code greeting cards. Cards may be themed to the season (i.e. Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, or Winter Holidays). Cards may be printed and donated to your local senior meal delivery service or sent to “Art, Technically” as digital files to be printed and donated to senior meal delivery services.

Learning Outcomes

  • Students will learn art-based coding using Turtle Graphics.
  • Students will apply basic computer programming fundamentals, including the use of functions and functors, to their art-based coding.
  • Students will explore vectors and the two-dimensional coordinate plane.
  • Students will examine the issue and impact of senior food insecurity in the United States.

Steps

  1. Workshop Introduction
  2. Introduction to Coding
  3. Make Art Basic Challenges
  4. Final Projects
  5. Send cards
Lesson Plan PDF

Subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Art, Social Studies

Age Range: 3rd-10th Grade

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 60-150 minutes

Materials:

  • A computer with internet access for each student or student group
  • A “Make Art” Account
  • Printouts (included in Appendix)

The Love Letters Project

“Love Letters” is a workshop that teaches students introductory coding through creating greeting cards. The cards are themed to a season, usually Valentine’s Day, and are printed and donated to senior meal delivery services. These ‘love letters’ help students learn to code and participate in a service project that helps bring joy to disadvantaged seniors. Valentine’s Day 2023 will be the seven-year anniversary of the Love Letters project! Donate below to help brighten a homebound senior’s day with a Valentine’s Day card!

Workshop leader Lily teaches a Love Letters Creative Coding workshop to students at North Coffee Elementary School.

The Young Black Scientists and Engineers Panel hosted a Love Letters workshop during Black Families Technology Awareness Day 2022.

Valentine's Day cards

Examples of Valentine’s Day cards made with code by students during Creative Coding workshops.

COVID-19 Addendum

This set includes cards for thanking our healthcare workers and promoting social distancing practices! In light of the early closure of schools this year, this lesson plan and set is a great way to teach beginning coding principles in a fun and relevant way. If you’re a parent, include this in a homeschool lesson. If you’re a teacher, include this in a math or technology lesson plan, or email team@arttechnically.org to set up a free Zoom workshop session hosted by one of our workshop leaders!
 
This addendum Includes:
  • Red Cross (Thank our healthcare workers.)
  • Social Distancing (smiley faces)
  • Mask
  • Stay Home

This is a video tutorial to code cards for healthcare workers on the Art.Kano.Me platform. It walks through the four above designs and part of the complete Love Letters lesson plan. (54 minutes)

Halloween/Autumn Addendum

Get the spooky halloween and crisp autumn CoffeeScript templates for your fall workshops and lesson plans! Follows the same curriculum as our popular Valentine’s Day “Love Letters” lesson plan; just use the templates below and if students free-code, ask for autumn/halloween themed cards!
 
Includes:
  • Easy: “I See You” and “Spooky Skull”
  • Medium: “Black Cat” and “Happy Pumpkin”
  • Advanced: “You Put a Spell on Me” (explores variable naming and transparency) and “Pumpkin Pattern” (explores nested for loops)
 

#EmbassyRowCodes Addendum

#EmbassyRowCodes is an ongoing project in partnership with Miss Embassy Row USA 2020 to promote the Washington, DC Embassy Row community and STEAM Education.