Do you see it up in the corner? That's it - Cubetto. My students are in love. 

I have been using Cubetto from Primo with my kindergarten classes this spring. It has been so much fun and every adult who is in the room with me is astounded. There are so many things I love about this robot. 

• It's screen free!
• It involves story!
• We can get hands on!
• Many different topics are embedded!
• Oh, and then there's the whole computational thinking/coding thing.

I purchased the Cubetto + Adventure Pack. Here's what you get: Cubetto, Board, 16 blocks, 5 World maps made of cloth & 5 story books. 

We got started simply by bringing half a class down on the floor where I had Cubetto ready to go. (You do need AA batteries!) The kids were so excited! Everyone got to touch the robot and pat it on the head. Then we started to try out the different blocks. We loved that the green block moved it forward and the red block turned it right because they were easy to remember. Yellow turns left and the blue (function block) was a mystery for a while. Next, we noticed the compass rose and talked about the directions on the map. Cubetto starts on the compass rose. Then we started reading the story and away we went. I made sure each child got to add blocks and push the blue button to execute the program. 

Here's one more action shot:

Even my 10 year old was fascinated by Cubetto!

Cubetto gets kids to think about what must happen to accomplish different goals - that idea of computational thinking.There is all kinds of great language building happening too! It's coding without the screen. It's creative, play, and fun! 

There are many resources available for Cubetto and I'm excited to have my students try some new things, such as building their own course to maneuver Cubetto through. I think there are endless possibilities with Cubetto!