Turtle TilesRestored from the original mckoss.com, where these lessons were first published in 1996.
In the fall of 1995 I started teaching my son’s second grade class how to program using the Logo programming language. Logo is wonderful because for very little work you can get some great graphical feedback. One of the themes of my class has been demonstrating that some seemingly complex things are in reality created by very simple processes.
We used MSW Logo, written by George Mills, which ran on Windows 3.1. Today you don’t need to install anything: every example in these lessons runs right on the page. Click Run to watch the turtle draw, change the program, and run it again. The Logo Playground is a place to write your own programs and save them in your browser. The Logo Language Reference lists every command you can use, with examples.
Logo Lessons
I prepared a number of hand-out materials and worksheets when we started the class.
Logo Facts
Using the Repeat Command
Making Your Own Words
Music and Random Numbers
Fun Programs
Your Own Programs
- The Logo Playground
- The Logo Language Reference
- Turtle Tiles: Logo for children who can’t read yet. Tap and drag picture tiles on a tablet to make the turtle walk, turn, draw in color and play notes.
Logo v2.0.3
What’s Next (March 31, 2001)
If you’ve enjoyed learning to program in Logo and want to learn more about programming, I’d also highly recommend that you learn JavaScript. JavaScript is a programming language widely used to develop programs that can run right in your web browser. The language syntax is based on the “C” programming language, but is much easier to use. For the more advanced student, I’ve posted a collection of some of my JavaScript programs. See also my paper on Object Oriented Programming in JavaScript.
This material may be freely used and copied for educational purposes.