N.B. Although the word 'Roamer' is used throughout this document, it can just as well refer to a PIP, Pixie, Buggy or any other programmable toy.

Young children love working with robots, getting them to perform simple tasks, but before this, it is important that they get the opportunity to give each other instructions to go from place to place, exploring direction, distance and turn. This will make the transition to using a programmable toy much smoother.

Human robots
Introduce forwards/backwards/left/right and the need for a unit
Separate turns from travel
Discuss the need for precise language
Introduce the need to give instructions in sequence
Give each other instructions to move around the room, to pick something up, to avoid an obstacle - or any of the floor robot activities below.

Children will need practical experience of seeing and predicting the direction and distance a robot moves, and the amount it turns.
They need time to observe, then to make predictions and to test them.
Children will need a lot of support in this – talking about it (with an adult) is a vital part of the process.

Programming the Roamer
You need to be clear yourself what each button does, before using the Roamer with the children.
Things to remember
• Press CM (clear memory) twice before entering a new instruction
• Press the arrow first, then the distance (1 is usually 30cm – a Roamer length – or one degree)

If you want to change the distance, or the amount of turn

CM CM [1] GO – will make it go forward in centimetres
(similarly CM CM [10] GO will make it go forwards on 10cm steps, and so on)

Whilst CM CM [90] GO – will make it turn in right angles

• Pressing W (Wait) followed by a number will make the Roamer pause for that many seconds
• You can make the Roamer ’sing’ by pressing the musical note, then a number for the pitch and another for the duration (it will stop whilst it is making the noise).
• The R button makes the Roamer repeat any instructions you give, by the number of times you tell it – the action to be repeated needs to be in brackets (like LOGO) – so R4[ 2 90] will give you a 60cm square

• It is important that children keep a record of the instructions that they give the Roamer, so that they are very clear as to what they have done and how it relates to the Roamer. A good introduction to this is to guide the Roamer around a maze with individual instructions, writing down each one, and then programming all the instructions in, before pressing ‘go’.

Floor robot activities
• Move forward to a partner
• Turn to face a named person in a circle
• Go through partner's legs
• Travel around the room
• Draw a target on the floor with chalk, get the Roamer to stop in a specific part of it
• Demolish a tower
• Knock down some skittles
• Find some treasure
• Collect treasure (using magnet and paper clips)
• Explore a maze
• Dance
• Travel round a floor map
• Link to points of the compass
• Draw a shape - put a felt pen in the hole in the centre of the Roamer (tip -weight it down with blu-tack or similar), place onto a large piece of paper, program Roamer to create a square, oblong etc. Extend this to letters of the alphabet…
• Older or more confident children could use the repeat instruction to create a series of regular polygons.

<You could use masking tape to create tracks and grids, marking out an area of the floor which could be left for at least a few days. The track needs to be measured in Roamer ‘steps’. The Roamer’s unit of linear distance is 30 cm, which is its diameter.>

• On the number track, children may be asked to move to 5 in two steps.
• Put number cards randomly in a line then visit them in order.
• Put number cards in order, children answer sums and send Roamer to the number which is the answer.

Role play with the Roamer
This can be an ideal opportunity to assess young children in several areas of learning e.g. social skills, working together, their ability to act out and respond to each other in role, create imaginary scenes and scenarios for the Roamers and the characters in role, their ability to program the Roamer to do exactly what they intended, the language they use.

'People who help us'
• a street cleaner/rubbish collector
• a milk delivery Roamer
• a post man/woman
• a newspaper girl/boy
• a police car with siren
• a fire engine
• an ambulance

Roamer could be turned into a character from a book, such as the Hungry Caterpillar, the Jolly Postman etc

Turn Roamer into a butterfly and visit 'flowers' - could put cubes on the flowers and collect one each time visit the flower.

Children pretend the Roamer is a school bus. They need to get the bus to travel round a map (or grid etc) collecting school children.

Children directing the Roamer to various parts of a large 'picture plan' of a park. Send the Roamer to collect a variety of cardboard shapes (fish, ball, ice-cream, flower, bread, etc.).

The home corner could be changed into a vet's surgery and the Roamer into an ambulance. A 'picture plan' could be designed with trees, a pond, kennels, houses. Small soft toys could be used as the patients, located on various points on the plan. Roamer needs to collect the animals and bring them to the surgery to be treated

Click here to download this file in Word format