Extracurricular Computing Club Ideas

Written by Kapow Primary

Published on 17th October 2019

Last Updated: 3rd July 2024

Are you looking for extracurricular Computing club ideas?  Are you a Computing co-ordinator or subject leader and have been asked to set up a Computing club and don’t know where to start? Or are you a Computing enthusiast who wants to help children get excited about Computing outside of the Computing curriculum? Perhaps you’ve identified some children in your school with a particular gift for Computing and you want to extend their learning? Either way, it’s an extra thing to do on top of your already busy workload, and sometimes it can be very tricky to come up with new and exciting ideas.

That’s where we come in. We’ve come up with some great Computing club ideas that you can easily implement in your school that your children will love, and that will leave you time to do all the other things you need to do.

 

Computing club ideas for children 

  • Minecraft is one of the best ways to introduce coding to kids, download some free Minecraft software and watch your children get totally immersed in their new worlds. Set specific challenges too to keep them focused and on task.
  • Set a Bee-Bot challenge! Get Bee-Bot moving around and ask children to come up with their own bee-bot mats using large sheets of card or display paper. We’ve got lots of ideas for this in our Bee-bot Unit.
  • Run a Computer animation club with our Stop Motion Ideas. A great way to introduce new skills that might even end up helping children choose their future career.

 

computing after school club

 

  • Have you seen “Hour of Code“? there are specific challenges that children have to complete and each one builds on previous knowledge. This is great for introducing coding to a range of ages and abilities.
  • Fancy running a Scratch club? Find out more with our Scratch programming lessons.
  • Design a website! Web design is a much sought after skill in the world of work, and it’s actually really satisfying too, with a tangible result. Challenge your children to create simple free websites about a hobby, their local area, books they love or whatever they suggest! For extra guidance, you can refer to our website design lessons too.
  • Photo-editing! Ask children to take photos round school based on a certain theme, for example “our community”, “materials around us”, “the weather” or anything else that the children suggest. When they’re done, practise editing the photos using a simple photo editing software like Canva.

 

computing after school club 2

 

  • Ask children to prepare for an online safety assembly by preparing PowerPoint and their own research about ways to stay safe on the internet. You can use our online safety lessons too as a starting point.
  • iMovie is a great free app on iPads that allows you to create, edit and save movies. Do book reviews using iMovie, a tour of the school or whatever piques your children’s interest.
  • Good old Google Earth! Ask your children to list a series of places they have always wanted to visit, then together go and find them on Google Earth. Choose a different country each week.

 

Not sure where to start? Try a free trial of Kapow Primary to get new and fresh ideas for Computing!

 

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