EU code week October 2025

 

In October, some classes took part in the European Code Week, a Europe-wide celebration of creativity and digital thinking! Although the activities were unplugged, students had the chance to explore the basics of coding through pixel art, discovering how simple patterns and logical steps can bring images to life in a fun, hands-on way.

Let’s code food!

This activity acquainted learners with the idea of art in pixels so that they could realise how digital pictures are created bit by bit and how each pixel represents one specific colour. 6^th grade explored the theme of food, a sub-topic within the shopping unit in their coursebook while celebrating World Food Day, which is observed on October 16^th.

Bit by bit, they decoded colourful, food-themed pixel pictures — from juicy fruits to delicious pizza— uncovering how digital images come to life through colour coding.

But that wasn’t all! Along the way, they explored a list of fun and surprising facts about the kind of food they were decoding. From quirky fruit trivia to astonishing snack secrets, each student chose the fact that impressed them most and shared it with the class.

Draw just like Mondriaan

Younger learners were introduced to the idea of pixel art and coding/decoding in order to realise how a picture is digitally created. At the same time the acivitiy aimed at acquainting them with Mondriaan's art and the primary colours he used.

The learners decoded animals painted in the famous Dutch painter's style, realising how a number corresponds to a specific colour on paper and seeing the image revealed in their eyes "pixel" by "pixel". At the same time they cultivated their logical, observational and aesthetic skills, while consolidating colours, animals and shapes in English.

European Code Week May 2025 - Pets in Pixels

 

Alliances for Code Week can be formed throughout the year, allowing schools, teachers, and students to collaborate on creative coding projects at any time. This ongoing cooperation strengthens digital skills, promotes teamwork, and builds a sense of community across Europe. This activity was organised within the framework of the eTwinning project “Do you need me? Because I need you!”, which aimed at promoting animal welfare and responsible pet ownership while developing multiple intelligences and digital skills. The learners read the code of a picture in pixel art in order to “break” it and recreate the picture. Every picture revealed a different pet and the learners had to give clues to their classmates so that they could name it. Through pixel art the primary school students were introduced to the basic concepts of coding/decoding in an entertaining and creative way. This enabled them to develop logical thinking, which constitutes a basic decoding skill, promote their computational skills and ultimately reinforce their problem-solving skills.

EU Code Week 2024 - (14-27 October)

 An entertaining and creative way to promote computational thinking in learners is through their participation in the EU Code Week, an initiative funded by the European Union in order to boost decoding and coding skills as well as collaboration among schools (For more information visit: https://codeweek.eu/ ).

During a two-hour English session one class of 5^th-graders took part in an activity titled: “And now, what do I feel?” (which was chosen in order to be combined with emotional expression activities for World Mental Health Day). Our learners read and decoded picture codes and, as they were colouring the squares which corresponded to the pixels of each image, they named the feeling that was revealed each time in the form of an emoji.

Afterwards they roamed around the classroom in order to read riddles related to feelings. Those were posted on the classroom walls and the learners matched each of them with the appropriate feeling.

Finally, using the digital app ZaplyCode (https://www.zaplycode.it/)  they designed and created digitally their own emoji related to another feeling (they opted for calmness), which was coded automatically by the app.

Find the calm emoji code created by our learners below:

Look at the calm emoji image:

Certificate of excellence