Thanksgiving STEAM: Turkey Color by Coding

November… Ever feel like this is the last month of the year to get some real learning in? December goes by so fast. And you’re kind of tired from Halloween and October? So you need tools that make planning a learning activity easy for the kids. Enter Turkey Color by Coding. Thanksgiving STEAM at its easiest! Kids will have fun deciphering the color codes with ASCII (more on that below) and then coloring in this silly, grinning turkey. And you’ve got a few minutes of learning built into coloring time.

Kids will love deciphering the code in this cute Thanksgiving STEAM activity printable! Turkey color by coding uses ASCII to create color codes. It's an easy way to add STEM and STEAM to the classroom or home this November and Thanksgiving.

Kids will love deciphering the code in this cute Thanksgiving STEAM activity printable! Turkey color by coding uses ASCII to create color codes. It's an easy way to add STEM and STEAM to the classroom or home this November and Thanksgiving.

What is Coding?

There’s a lot of talk today about coding being the language of the future. But what exactly is it and why is it important? Coding makes it possible for us to tell computers how to do stuff, like run our phones, play video games, and make a website. Any app you use on your phone or computer is possible because of code.

Computers speak the languages of zeroes and ones, essentially on and off signals to computer parts called transistors. These zeroes and ones have been translated into codes called the ASCII Binary code where every letter, number, and character has an 8 digit combination of zeroes and ones. ASCII is the most common format for text files for computers and the internet. It stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and uses numbers to represent letters and special characters. The binary version uses only zeros and ones in an 8 bit (or digit) pattern.

But it would take FOREVER to do anything if we had to do anything in just zeroes and ones, so computers use other languages now, that are all based upon binary. But for today’s activity, we’re going to design with where it all started, binary.

Thanksgiving STEAM Turkey Color by Coding Supplies Needed

You don’t need much for this learning activity. And that makes it a perfect budget time filler in class or at home.

  • Turkey Color by Coding printable
  • Paper
  • Printer
  • Art supplies like markers, crayons, or colored pencils
  • Ruler (optional, but a ruler can help kids grab the right code on the ASCII code list)

Turkey-Color-by-Coding-680x450
Turkey-Color-by-Coding-800x800-title

FREE! THANKSGIVING
TURKEY SCREEN-FREE
CODING PRINTABLE ACTIVITY

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How to Color by Code

If the kids have ever done a color by number page, they’re halfway there to figuring this out. Except they have to decipher which color goes with each number. And the way they will do it is with a computer code called ASCII. Depending upon their ability levels, kids will find the codes in either the Binary or Decimal columns on the ASCII sheet and figure out which letter corresponds to the code. Then enter that letter on the color code sheet until they’ve spelled out the colors. Then they can color away!

Turkey color by coding

You might notice that I don’t have as many pictures of this activity as normal. Well… I got kind of distracted :) Started playing with my kitten Jade who kept photobombing my pictures and then the next thing I knew it was time to make dinner. Oops! Anyway, you probably don’t need an action shot of me or my daughter sniffing Mr. Sketch markers or coloring a big ole turkey, anyway.

Turkey color by coding

What’s Inside This Turkey Color by Coding Printable

I’ve included everything you need to have a nice Thanksgiving STEAM learning session in class or at home. The printable includes:

    • turkey color by number coloring page
    • answer key
    • ASCII binary and decimal decipher the color code page
    • ASCII code sheet
    • teacher guide
    • What’s the STEAM Behind It? background learning page

Turkey color by coding

Turkey-Color-by-Coding-680x450
Turkey-Color-by-Coding-800x800-title

FREE! THANKSGIVING
TURKEY SCREEN-FREE
CODING PRINTABLE ACTIVITY

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!
Terms and Conditions checkbox is required.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

 

More Thanksgiving STEAM

Hands-on Thanksgiving science, tech, engineering, art, and math activities that will make kids hungry to learn. The new Thanksgiving STEAM Ebook is filled with fun activities for the holiday!

You get 10 amazing ready-for you right now activities in this ebook:

  • 4 hands-on STEAM projects with easy to follow instructions
  • 4 Thanksgiving printables for early finishers or quick learning sessions
  • 2 delicious recipes kids can make with science learning built in
  • What’s the STEAM Behind It? background learning
  • Answer keys
  • Supply list

More Coding Activities for Kids

Or maybe you’re more here for the coding than the turkey. I feel ya!

Candy Cane Coding: Kids will love making a personalized color-coded candy cane with this screen-free binary activity.

Candy Cane Coding

If-Then Coding Game for Kids: Add a dose of programming to their play with this fun take on a classic game.

If-Then Coding Game for Kids

5 Screen-Free Coding Activities for Kids: I hung out last year talking coding on the Learning Resources blog. Hop over here for another code deciphering printable!

5 Screen-free coding activities for kids

And the last one… Coding for Kids! This is a giant round-up of cool coding activities for kids, both on-screen and off.


Coding for Kids

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!!

Turkey-Color-by-Coding-680x450
Turkey-Color-by-Coding-800x800-title

FREE! THANKSGIVING
TURKEY SCREEN-FREE
CODING PRINTABLE ACTIVITY

!
!
Terms and Conditions checkbox is required.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.
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