Robot Explorer, a kindergarten coding game for kids 5 to 7

Your child plans a route with arrows, taps Run and watches the robot carry out each command in order. When something goes wrong, they can see exactly where, think it over and try again. That is the heart of coding, with no typing involved.

Ages 5 to 7 · Free, no sign-up

How to play today

Step by step

Pick a world on the Adventure map, then pick a level.
Check the mission: how many stars to collect before reaching the ship.
Tap or drag arrows (up, down, left, right) to line them up in “Your program.” Tap an arrow in the program to remove it, or tap “Clear” to start over.
Tap “Run program” and watch the robot move one square at a time, picking up any star it passes over.
If it crashes, runs out of arrows or misses a star, tap “Edit program” and try a different route.
In the Space world, “Repeat” shows up: it makes the arrow right after it run twice.

Robot Explorer has 30 levels in three worlds: The Forest (levels 1–10), The Desert (11–20) and Space (21–30). The Forest is just arrows and stars. The Desert adds obstacles to steer around. Space brings in the Repeat command. Every level has its own grid, from a single row of four squares at the start to boards seven squares wide and six tall near the end.

Arrows move the robot in the direction they point on the screen. The up arrow always moves it one square up, and the robot never turns. That means your child doesn’t have to picture which way the robot is facing, which trips up a lot of young kids. New arrows go at the end of the program, and each one is numbered. To change one, your child taps it to take it out and adds the right one.

Under the board, two numbers show how many steps the program has and the fewest steps that solve the level. As soon as the robot reaches the ship, the level ends, even if arrows are left over. If it bumps into an obstacle or tries to leave the board, it stops and the game says “Your robot crashed. Check the commands.” There are no lives and no timer: “Edit program” takes your child back to the same level with an empty program to build again.

When the mission is done, the game awards one to three stars: three for using the fewest steps, two for up to two extra steps, and one for a longer route. A long route still counts as a finished level.

What your child practices

Robot Explorer doesn’t teach a programming language. It gives kids a playful way to use the ideas behind one: thinking through steps in order, guessing what will happen, and fixing the plan when the result isn’t what they expected. Every child moves at their own pace, and lots of trial and error early on is completely normal.

Sequencing: putting actions in order and seeing that the order changes the outcome.
Planning ahead: picturing the whole route before tapping Run.
Debugging by trying again: spotting where the robot went wrong, changing that part and running it again.
Directions and position words: up, down, left, right, next to, before and after.
Counting squares to figure out how many of the same arrow are needed.
In Space, noticing when a command repeats and using Repeat to say it once.

Curriculum connections (draft, pending a teacher’s review)

Draft · pending a teacher’s review

Common Core · Kindergarten (US). The Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten don’t include a coding standard, so there is no direct match. The closest fit is Geometry — Identify and describe shapes, which asks children to describe where objects are using words like above, below and beside. Counting and Cardinality comes in a smaller way, since kids count squares to decide how many arrows to use.
MEN Colombia · preschool. Colombia’s Transición year has no coding subject either. The nearest links are the Derechos Básicos de Aprendizaje de Transición and the Bases Curriculares para la Educación Inicial y Preescolar, which value exploring, problem-solving and locating yourself and objects in space. The game puts those ideas into play; it doesn’t replace classroom work.

Screen-free idea: the human robot (5 minutes)

Draw one arrow on each of four cards: up, down, left and right. Mark a small grid on the floor with tape, tiles or couch cushions, and set a toy on one square as the goal. Your child builds the program by laying the cards in a row, and you play the robot: one step per card, exactly as written, even if you can see you’re about to “crash.”

Then switch roles. For an extra challenge, sneak in one wrong card and ask your child to find it. At the end, ask what would happen if two cards swapped places.

You need: paper, a marker and something to mark the squares.
One card = one step. The robot never guesses; it only does what the row says.
When the robot goes wrong, don’t start over: find the card that’s off and swap it.

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Frequently asked questions

Does my child need to read to play?

Not to program, since the commands are arrows. The mission and the game’s messages do appear as text, so for the first few rounds it helps to sit nearby and read each level’s goal out loud.

Is this really coding?

There’s no typing code. Kids practice what sits underneath coding: giving instructions in order, predicting the result and fixing the plan when it fails. It’s a first taste made for their age, not a course.

What happens when the robot crashes or doesn’t make it?

Nothing is lost. The robot stops, the game says what happened (it crashed, ran out of arrows or missed a star), and “Edit program” brings your child back to the same level to try again. There are no lives and no time limit.

Will it work for a 4-year-old?

It’s designed for ages 5 to 7. Some 4-year-olds enjoy the first Forest levels with a grown-up beside them. If it gets frustrating, try the human robot game away from the screen and come back later.

Can we play it in Spanish?

Yes. The game loads in the language of the page: on the English site everything is in English, and on the Spanish site everything is in Spanish. Use the site’s language button to switch.

How much does it cost, and are there ads?

It's free to play from this page, no sign-up or card needed. There are no ads and no chat.

By ABC Kids Learning