World 1 · Sequences · Guide 2 of 5Free guide
What is a program?
One command is an instruction. A list of them is a program.
Meet the block
A program is a list of commands. The computer reads it like you read a sentence: one command at a time, in order, then it stops.
One block is one command. Put a few in a row and you have a program.
See it work
Four commands, read left to right. The train picks up the passenger on the way past, then stops at the station.
Four cells of track, four commands. The computer ran them in order and then it stopped — programs end when the list ends.
Your turn
Now you're the programmer.
Can you drive the train to the station?
Pick up the 🧍, then stop the 🚂 exactly on the 🚉.
Blocks
Your program
Go further
How long does the list have to be?
Count the track: the station is five cells away, so the program is five blocks. Take one off and the train stops short; add a sixth and it rolls straight past. A program does exactly what its list says — no more, no less.
For grown-ups
Your kid just wrote a multi-step program and watched the computer follow it exactly — the heart of all software.
Keep going
Next in World 1Why does order matter? →Where this goes
Make a game other kids can play
The blocks on this page are a first taste. In a Kubrio project your kid builds a real game — powers, triggers, levels and all — and other kids get to play it.