Teaching Python to 4th and 5th Graders: Building a “Guess the Number” Game

I recently had the opportunity to teach Python to 4th and 5th graders, helping them create their first game: “Guess the Number.” It was an exciting experience, introducing them to fundamental programming concepts like variables, loops, conditionals, and generating random numbers before starting to code the actual game. I started by explaining how to use random.randint() to pick a number between 1 and 100 and then showed them how to get player input using input(). We added conditionals to check if the guess was too high, too low, or correct and used a loop to let the game continue until the right number was guessed. What made the project special was how the students came up with creative messages to respond to guesses. Instead of basic “too high” or “too low” responses, they created fun and unique messages like, “Too high pookie” or “Are you serious right now, go lower”. Their creativity made the game more engaging and personal, and it was amazing to see how excited they were when their programs worked.