Extension: Twelve Days of Christmas
Computational Thinking & Merge Sort
Related
Cross-Curricular Links
Year Levels
Y3-4 (Guided)
Y5-6+
Duration
1 lesson
Resources
Differentiation
Make the activity more kinaesthetic by recreating the sorting network on the floor of the classroom or outdoors, then assign each of the twelve days to different learners and have them move through the sorting network.
Extension
Challenge learners to apply the merge sorting algorithm to other data sets. How well can they adapt the process to data sets of different sizes?
About Activity
This extension theme pairs with the Merge Sort Unplugged template activity to focus on the twelve days of Christmas. This Christmas carol, first published in England in the late 1700s, tells a fanciful story of extravagant presents for each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas.
Follow the template activity guide along with the content focus of the Twelve Days of Christmas extension guide to use a merge sorting algorithm to think like a computer to shuffle, breakdown and organise all twelve days and their gifts into sequential order.
Use the extension guide together with the Merge Sort Unplugged template activity guide, and help make the activity more hands-on with the kinaesthetic resources available below!
Activity Guide
Merge Sort - Kinaesthetic Resources
The printable resources below can be used to help facilitate this activity with movement, either by hand, with cut-out cards that can be shifted around on a table top or the floor, or on foot, where the sorting network is mapped onto the floor of a room or outdoor area and learners can physically move through the network to work together and sort their data into sequential order.
