Connecting Unplugged Algorithms and Creative Coding in Primary STEAM Lessons

Unplugged activities and block-based coding are often placed within the same lesson without explaining what learners should carry from one representation to the other. This conceptual article proposes a translation-focused sequence for primary STEAM education. Computational-thinking scholarship and primary resources on unplugged and creative programming inform a design analysis of the relationship between commands, execution and artistic intention. The resulting sequence uses a repeated visual pattern as a shared object across physical instructions, symbolic notation and a block-based implementation. An alignment table distinguishes conceptual continuity from differences introduced by the digital environment. Proposed diagnostic tasks examine prediction, debugging and transfer rather than the number of blocks used. No teaching experiment or validated assessment is reported. The contribution is a bounded instructional model in which changing representation becomes a topic for explicit discussion. Its effectiveness and suitability for different language and access conditions require classroom investigation.