Strings and numbers
Text (strings) and numbers behave differently on purpose. "5" + "5" gives 55 because Python glues text together, while 5 + 5 gives 10 because Python adds numbers. Same keys, different meaning.
Python for Kids · Class 6 · Module 2 of 9
Values, Variables and Input
A variable is a labelled box. Python will happily keep anything you put in it — until you swap it for something else.
8 sessionsSessions 9–16
4 weeksTypical pace
BeginnerLevel
Class 6Python & Coding
The big idea
Programs become useful the moment they stop being fixed. Variables let a program hold information, input lets a person hand information over, and together they turn a one-line message into something that responds to whoever is sitting at the keyboard.
Why it matters
This is the first moment a child’s program talks back to a real human. It is usually the session where coding stops feeling like copying and starts feeling like making.
Unpacked
What you will actually learn
Three core ideas, each taught with worked examples and then practised until it feels obvious.
Variables
A variable is a name stuck to a value, like a name tag on a lunchbox. Change what is inside and the name still works — that is what makes programs flexible.
User input
input() pauses the program and waits for a human. Whatever is typed arrives as text, so numbers need converting before maths will work on them.
Did you know?
Whatever a person types at input() arrives as text — even 42. Forgetting to convert it is the single most common first-year Python bug in the world.
Common mix-up
“= means equals.” In Python, = means “put this value into this box”. Checking whether two things are equal needs ==.
Session by session
Your 8-session journey
Sessions 9–16 of the 72-session year, at two one-hour sessions per week.
- 1
Warm-up and big picture
Where this module fits, what you will build, and a hands-on starter that gets everyone curious about strings and numbers.
- 2
Strings and numbers
Guided teaching on strings and numbers, worked through together with the teacher.
- 3
Strings and numbers — practice lab
Independent practice, small challenges and one deliberate mistake to diagnose.
- 4
Variables
Guided teaching on variables, building directly on the previous two sessions.
- 5
Variables — practice lab
Applied tasks that combine strings and numbers and variables in one piece of work.
- 6
User input
User input introduced and practised, completing the toolkit needed for the project.
- 7
Project build
Guided build session for the module project: Personalised quiz.
- 8
Test, present and reflect
Finish, test against the checklist, present the work and explain the decisions behind it.
Project lab
Personalised quiz
Every module ends with something the student built themselves and can demonstrate. This is the piece that goes into their portfolio and gets explained out loud at the end of session 16.
Try this at home
Build a three-question program that asks a family member their name, favourite food and lucky number, then prints a silly sentence using all three.
It is finished when
- It works from start to finish without breaking
- You can explain every part of it in your own words
- You tested it and improved at least one thing afterwards
- Someone else used or understood it without your help
By the end of this module
Students finishing Module 2 can:
- Explain and use strings and numbers without prompting
- Explain and use variables without prompting
- Explain and use user input without prompting
- Build and finish personalised quiz
- Test your own work and correct what you find
- Talk an adult through what you made and why
Word bank
The vocabulary introduced here, in plain language:
- variable
- A named place to store a value that can change.
- string
- Text data, always wrapped in quote marks.
- input
- Information a program collects from a person.
Module challenge
Think you have got this?
0 XPLevel 1 · Curious Beginner
6 quick questions drawn from this module — vocabulary, the project you build, and a myth-or-fact round. Every wrong answer explains itself, so a mistake still teaches you something.
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