In my computer classroom today, we were having a great time.  My 8-to-12-year-old homeschooled students were  taking what they knew well--how to tell the turtle on the screen to draw a square, a rectangle, an octagon, and so forth. They were applying that to something pretty new--how to animate the turtle.  (We had already taught the turtle how to walk and run.) We had three versions of a horse shape with legs in different positions, horse1, horse2, and horse3. The horse would change leg positions and move to the next corner of the figure, and keep doing that.  It looked funny. We laughed.

Ian found three house shapes--a clapboard house, a hut, and a castle.  He set it up so his turtle changed from one of these shapes to another each time it came to a corner of the figure.  Now we really were laughing.  An animated house??  

Regina wanted to change the color of the line every time the turtle got to a corner, so we added the code for that.  We were having a great time drawing octagons and triangles.  Then we started drawing arcs,  where the turtle takes a little step and then makes a little turn.  Each little step came out in its own color.  The kids were crying out, "Hey, look at that!" and coming to look at each others' computer screens.

Gianna wanted to create a new command to launch her turtle forward. So she asked me what to name it.  "Whatever you like," I said.  She named it "Gianna."  So she issued the "Gianna" command.  The horse set off on a long long run.  She flashed me a big grin.

During the class, as I heard all the squeals of delight, I thought, "This is really a teacher's dream.  These kids are all on-task and having a wonderful time."  We were learning problem-solving and letting our creativity run too.