Kodable

What Kodable is

Kodable is a suite of coding, typing and STEM games for elementary school children, built first for teachers and also sold to parents for use at home. Its home page sums it up as "Educational games kids actually want to play" and promises a "Full K-5 curriculum" with "No Prep Required," "Standards-Aligned" lessons and an "Ad-Free" experience that "Works Across Devices," naming Chromebook, iPad and web. The company behind it is SurfScore, Inc. dba Kodable.

The founders, Jon Mattingly and Grechen Huebner, write that they "founded Kodable with a simple goal. We wanted to make it easier for people to teach their kids about computer science," and that something "started at a kitchen table" is now "used by over 50% of elementary schools in the United States and over 200 countries around the world." The About page puts teachers at the center: "From scripted lesson plans to automated assessment tools, everything we do is designed to help educators spend less time preparing, and more time teaching."

The apps

Kodable is not one game but a set of them, and the apps page says "Signing up for any Kodable subscription provides access to every app, world, and lesson within the Kodable universe."

Kodable Basics (Grade K+) is the flagship, "Designed for early readers and pre-readers." Children plan where to send their fuzz character through a maze, picking up stars on the way, then test their code "just like real developers" and change it if it fails. Successes earn Kodable koins and costumes for a custom playable character. The home page lists what kids learn: to "Think logically and sequence steps," grow confident in problem-solving, be creative while coding and "Work independently from the start."

Kodable Creator (listed as Grade 2+ on the home page and Grades 3+ on the apps page) is a world where kids design their own games. It covers coding concepts "like properties, loops, and functions," game building "From side scrolling adventures to top-down arcade games," engineering challenges with "inclined planes, levers, simple machines" and a digital makerspace for open-ended design. The home page says Creator includes "support from a Personalized AI Tutor" and "personalized feedback from an AI learning companion."

Bug World (Grade K+) is "our first Kodable Basics expansion adventure," where students "take on advanced coding with object-oriented programming and JavaScript in a fun, strategy-based game world." Kids apply "classes, objects, and inheritance," code heroes to fight off slimes, and "Debug real JavaScript." This is the "zero to JavaScript" range the company refers to elsewhere.

Kodable Typing (Grade K-5) is "A vacation-themed typing adventure" teaching home row placement, accuracy before speed, and capitalization, punctuation and spacing. A company blog post calls it "an ad-free, school-safe program with unlimited access for every classroom at your school."

The plans table also lists a Bilingual Coding Tutor and a Kodable Jr. Mode, which the All Access plan describes as an "Easy Kodable login for early learners."

How it works in a classroom

The home page gives three steps. A teacher creates a free account and adds students "with Google Classroom, Clever, or class codes." Students then play "Self-guided lessons" that "run on iPads, Chromebooks, and web browsers. Zero prep from you." The teacher tracks progress on a dashboard that "shows what every student has learned, where they are, and what's next."

For teaching beyond the games, the company offers what it calls "STEM scope and sequence plans" built on "a catalog of more than 70 STEM lessons plans covering subjects including computer science, AI, math, ELA, digital citizenship, javascript, and more!" The plans page states that Kodable Basics (Grades K-2) and Kodable Creator (Grades 3-5) align to CSTA, ISTE, Common Core and NGSS standards. The blog carries activities, lesson plans, Hour of Code events and Seesaw activities, and announces Kodable Professional Development Courses for teachers learning to teach computer science.

Plans and prices

The school plans page lists four tiers, all priced per site per year:

• Kickstart is free, for "Exploring Kodable for the first time," with introductory coding lessons.
• Premium, $1750 a year per site, covers premium STEM content "for up to 250 students," with access to premium content "from 7am to 4pm weekdays," progress and usage reports, admin management tools and priority support.
• Premium+, $2500 a year per site, adds unlimited students, Clever Secure Sync, ClassLink rostering, Kodable Typing, an "AI STEM tutor," "80+ standards-aligned lesson plans" and Kodable Academy PD access.
• All Access, $3500 a year per site, adds "24/7 Kodable access, at home and at school," Kodable Jr. Mode and "Unlimited adaptive coding practice levels."

Schools can buy online or request a quote, and the company offers a downloadable guide on how to fund Kodable. When budgeting, note that Premium caps a site at 250 students and lists premium content access from 7am to 4pm on weekdays, while round-the-clock access at home and at school is listed only with All Access. For parents, the apps page offers a "7-day Free Trial" of the home subscription, and the home page links separate parent plans.

What teachers say

The reviews page quotes classroom staff by name and school. Erica M., a classroom teacher at Redcliffe Elementary School, writes: "Great, Interactive, Kid Friendly! Teacher doesn't need to know how to code, kids learn on their own." Kaye M., Technology Coordinator at Mineola Primary School, says: "I use this program in our Technology Lab to teach beginning coding. Our Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd graders love it!" On the plans page, Nancy, a kindergarten teacher in Rhode Island, writes that she will "actually have some guidance to understanding and knowing how to teach coding!" The case studies follow a first-grade teacher through her first year of coding and a second-grade teacher who "uses coding in centers to teach communication and collaboration skills."

Who it suits

Kodable suits an elementary school that wants computer science taught by classroom teachers who have never coded, with scripted lessons, automatic rostering and a dashboard doing the heavy lifting. It fits a district that wants one platform across K-5, from pre-readers in Kodable Basics to fifth graders reading JavaScript in Bug World, plus typing practice in the same login. Parents of elementary-age children can use the home subscription and try it free for 7 days first.

The limits are the grade band and the pricing structure. Everything is designed for K-5, so a middle school will outgrow it. And the useful features are spread across tiers: a school that wants rostering, typing and the full lesson library is looking at Premium+ rather than the entry price, and at All Access if students should also play at home.