First and second-graders are racing from one side of the room to another, comparing designs of the buttons they’ve created, howling at their wacky ad libs — and poking a robot in the eye.

It may sound like a typically chaotic Toronto classroom but these kids are actually learning the building blocks of computer programming at a one-day Kids Learning Code camp — one of the many being held throughout the city this summer.

They learn the basics by dragging and dropping simple instruction boxes into blocks of code that tell a computer what to do. And the toys they work with show them an immediate, tangible result from their commands.

Ruby, Scratch and Unity might sound foreign. But for the next generation, such programming languages could soon become as familiar in the classroom as French and computer science a literacy skill as essential as reading and writing.

“We want kids to consider themselves technologists,” said Laura Plant, chief growth officer at Ladies Learning Code, which puts on the camps for 6- to 12-year-olds.

“It’s more to teach them the fundamentals of digital literacy and programming, because coding languages are changing. Coding in 10 years might not even be a thing — it’s more those fundamentals of problem solving,” she said.

Their one-day workshops cost $30 and week long camps cost $450. Half of the participants are eligible for full and partial scholarships, while weekend-long workshops are pay-what-you-can.

The goal is to get kids interested in not only playing Minecraft or Pokemon Go, but learning the language behind those popular games.

The activities are designed to pique their interest in algorithms and computational thinking by disguising the lessons in video games and robots, rather than have them sit at screens writing lines of code.

Momentum behind teaching kids computer programming is increasing as governments and teachers alike realize that tech is the future of jobs, even if we can’t pinpoint exactly what they’ll be.

The movement is backed by no less than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is focused on realigning the economy toward the tech sector.

Trudeau, a self-proclaimed “nerd,” has said he was once “halfway decent as a coder in [programming language] C++.”

STEM careers — science technology engineering and math — are the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs.

But in Canada, school curriculums aren’t developing fast enough to prepare the next generation for as many as 182,000 high-paying tech jobs available by 2019, according to a report released earlier this year by Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).

The organization calls for computer science to be taught in classrooms as young as kindergarten.

In the meantime, private extracurricular camps and classes are stepping in to fill the gap. But it’s important that kids learn coding at public schools so they all have equal access and exposure to the technology, said Ami Mamolo, assistant professor in math education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

“There’s a potential for disparity and we really want to be aware of that so that we don’t add to the divide that’s limiting too many students already.”

Coding is part of the computer studies curriculum in high school courses at the Toronto District School Board, while several elementary schools are also beginning to teach computer programming.

But Canada as a whole is lagging behind some global peers.

In England, a new national curriculum has made computer science mandatory for all students in its 16,000 primary schools and 3,500 secondary schools.

In the U.S., President Barack Obama launched a Computer Science For All initiative earlier this year, providing $4 billion (U.S.) in funding for states to teach students from kindergarten to Grade 12 to learn coding and other computer skills.

Kids Learning Code was set up to give kids exposure to lessons they are not learning in schools about what the next generation of jobs might look like, Plant said. It also includes field trips to tech startups around the city.

“The landscape of careers that will exist in five, 10, 20 years is evolving and changing and technology is becoming so much more integrated into everything that we do,” Plant said.

But it’s not just about those all-important STEM jobs, she said — the fundamental digital skills and basics of programming are transferable and applicable to many jobs.

Emma already knows this at the ripe age of 8.

She has been coding since she was 5 and has learned basics in the programming language Scratch. She also has her own website.

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Emma wants to be a zoologist or a vet when she grows up but knows computer skills will be important, no matter what she chooses.

“It would help because you have to make websites or posters when you open a new company,” she explains of her interest in technology.

Emma is playing with a DIY robot — controlled through an iPhone app that allows kids to plug in drag and drop commands that make it come to you when you call or make an angry face when you touch its eye.

Onome Igharoro, founder and CEO of Toronto-based educational startup Robot Playtime is showing them how to use the coding responsive robot.

“He’s an AI that wants to have fun and experience the world but he doesn’t know how so people have to write small programs to teach it,” he explains, keeping one eye on the kids moving the robot precariously close to the edge of the table.

One of his smartphone-controlled robot inventions is spinning in circles repeatedly because the kids either forgot or intentionally — because they’re finding it hilarious — did not program it to stop.

Igharoro said the robot is a hit with kids who like the fact they have hardware to control and the personality of the little bot is a big attraction too.

“We find this a more effective way of teaching coding because getting kids to solve robots to do things really gets them engaged,” he said.

“Everybody’s making something to teach kids to code. That’s the thing right now.”

Fisher Price

Fisher Price introduced a “Code-a-pillar” earlier this year for children as young as 3. It gets kids to arrange and rearrange blocks in the caterpillar’s body into different combinations that send him in different directions, with sounds and lights.

Primo Toys

The Cubetto game by Primo Toys has raised $1.6 million on Kickstarter. The toy lets kids touch and slide coloured arrows indicating directions on a wooden board that, when activated, makes a robot move to certain locations on a mat.

Apple

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds platform will be released later this year, which will allow anyone with an iPad to learn the basics of writing code. It’s also launched a coding course for kids in-store Apple camps.

Google

Google introduced its “Project Bloks,” a lego-like “tangible programming” system earlier this year to help kids with hands-on learning for coding. It is open source so developers can customize and reconfigure building experiences.

Disney

Disney recently announced it is pairing with Code.org to create Frozen and Star Wars-themed computer science courses, in the hopes the familiar characters will encourage engagement.