Computing · Stage 3

Challenge: Message Maze

Thinking It Through · shortest route — find the route with the fewest stops for a message to travel

✦ Computing📘 Stage 3 · S3⏱ ~11 min🧒 Ages 7–8★ Free to start

I can find the shortest route for a message.

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Kavi's Message in a Maze

Kavi wanted to send "Hello!" to Grandma Owl across the sea — but the network looked like a maze of towers, with many ways to go! "Which way should my message fly?" Kavi hooted. Then Kavi remembered the trick: count the stops on each route, and pick the one with the fewest. One route hopped through five towers. Another hopped through just two. "Two stops is fewer than five — the two-stop route is the shortest!" Whoosh — the message took the short way and reached Grandma in a blink. Finding the route with the fewest stops is how a message wins its way through the maze.

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What your child will learn

1Two routes to Grandma — which is shorter?A message can travel to Grandma by more than one route through the network. The shortest route is the one with the fewest stops. Tap each card to compare the two ways.

2What makes up a routeEvery route a message takes has a start, some stops in the middle, and an end. To measure a route, you count the stops. Tap each part to see its job.

3The message takes the short wayHere is the shortest route from Kavi to Grandma, hop by hop. Press Run — the message starts at Kavi's tablet and hops through just two stops to reach Grandma.

4Two messages race through the mazeRoute A has 2 stops. Route B has 5 stops. Both messages leave Kavi at the same moment. Predict which one reaches Grandma first, then reveal.

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A peek inside

Route A goes Kavi → tower → Grandma (1 stop). Route B goes Kavi → tower → tower → tower → Grandma (3 stops). Which route is shorter?

count the stops: route A has 1 stop, route B has 3 stops; fewer stops is shorter

Try this at home: The shortest route is the one with the ____ stops.

Ready to play and learn?

Start the free interactive lesson, or print the handout for screen-free play.

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Part of Computing · Stage 3 · S3 on KAVI Academy — a secular, whole-child learning platform for ages 5–12.