SGCA Year 5 Workbook — Syntax Station: Loops & Variables

🌀 Year 5 · Syntax Station

Secret Galactic
Code Academy

Student Workbook

🌀 Syntax Station — Loops & Variables

Year Group: Year 5 · Ages 9–10

Theme: Loops, Variables, Lists & Nested Loops

Missions: 10 Workbook Missions · 16 Game Missions

Language: Python 3

Student Name

Class

School

Teacher

🔄

Zone 1: Loop Station

Advanced FOR Loops · Accumulators · WHILE Loops

Mission 1: Advanced FOR Loops CONCEPT

Year 5 Chapter 1 ⏱ 20 min ⭐ 110 XP

🚀

Nova says:

Welcome to Syntax Station, Captain! Here loops become POWERFUL! range(start, stop, step) gives you total control — even counting backwards!

📝 Activity 1.1 — range() Explorer

Write what each range() produces:

range() call	Numbers produced	Count
`range(5)`
`range(1, 6)`
`range(0, 10, 2)`
`range(10, 0, -1)`
`range(1, 20, 3)`

📝 Activity 1.2 — Countdown Timer

Write a FOR loop that counts down from 10 to 1, then prints "BLAST OFF! 🚀"

# Countdown from 10 to 1
for i in range(    ,     ,     ):
    print(i)
print("              ")

Expected output:

⭐ Activity 1.3 — Triangle Pattern

Use a FOR loop to print this triangle pattern:

*
**
***
****
*****

Your code:

# Triangle pattern
for i in range(    ):
    print(              )

🤖

Chip's Hint:

range(1, 6) gives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Use "*" * i to print i stars!

Mission 2: FOR Loop with Accumulator CONCEPT

Year 5 Chapter 1 ⏱ 20 min ⭐ 120 XP

🚀

Nova says:

An accumulator collects values as the loop runs! Start at 0, add to it each time. It's like a running total!

📝 Activity 2.1 — Trace the Accumulator

Trace through this code and fill in the table:

total = 0
for i in range(1, 6):
    total = total + i
    print("i =", i, "total =", total)
print("Final total:", total)

Iteration	i	total (before)
1	1	0
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5

Final total:

📝 Activity 2.2 — Sum of 1 to 100

Write code to calculate the sum of all numbers from 1 to 100:

# Sum of 1 to 100
total =     
for i in range(    ,     ):
    total = total +     
print("Sum:", total)

Answer: The sum of 1 to 100 =

⭐ Star Challenge — Factorial!

Calculate 5! (5 factorial = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1). Hint: Start your accumulator at 1, not 0!

# 5 factorial
result =     
for i in range(    ,     ):
    result = result      i
print("5! =", result)

5! =

Mission 3: Advanced WHILE Loops LOGIC

Year 5 Chapter 2 ⏱ 25 min ⭐ 130 XP

🚀

Nova says:

WHILE loops keep going while the condition is True! Perfect when you don't know how many times to repeat!

📝 Activity 3.1 — Trace the WHILE Loop

x = 1
while x <= 32:
    x = x * 2
    print(x)

Iteration	x (before)	x (after)	Condition (x ≤ 32)?
1	1
2
3
4
5

📝 Activity 3.2 — FOR or WHILE?

Choose the best loop type for each task:

Task	FOR or WHILE?	Why?
Print numbers 1 to 10
Keep asking for password until correct
Process each item in a shopping list
Count down from unknown number to 0
Print the 12 times table

⭐ Activity 3.3 — Find First Divisible

Write a WHILE loop to find the first number greater than 100 that is divisible by both 7 AND 11:

# Find first number > 100 divisible by 7 AND 11
num =     
while not (                              ):
    num = num +     
print("Found:", num)

Answer:

⚡

Zone 2: Control Station

break · continue · Lists · Slicing

Mission 4: break and continue CODING

Year 5 Chapter 2 ⏱ 25 min ⭐ 140 XP

🚀

Nova says:

break exits the loop immediately! continue skips the rest of this iteration and goes to the next! Powerful tools!

📝 Activity 4.1 — Predict the Output

What does each program print? Write your answer:

for i in range(10):
    if i == 5:
        break
    print(i)

Output:

for i in range(10):
    if i % 2 == 0:
        continue
    print(i)

Output:

📝 Activity 4.2 — break vs continue

Keyword	What it does	When to use it
`break`
`continue`

⭐ Star Challenge — Search with break

Write code to find the first number in range(1, 100) that is divisible by 13. Use break to stop when found:

# Find first number divisible by 13
for i in range(    ,     ):
    if i %      == 0:
        print("Found:", i)
                  

Answer:

Mission 5: Lists — Store Multiple Values CONCEPT

Year 5 Chapter 3 ⏱ 25 min ⭐ 130 XP

🚀

Nova says:

A list stores MANY values! Like a variable that holds a whole collection. Index starts at 0 — the first item is list[0]!

📝 Activity 5.1 — List Indexing

planets = ['Syntax World', 'Algorithm Alley', 'Syntax Station', 'Debugging Dunes', 'Creativity Cluster']

Expression	Result
`planets[0]`
`planets[2]`
`planets[-1]`
`planets[-2]`
`len(planets)`

📝 Activity 5.2 — List Methods

Complete the code to use each list method:

scores = [85, 92, 78, 95, 88]

# Add a new score
scores.          (100)

# Remove score 78
scores.          (78)

# Sort the list
scores.          ()

# Print the highest score
print(          (scores))

📝 Activity 5.3 — Loop Through a List

Write a FOR loop to print each planet with its index number:

planets = ['Syntax World', 'Algorithm Alley', 'Syntax Station']

# Print: "1. Syntax World", "2. Algorithm Alley", etc.
for i, planet in enumerate(planets,     ):
    print(                              )

🔬

Zone 3: Advanced Loop Lab

List Slicing · Nested Loops · Loops + Lists

Mission 6: List Methods and Slicing LOGIC

Year 5 Chapter 3 ⏱ 25 min ⭐ 140 XP

🚀

Nova says:

Slicing gets a portion of a list! list[start:stop] — the stop index is NOT included. list[::-1] reverses the whole list!

📝 Activity 6.1 — Slicing Practice

numbers = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100]

Slice	Result
`numbers[2:5]`
`numbers[:3]`
`numbers[7:]`
`numbers[::2]`
`numbers[::-1]`
`numbers[1:8:3]`

📝 Activity 6.2 — Sort and Reverse

scores = [45, 92, 67, 88, 23, 95, 71]

# Sort ascending
scores.          ()
print(scores)  # Output: 

# Reverse the sorted list
scores.          ()
print(scores)  # Output: 

# Count how many times 88 appears
print(scores.          (88))  # Output: 

Mission 7: Nested Loops CODING

Year 5 Chapter 4 ⏱ 30 min ⭐ 160 XP

🚀

Nova says:

Nested loops — a loop inside a loop! Total iterations = outer × inner. Perfect for 2D patterns and grids!

📝 Activity 7.1 — Trace the Nested Loop

for row in range(3):
    for col in range(3):
        print(row, col)

Fill in ALL outputs (9 lines total):

📝 Activity 7.2 — Star Grid

Write nested loops to print a 5×5 grid of stars:

# 5×5 star grid
for row in range(    ):
    for col in range(    ):
        print(    , end=    )
    print()  # new line after each row

Expected output:

* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *

⭐ Star Challenge — Multiplication Table

Write nested loops to print the 5×5 multiplication table:

# 5×5 multiplication table
for i in range(1,     ):
    for j in range(1,     ):
        print(i * j, end=    )
    print()

Mission 8: Loops and Lists Together CODING

Year 5 Chapter 4 ⏱ 30 min ⭐ 160 XP

🚀

Nova says:

Loops + Lists = POWER! Build lists with loops, process lists with loops. This is where real programming begins!

📝 Activity 8.1 — Build a List with a Loop

Complete the code to build a list of squares (1², 2², 3², ... 10²):

# Build list of squares
squares =     
for i in range(1,     ):
    squares.          (i * i)
print(squares)

Output:

📝 Activity 8.2 — Filter a List

Write code to create a new list containing only scores above 20:

scores = [15, 25, 8, 32, 19, 28, 11, 35, 22, 7]

# Filter: keep only scores > 20
high_scores = []
for score in           :
    if score      20:
        high_scores.          (score)
print(high_scores)

Output:

⭐ Activity 8.3 — Grade System

Write a complete grade system that processes a list of scores:

scores = [85, 92, 67, 45, 78, 95, 55, 88]

# Count grades
grade_a = 0  # 90+
grade_b = 0  # 80-89
grade_c = 0  # 70-79
grade_f = 0  # below 70

for score in scores:
    if score >=     :
        grade_a += 1
    elif score >=     :
        grade_b += 1
    elif score >=     :
        grade_c += 1
    else:
        grade_f += 1

print(f"A: {grade_a}, B: {grade_b}, C: {grade_c}, F: {grade_f}")

Output:

📁 Portfolio Challenge

Create your own program that uses loops AND lists to solve a real problem. Ideas: shopping list calculator, quiz score tracker, favourite planets list. Save it to your portfolio!

🏆

Final Quest: Power the Syntax Station!

Use ALL your loop and list skills to restore power!

Mission 10: FINAL QUEST — Power the Syntax Station! FINAL

Year 5 Chapter 5 ⏱ 60 min ⭐ 500 XP

🚀

Nova says:

This is your greatest challenge yet — but you have ALL the skills you need! Break it into parts. Solve one part at a time. This is YOUR moment, Captain!

🏆 Part 1: Fix the Nested Loop Power Grid

This nested loop has 3 bugs. Find and fix them:

# BUGGY CODE — find and fix 3 bugs
for row in range(4)
    for col in range(4):
        if row = col:
            print("⚡", end=" ")
        else
            print("·", end=" ")
    print()

Bug 1:

Bug 2:

Bug 3:

Fixed code:

🏆 Part 2: Power Level Tracker

Write code to track power levels across 5 zones:

# Power level tracker
power_levels = []
for zone in range(1, 6):
    level = zone *      +     
    power_levels.          (level)

print("Power levels:", power_levels)
print("Total power:",     (power_levels))
print("Average power:",     (power_levels) /     (power_levels))

🏆 Part 3: Find Low-Power Zones

Write code to find all zones with power below 50:

power_levels = [45, 72, 38, 91, 55, 29, 83, 47, 66, 31]

low_power = []
for i, level in enumerate(power_levels):
    if level <     :
        low_power.          (i + 1)  # zone number (1-indexed)

print("Low power zones:", low_power)

Output:

🏆 Part 4: Pattern Generator

Write nested loops to generate this power grid pattern:

2 3 4 5
4 6 8 10
6 9 12 15
8 12 16 20
10 15 20 25

🏆 Part 5: Master Control Loop

Write a complete program that uses a WHILE loop to keep asking for power readings until the user types "DONE", then calculates the average:

🏆

SYNTAX STATION POWERED UP!

You've mastered loops, variables, lists, and nested loops!

Debugging Dunes awaits, Admiral! 🔬

🏅 Year 5 Master

🌀 Syntax Station Champion

⭐ 500 XP Earned

Accumulator

A variable that collects values as a loop runs (e.g., running total).

break

Exits a loop immediately, even if the condition is still True.

continue

Skips the rest of the current iteration and goes to the next one.

FOR loop

Repeats a block of code a set number of times or for each item in a sequence.

Index

The position of an item in a list. Starts at 0 in Python.

Iteration

One complete run through a loop body.

List

A collection of values stored in a single variable, e.g., [1, 2, 3].

Nested loop

A loop inside another loop. Total iterations = outer × inner.

range()

Generates a sequence of numbers. range(start, stop, step).

Slicing

Getting a portion of a list: list[start:stop:step].

WHILE loop

Repeats while a condition is True. Use when you don't know how many times.

enumerate()

Returns both the index and value when looping through a list.

Zone 1: Loop Station

Zone 2: Control Station

Zone 3: Advanced Loop Lab

Final Quest: Power the Syntax Station!

📖 Glossary — Year 5 Key Terms