Junior STEAM Belt, Ages 5 to 7
Junior STEAM in Wellesley
STEAM for five, six and seven-year-olds — hands on the whole time.
- Boston Parents Family Favorite seven years running
- Macaroni Kids Favorite 2026
- FIRST LEGO League & VEX Judges Award
- State finalists, FLL & VEX
- STEM.org accredited
- CSTA & NGSS aligned
Not a drop-in coding club. A ten-month program with a cohort, a competition team, and a monthly report that shows you exactly what your child built and why it mattered.
What your child leaves with
A portfolio
Working apps, games, robots and websites they built themselves — not a certificate of attendance. Everything is saved to their own profile.
A team
The route into our VEX and FIRST LEGO League competition teams, with a real season, a capped roster and tournament results.
A transcript
A written report every month explaining what they covered, the concept behind it, and what comes next. A fuller one at the end of each belt.
Junior Belt · iCode of Wellesley2026/27 year
Junior STEAM — the Junior Belt
- Time
- Two hours a week, same day and time, across the ten-month program
- Group size
- Around six students to one instructor
- Length
- Ten months to complete a belt. Most students go on to the next one. 80 hours of instruction across the year.
- Start dates
- New cohorts in September, November, January and April. Seats are capped.
- Stage
- Ages 5–7
- Entry
- Starting point. No experience of any kind assumed.
- Reports
- A written report every month, and a fuller one at the end of each belt — see a real one
- Location
- 73 Central Street, Wellesley
See Junior Belt class times
Book a free evaluation
Not sure this is the right belt? The free evaluation exists to answer exactly that — we place by what a student can do, never by age alone.
Most programs for this age are screen time with a friendly name. This one is not. Students spend ten months exploring jungles, space missions, prehistoric creatures, music, medieval engineering and ocean biology — building dexterity and curiosity before they build software.
Scratch arrives at the end, as the final project, once they have the thinking to use it. That order is deliberate. A five-year-old who has planned and built physical things brings something to their first program that a five-year-old who started at a keyboard does not.
What students actually learn
- STEAM fundamentals — science, engineering, arts and mathematics as one subject, not four
- Fine motor skills and hands-on construction
- Problem-solving out loud, with other children
- A first Scratch project, built at the end rather than the beginning
The year, sprint by sprint
The Junior Belt runs in sprints across the school year, each one building on the last and ending in a final project.
- Jungle Adventure
- Space Race
- Prehistoric Creatures
- Musical Creation
- Medieval Fantasy
- Sports Medicine
- Ocean Biology
- STEAM Detectives
- Innovation Station
- Final project in Scratch
What they finish with
- A Scratch project they made themselves
- Ten months of physical builds to take home
You will know exactly what your child learned
Most parents six weeks into a coding class cannot say what their child has actually learned. A written report arrives every month: the topics covered, the concept behind each one in plain language, what your child actually built, where they found it easy and where they had to push, an instructor’s specific observation, and what is coming next. At the end of the belt there is a longer completion report — the whole ten months as a narrative, the skills portfolio, the capstone, and the natural next step.
The competition team runs alongside it
Our VEX and FIRST LEGO League teams are not a separate Saturday activity. A team place runs parallel to the belt, so the season feeds the same progress record — the robot goes in the portfolio and the season goes on the transcript. Rosters are capped and we hold the cap.
- Entry — FIRST LEGO League Explore · VEX IQ intro. Grades 2–4, About 16 weeks, 1.5 hours a week.
- Core — FIRST LEGO League Challenge · VEX IQ competitive. Grades 4–8, About 20 weeks, two hours a week.
- Advanced — VEX V5. Grades 8–12, About 20 weeks, two hours a week, eight students to one coach.
A place is conditional on being an enrolled student, and tryouts run in September. See the teams, rosters and season dates.
The question parents actually ask
“Isn’t five too young to start coding?”
Probably, if you mean typing code — which is why we do not start there. Five to seven is exactly the right age for the thinking underneath it: sequence, cause and effect, planning before doing, and finishing something you started. Scratch comes at the end of the year, when it is a tool they can actually use rather than a puzzle they are enduring.
If it is not working
Four sessions — about a month — then decide.
If your child is not engaged after four sessions, tell us and we refund the balance and release the seat.
How this differs from a club
A club is one hour a week for ten weeks, in a larger group, on a single topic — a good way to start and a good second activity. The Belt Program is two hours a week across a ten-month year, in a group of about six, with a written progress report every month and a capstone project. It is the deeper commitment and the one most families end up in. See the clubs if you would rather start smaller.
If two hours a week is too much right now
Studio — One hour a week, ongoing. A flexible, AI-driven path with its own milestones, supervised by an instructor. The on-ramp for families who cannot give us two hours a week yet. Students move across to a belt when they are ready. It is a different product rather than a shorter belt, which is what keeps the belt itself meaning the same thing for every student who finishes one.
Questions
How long is the program?
Ten months, following the school year, two hours a week. It is a full-year commitment rather than a term, because the point is the arc from first jungle build to final Scratch project.
My child cannot read yet. Is that a problem?
No. Nothing in the Junior Belt depends on reading fluently. Instructors read briefs aloud and the sprints are built around doing rather than reading.
What happens after the Junior Belt?
The Foundation Belt, where Scratch becomes the main event rather than the finale. Placement is by what they can do, and we will tell you honestly when they are ready.
Where you’ll be
iCode of Wellesley · 73 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02482
781-291-3131
Five minutes from Wellesley Middle School and a short drive from Schofield, Bates, Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham. Street parking on Central Street, plus the Municipal Way lot behind the building for pickup.
Ready to start?
Book a free evaluation and we will tell you honestly which belt your child belongs in — or go straight to the Junior Belt class times.
Book a free evaluation
See Junior Belt class times
The ten belts, in order
Students move up the ladder as they are ready, not on a timetable. Most join partway up — the free evaluation is how we work out where.
- Junior Belt — Junior STEAM — you are here
- Foundation Belt — Scratch Coding & AI Foundations
- White Belt — Robotics, VEX & 3D Printing
- Gray Belt — Minecraft & Roblox Coding
- Orange Belt — Web Development & Design
- Yellow Belt — Mobile App Development
- Green Belt — Python, Drones & AI
- Red Belt — Game Development
- Blue Belt — Networking & Cybersecurity
- Black Belt — Java & AP Computer Science
