Free sample from Spark

Light an LED together in 10 minutes.

This is Mission 1 from Spark, our Level 1 guide, free. A picture of the breadboard and a table that says which hole every wire goes in. No code and no computer setup: the board only powers the circuit, so a USB phone charger is enough.

The Mission 1 page with the wiring picture and the wiring table Cover of the free sample: Spark, Mission 1

What's in the 9 pages

  1. 3 rules for builders

    USB power only, unplug before changing wires, and every LED gets a resistor.

  2. Meet the breadboard

    How the holes connect inside, and how to find hole h10.

  3. Mission 1: Light It Up

    The parts, the wiring picture, the hole-by-hole table, a "Did it work?" check and a tip for when the LED stays dark.

  4. Two pages of lab notes

    Your kid predicts what will happen, draws the circuit, and writes down what happened.

  5. For grown-ups: how to help

    Read the steps out loud, let your kid do the plugging, and what to ask when it doesn't work.

What you need

  • An UNO R3 board and its USB cable
  • A breadboard
  • 1 LED, any color
  • 1 resistor, 220 Ω (red, red, brown stripes)
  • 3 jumper wires

All of it comes in a standard UNO R3 starter kit. For ages 8 to 11 with a grown-up.

You'll also get Start Here, our free setup guide, for when your kid is ready to write code.

Send me Mission 1

Free. We'll email you the PDF, and you can print it or keep it on a tablet next to the breadboard.