HTML and CSS lesson 5: Links between pages

US version. US grades and US spelling. · UK version of this lesson

Links join the web together: <a href="address">link text</a>. Other websites need the full https:// address; pages on your own site can use a file name. A complete 40-minute HTML and CSS lesson for beginners (Grades 6–7), from Unit 2: Links, images and tables. You build real web pages right here in your browser – nothing to install.

Time: 40 minutes + 20 min homework
Grade: Grades 6–7 (ages 11–12)
You need: A computer or tablet, paper and a pencil
Graded: Instantly, with explanations

For parents: how to use this lesson

You don't need to know HTML yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, the way Mr Babbage, our Head of Computing, likes it: a worked example first, then a go for your child. When your child builds a page, the browser draws it straight away and Classfern grades it with a checklist.

Read what your child will learn together.
Press Start the lesson below. Sit with your child for the teaching and the worked example (about 15 minutes): ask them to point at each tag and say what it does.
Let them do the practice on their own. If a page doesn't look right, the checklist says what is missing – let them find the mistake before you help.
Finish with the exit questions and the talk question: “Why is "click here" a poor choice of link text?”
Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

The address goes between the tags. The address goes in href; the words between the tags are what you click.
www.example.com is enough. Another website needs https:// at the start.

Miss Lovelace's tip for home: ask your child to change one thing on their page – a word, a color, a size – and predict what will happen before they look. Predicting first is how programmers learn fastest.

What your child will learn

Learning goal: make a link to another website and to another page.

Success looks like

I can make a link to another website and to another page.
I can write link text that makes sense on its own.
I can find the mistake in a broken link.

Key words

link · anchor · href · attribute · absolute address · relative address · link text

What to have ready

A device with a web browser (pages are built and checked right in the browser – nothing to install)
Paper for planning and sketching
A keyboard helps for typing code (a tablet works too)

The big ideas (for the adult)

A link is an <a> element (a for "anchor"). Its href attribute holds the address and the words inside are the link text – the part you click. The address itself is not shown.

To go to another website, write the full address starting https://. Without it, the browser thinks you mean a file on your own site. To go to another page on your own site, the file name is enough: href="about.html".

Good link text says where the link goes: "Opening times" not "Click here". Screen-reader users often hear a list of all the links on a page, and "click here, click here, click here" tells them nothing.

Worked example: links

<p>Read about <a href="https://www.nasa.gov">space on the NASA website</a>.</p>
<p>Or go to our <a href="about.html">About us</a> page.</p>

The lesson, step by step

40 minutes in 5 parts
Part	Time	How it is checked
Starter	5 min	Graded by Classfern
Learn	8 min	Read, watch and talk
See it	7 min	Graded by Classfern
Practice	15 min	Graded by Classfern
Check and reflect	5 min	Graded by Classfern + self-check

The lesson

It runs here on the page. No sign-up and no names – nothing you type is sent anywhere. Each visit picks a new mix of questions.

Homework

20 minutes: predict what the browser will do, build or fix a short page, and check the key ideas – then a short reflection. New questions every time, all graded instantly.

Practice tests

All computer science practice tests · All 20 HTML and CSS lessons

Curriculum

CSTA K–12 Computer Science Standards (2017), grades 6–8: 2-AP-16 – Use existing code, media and libraries in original programs, with attribution.

The standard codes are CSTA's; the descriptions are our own words.

Our lessons and questions are our own. They are not written or endorsed by any government department, testing agency or exam board. HTML and CSS are open web standards; Classfern is not affiliated with the organisations that publish them.