HTML and CSS lesson 4: Lists: bullets and numbers

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

Lists group items: <ul> for bullets (order doesn't matter), <ol> for numbered steps, with one <li> per item. A complete 40-minute HTML and CSS lesson for beginners (Grades 6–7), from Unit 1: Web pages and HTML. 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: “Think of three lists in real life. Which should be `<ul>` and which `<ol>`?”
Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

<li> can go anywhere. List items belong inside <ul> or <ol>.
Type the numbers yourself. <ol> numbers items automatically.

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 bullet list and a numbered list.

Success looks like

I can make a bullet list and a numbered list.
I can choose between <ul> and <ol>.
I can put a list inside a list.

Key words

unordered list · ordered list · list item · nested list · bullet

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 shopping list doesn't care about order, so it is an unordered list: <ul>. A recipe's steps must be done in order, so it is an ordered list: <ol>. Inside either, each item is a list item: <li>.

The browser does the numbering for you – if you add a step in the middle of an <ol>, the numbers update themselves. Screen readers say "list, 5 items", which helps people know what is coming.

A list can go INSIDE a list item, to make sub-lists (like the levels of a menu). Put the inner <ul> inside the <li> it belongs to, before that item's </li>. Browsers give the inner list a different marker: hollow circles instead of filled dots.

Worked example: two kinds of list

<h2>Bring</h2>
<ul>
<li>Water</li>
<li>A hat</li>
</ul>
<h2>Steps</h2>
<ol>
<li>Meet at the gate</li>
<li>Walk to the park</li>
</ol>

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-13 – Decompose problems to help design, implement and review programs.

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.