HTML and CSS lesson 1: What is HTML? Tags and elements

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

HTML is the language of web pages. Tags such as <h1> and <p> tell the browser what each part of a page is. 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: “Why do you think browsers don't show an error when a tag is misspelt?”
Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

The tags are shown on the page. The browser hides them and uses them to lay out the page.
A closing tag is <\h1> or <h1/>. It is </h1>: a forward slash straight after <.

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: say what HTML is for.

Success looks like

I can say what HTML is for.
I can write an element with an opening and a closing tag.
I can spot a tag with a mistake in it.

Key words

HTML · tag · opening tag · closing tag · element · browser

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)

Every web page you have ever visited is written in HTML. HTML is not a list of instructions like Python – it is a way of LABELING text, so the browser knows that this line is a heading and that one is a paragraph.

You label text with tags. <h1> opens a main heading and </h1> closes it (the slash means "end"). The opening tag, the words and the closing tag together are called an element. The browser never shows the tags – it uses them to draw the page.

Browsers are very forgiving: a misspelt tag such as <hl> (letter l) doesn't cause an error message. The browser simply doesn't know what it is, so the words lose their heading. Checking your page in the browser is part of the job.

Worked example: a heading and a paragraph

<h1>Hello, world!</h1>
<p>This is my first web 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.