Abstract
The article examines methodological approaches to developing algorithmic thinking in primary school students during programming lessons. The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to move beyond elementary digital-user skills and to form learners’ ability to plan actions, sequence operations, analyze conditions, identify errors and construct simple algorithms. The paper clarifies algorithmic thinking as a component of digital literacy and computational thinking and substantiates the role of game-based, visual, practice-oriented and gradually scaffolded tasks in primary education. Special attention is given to the transition from everyday algorithms to flowcharts, block-based programming, virtual robots, characters and interactive learning environments. The article proposes a lesson organization model that includes motivation, task formulation, algorithm modeling, program execution, debugging and reflection. It is concluded that the effective formation of algorithmic thinking in younger learners requires a systematic combination of play, visualization, practical activity and progressive complication of learning tasks.