10.2 Student Activity

Create a simple grid container

Student Activity:

Objective: Create a simple grid container to understand column and row definitions and observe how grid items fill the cells.

Instructions:

Step 1: Open a code editor and create an HTML file named grid-activity.html.
Step 2: Inside grid-activity.html, set up a basic HTML structure with a grid container.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Grid Activity</title>
    <style>
        .grid-container {
            display: grid;
            grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
            grid-template-rows: 100px 200px;
            gap: 10px;
            border: 1px solid #333;
        }
        .grid-item {
            background-color: #4CAF50;
            color: white;
            text-align: center;
            padding: 20px;
            font-size: 1em;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>

    <div class="grid-container">
        <div class="grid-item">Item 1</div>
        <div class="grid-item">Item 2</div>
        <div class="grid-item">Item 3</div>
        <div class="grid-item">Item 4</div>
        <div class="grid-item">Item 5</div>
        <div class="grid-item">Item 6</div>
    </div>

</body>
</html>

Step 3: Review the Code:
- The .grid-container uses display: grid to define it as a grid container.
- grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr; divides the container into three equal columns.
- grid-template-rows: 100px 200px; sets the height of the first row to 100px and the second row to 200px.
- Each .grid-item represents an individual item inside the grid.

Observe the Layout:
- Open grid-activity.html in a browser.
- Observe how the items are distributed in the grid cells across the specified rows and columns.

Challenge Activity: Positioning Grid Items with CSS Grid

Objective:

Learn how to position elements within a grid layout using CSS Grid. By the end of this activity, you will understand how to use grid-template-columns, grid-template-rows, and positioning properties to create a structured webpage layout.

Prerequisites:

Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, including CSS selectors.

Files Overview:

You have three files to work with:

css-grid-student-activity10.2B.html: The structure of the webpage.
css-grid-10.2B.css: The CSS for defining the grid layout.
css-grid-10.2B-basic.css: The CSS for styling individual grid items.

Step 1: Understand the HTML Structure

Open css-grid-student-activity10.2B.html and examine the structure:

// Some code
<!DOCTYPE html>
  <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="css-grid-10.2B.css" />
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="css-grid-10.2B-basic.css" />
    </head>
      <div class="container">
        <div class="header">HEADER</div>
        <div class="menu">MENU</div>
        <div class="content">CONTENT</div>
        <div class="footer">FOOTER</div>
      </div>
  </html>

The page has a main div with the class container.
Inside the container, there are four elements: HEADER, MENU, CONTENT, and FOOTER.
These elements will be positioned using the CSS Grid defined in css-grid-10.2B.css.

Step 2: Defining the Grid Layout in CSS

Open css-grid-10.2B.css to understand how the grid layout is defined for the container:

The container is set to display as a grid:

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-gap: 3px; /* Adds spacing between grid items */
  grid-template-columns: repeat(12, 1fr); /* Defines 12 equal-width columns */
  grid-template-rows: 40px 200px 40px; /* Defines three rows of varying heights */
}

The container consists of 12 equal-width columns and 3 rows with different heights:
- First row: 40 pixels high.
- Second row: 200 pixels high.
- Third row: 40 pixels high.

Step 3: Positioning Grid Items

The elements in the grid (header, menu, content, footer) are positioned using grid properties like grid-column and grid-row:

.header is positioned across the second column to the last column:
```
.header {
  grid-column: 2 / -1;
}
```
This means the header starts from the second column and spans to the end of the container.
.menu occupies the first and second rows in its column:
```
.menu {
  grid-row: 1 / 3;
}
```
This means the menu starts in the first row and spans down into the second row.
.content starts from the second column to the last column:
```
.content {
  grid-column: 2 / -1;
}
```
.footer spans all columns:
```
.footer {
  grid-column: 1 / -1;
}
```

Step 4: Adding Styles to Grid Items

Open css-grid-10.2B-basic.css to understand how each grid item is styled:

Each div inside the .container is styled using flex to center the text and given unique background colors based on their position:

.container > div {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  font-size: 2em;
  color: #ffeead;
}

.container > div:nth-child(1n) {
  background-color: #96ceb4; /* Light green */
}

.container > div:nth-child(2n) {
  background-color: #ff6f69; /* Pink */
}

.container > div:nth-child(3n) {
  background-color: #88d8b0; /* Aqua */
}

.container > div:nth-child(4n) {
  background-color: #ffcc5c; /* Yellow */
}

Step 5: Experiment with Grid Positioning

Now, modify the grid-template properties and grid-column or grid-row values to see how the layout changes:

Change the Number of Columns:
- Modify grid-template-columns to change the number of columns, for example:
```
grid-template-columns: repeat(6, 1fr); /* Changes to 6 columns */
```
Reposition Elements:
- Experiment by changing grid-column or grid-row values for different elements:
```
.content {
  grid-column: 1 / 7; /* Spans from column 1 to 7 */
}
```

Step 6: Reflect and Discuss

How does changing grid-template-columns affect the layout?
What happens when you modify grid-row values for the menu?
How can you use these techniques to create more complex layouts?

Step 7: Additional Challenge

Try adding a new element, like a SIDEBAR, and use the grid properties to position it appropriately within the layout. Update the HTML and CSS files accordingly.

This step-by-step activity will help students get hands-on experience with grid layouts, providing a solid understanding of how to position elements within a CSS Grid. Encourage students to experiment and make changes to reinforce their understanding.

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Last updated 11 months ago