Every website you visit - YouTube, Google, your favorite games - they're all built with HTML! HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and it's the skeleton of every webpage. Today, you'll learn the basics and create your own webpage that you can show to friends and family!
What is HTML?
HTML uses 'tags' to tell the browser what to show. Tags look like this:
<tagname>content</tagname>
The tag name tells the browser what type of content it is. For example:
<h1>This is a big heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph of text.</p>
<img src="photo.jpg">
Most tags have an opening tag and a closing tag (with a /). The content goes in between!
Basic HTML Structure
Every webpage has this structure:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Awesome Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome!</h1>
<p>This is my first webpage.</p>
</body>
</html>
• <html> wraps everything
• <head> contains info about the page (like the title)
• <body> contains what people see
• <title> shows in the browser tab
Common HTML Tags
Here are the tags you'll use most:
📝 Headings: <h1> to <h6> (h1 is biggest)
📄 Paragraphs: <p>Your text here</p>
🔗 Links: <a href="url">Click me</a>
🖼️ Images: <img src="image.jpg" alt="description">
📋 Lists:
<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
</ul>
Try combining these to create interesting pages!
Build Your 'About Me' Page
Let's create a personal webpage! Open Notepad (or any text editor) and type:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>About Me</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hi, I'm [Your Name]!</h1>
<img src="your-photo.jpg" alt="My photo">
<h2>About Me</h2>
<p>I'm learning to code and I love it!</p>
<h2>My Hobbies</h2>
<ul>
<li>Coding</li>
<li>Gaming</li>
<li>Reading</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
Save as 'aboutme.html' and open it in your browser!
You just created your first webpage! 🎉 HTML is the foundation of web development. Every website starts with HTML, then adds CSS for styling and JavaScript for interactivity. In our next lesson, we'll learn CSS to make your page look amazing with colors, fonts, and layouts. Keep experimenting - try adding more content, images, and links to your page!
L
Liam O'Connor
Age 10 · Ireland · Coding Builder
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