The article discusses the capabilities of the Minecraft: Education Edition (Minecraft EDU) platform, built on the ideas of gamification, to motivate schoolchildren to study informatics. It describes how to work with the platform (creating an account, importing worlds, creating programs); basic concepts associated with the platform; approximate planning of lessons of the thematic section "Algorithmics" for the sixth grade; general idea of work in the classroom using the platform. The materials of two lessons are presented in detail: the first is focused on acquainting students with Minecraft EDU, the basic rules and tools of this platform; the second is focused on compose linear programs, acquaintance with such concepts of informatics as "algorithm", "executor", "system of commands of the executor". For each of the two lessons, the game world, specially prepared by the teacher, is described in detail. The results obtained by the author when testing these materials are formulated.