I don't remember what we programmed on the PDP (probably a couple math programs in fortran), but then we got some Commodore Pets.
I did a lame missile command style game and then there was an "animation" assignment. Besides the actual one I did a quick one that was more of a gordian(sp?) knot solution.
You could print horizontal line characters from top to bottom. There were eight of them. I printed that with no line return and then just looped.
That would wrap and it made a good impression of a wheat field being blown by the wind.
The teacher was a bit miffed when he found out it was a two line program.