This March I started a new Scratch class for K-6 at Einstein's Workshop (formally known as H3XL). Here are the class materials for the class so that parents can follow along at home if they wish.
Session 1 Introduce Yourself
Activity: The first session consists of two related activities. First, create a Scratch project to introduce yourself to the rest of the class. Second, create a Scratch project to tell a joke, possibly with two characters.
Learning Objective:
- Sharing projects onto the Scratch website (saving the project), need to know how to enter user name and password
- basic drawing skills, drawing a picture of yourself or something that represent yourself
- basic Scratch concepts: what is a block, what is a sprite, scripts, costumes
- import a sprite from the sprite library
- use the say and the wait blocks to coordinate telling a joke
Scratch Blocks
Example Program:
See my Hello project, and the knock knock joke project.
Session 2 Let's learn to fly!
Activity: Create a Scratch project to fly a plane (or other character) around the screen.
Learning Objective:
- A simple understanding of the Scratch stage coordinate system (x,y)
- Use the "click" trick to fill in (x,y) value in any movement block
- drawing background onto the stage
Scratch Blocks
Example Program
See the flying around project.
Session 3 Simple Racing
Activity: Create a Scratch project to "race" two characters on the stage.
Learning Objective:
- How to tell a sprite to do someone over and over again (using the repeat block).
- optional: collision detecting by checking to see if one sprite touches a specific color
- drawing background onto the stage (finishing line)
- Start to incorporate knowledge of blocks learned from previous sessions.
Scratch Blocks
Example Program: See the simple racing and the racing with finishing line projects.