When participating in Hour of Code in our GT classroom this week, the 2nd graders were introduced to the free Scratch Jr. app on our iPads (also available on Android and on the Chrome Web Store ). Before we started exploring the app, I thought it would be good for them to learn a little bit about computer programming. BrainPop Jr. has a great free video that explains computer programming and some of the terminology. As an added bonus, the sample screen in the video looks very similar to the Scratch Jr. interface, so this particular video was an excellent introduction to our lesson.
You can find Hour of Code lessons for Scratch Jr. here. Additional lesson ideas can be found on the “Teach” tab of the Scratch Jr. site. As I was looking up resources to use with my students, I also found this PBS site that includes lessons integrated with some of the popular PBS kid shows, as well as printable task cards.
Scratch Jr. works very well as a starting point for block coding for primary students. My 2nd graders quickly found many “cool” things that they could do after about 10 minutes of exploration on their own. Familiarizing themselves with this app will make the transition to Scratch (a web based program for computers that does not currently work on mobile) almost seamless.
