Scratch programming is one of the most versatile tools for creativity that my students have ever used. I am constantly in awe of the ideas people come up with using this free coding platform that is available to anyone online. One of the most recent suggestions that is perfect for those of us going a bit stir crazy during the quarantine is to “hack your window.” Basically, you take a picture of any of the windows in your residence, use the Scratch drawing tools to delete the panes, and add what you would like to imagine seeing outside your window. This post from Eduard Perich gives specific instructions for creating an animated scene.
If you are not familiar with Scratch, or would like to start by just seeing what others have done along this theme, here is a link to the Scratch studio where creators are sharing their programs. You will notice that there are submissions in many different languages, which could be fun for translation lessons!
Knowing many of my former students, they would probably enjoy the entry, “Don’t Let the Corona Get In,” which I’ve embedded below. It’s a game where you have to try to click the images of the coronavirus before they get too large and overcome you.
One way to help students learn quickly in Scratch is to allow them to copy a program and remix it. You can do this by clicking on any shared program, choosing, “See Inside,” and then making a copy. You will need to be logged in to Scratch in order to do this.
There are many, many resources out there for getting started with Scratch. This is one of the basic ones, but keep in mind that the platform has been updated since then so some of the screen shots may look different than the current version. You can also do a search of this blog for ideas to use with Scratch and/or Scratch Jr.
