Scratch and
Scratch Jr is a great way to introduce your students to coding. Scratch is
basically an online community and its aim is to educate and introduce kids to
coding. Students can easily create different activities and convert them into
programs using scratch. These programs can also be shared with each other.
The purpose of
scratch Jr is also similar to scratch but it is designed specifically for
children of age 5-7. It sparks creativity in kids and at the same time, they
also develop an interest in coding. Kids
can program different types of games, stories, and
activities. In this way, they learn problem-solving
skills and how to express themselves creatively.
How Scratch and Scratch Jr Works
Here is how
Scratch works:
- Type scratch.mit.edu in the address bar of your browser and press enter.
- After you press enter, the homepage of scratch will appear. Here your students can create interactive games, stories, animations and so on.
- Create an account and sign in.
- After you sign in, you will see a lot of different types of projects created by the scratch community.
- You can also go to the help page of scratch to see some of the projects for beginners.
- Click on any project that you want.
- Click “see inside” button to see how that specific project is made.
- You can also edit, make adjustments and experiment with new things in that project after you click “see inside”.
Here is how
Scratch Jr works:
- Open the Scratch Jr.
- Click on the home button to get started.
- A page with the character of cat will appear. Your students can edit this page as they want. They can add more characters, remove or replace the “cat” character and so on. They can also make animations.
- Engage your students in different interesting projects.
Using Scratch and Scratch Jr with elementary students
Using Scratch
and Scratch Jr with elementary students is a great way to get them started with
coding. There are so many fun activity ideas that you can do in your classroom.
Here are some of those ideas:
*Ideas are inspired by members of the Technology Teacher Tribe Facebook Group
Retelling
a familiar story
This is a great
way to spark creativity in your little students. Ask them to think about a
familiar story such as three little pigs. Once they pick a familiar story, ask
them to recreate it in the Scratch or Scratch Jr. However, the ending of the
story should be different than its actual end.
The
life cycle of a made-up animal
Another great
way to grab the interest of your students and to engage them in a creative
activity is the life cycle of a made up animal. Ask them to think about a
made-up animal such as catermonkey (half
caterpillar and half monkey). After that, ask them to create an animation of
the life cycle of this made-up animal. It is up to their imagination how they
want to present the life cycle of their made-up animal.
I also really like these Scratch Cards from Amazon (affiliate link).
You might also like the Blog Post How to use Buncee with Elementary Students.

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