Planning to Introduce Scratch Programming Year 3/4

Year 3/4Sequence of lessons to introduce Scratch software

• Understand that efficient procedures/algorithms can be used to solve problems and to plan for specific outcomes.
• Design and write programs that accomplish specific goals.
• Solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts.
• Use sequence, selection and repetition in programs.
• Use logical reasoning to explain how a simple algorithm works and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.

• Ask class to explore Scratch software individually (where this is possible) or in pairs, with an expectation that they will be looking at the achievements of the person beside them and talking about what they are achieving.
• First focus children on ‘multimedia editing’ parts of software - encourage children to add sprites / edit sprites. Make sure they have discovered the stage and different backgrounds.
• Open a new project. Focus on sprite and programming blocks.
• Rule 1 : Only use cat and blue (motion) blocks
• Rule 2: Only use cat and blue (motion) purple (looks) blocks
• Rule 3: Only use cat and blue (motion) purple (looks) and pink (sound) blocks.
• Encourage children to click on individual blocks to see what happens. As they become more confident they will start to click blocks together – talk about this as a sequence. (Don’t rush them to make a sequence, it is important for them to see that individual blocks do different things.)
• Introduce words: sprite, background, blocks. Explore individually talking to your friends about what is happening, but stay with the one sprite.
• When appropriate introduce control and event blocks.
• Open a new project. Choose your background and sprite. Make something surprising happen to your sprite.
• Show your friends the project you have created.
• What have you found out about Scratch software? Did anyone discover any useful tips for each other?

• Have two people telling a knock, knock joke. Who says which part?
• Open a new project. Choose two sprites. Can you program the sprites to tell a knock, knock joke? Remind them of the looks block ‘say XXXX for XX sec’. (Some children may decide to record their own voice. If they choose this way they will need to record the correct part of each line of the joke for each sprite)
• Leave children to work at telling the joke, intervening as required. Prompt children to use when green flag clicked to start each sprite. Some may discover other ways but using the green flag will start both sprites off.
• Children may need to consider the ‘wait for xxx’ control block so that one sprite sprites waits for the other to finish before they tell their part of the joke.
• Early finishers can be prompted to add a background and perhaps to add a bit of movement to their sprites.
• Ask children to save projects. View and discuss projects with 2 stars and a wish.

• Children save projects which can be looked at together or, if saved in the same folder, they can view each others.
• Talk about the difference between the way they found to tell a joke and using the broadcast block.
• Why is the broadcast program block useful? (Each sprite needs to know when it is their turn to speak.)
• Talk about how there are different ways of programming the same algorithm.
• Talk about efficient programming, stressing that there is no wrong way just more efficient ways. Look at the algorithm. Which bits of programming achieve the different steps in the algorithm?
• What have we added to our knowledge about Scratch?

By the end of year four it is good for children to also have made a Racing Car game and then adapted this idea to a game of their own.

This builds on the knowledge of selection they have gained in creating an Etch a Sketch game.

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