Here are just a selection of the many Scratch projects my primary school children created last term.
Category: Coding
The Hour of Code 2016
The Hour of Code is a worldwide event where young people and adults take part in ‘learn to code’ activities during December.
I was delighted to be part of this year’s Hour of Code and thanks to the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon, pulled together the event at their wonderful site.
A group of young enthusiastic children arrived on a rainy Saturday afternoon to learn how to program their own Minecraft worlds. We used Code.org – home to some fantastic Minecraft activities which were a real hit with the children. I was very impressed on how the young coders got on with the challenges and were able to share with their peers.
Thank you to everyone that attended and special thanks to the Curzon Cinema for their continued support, which allows us to inspire more children to code.
Spooky Scratch projects
In the final session of the school term the children produced some ‘spooky’ projects in Scratch, with some great animations and fun effects. The projects were completed in an hour-long session and here are some of the amusing results…
Game Control with Scratch
This term, the children learn to program their own games and control them with the keyboard.
Sharing at Coding Club
At Coding Club we encourage the children to learn about sharing and collaboration. They all take turns to ‘show and tell’. It was great to see everyone sharing their creations and explaining the mechanics of their games.
#SummerOfCode 2016
So #SummerOfCode 2016 got off to a very good start – a room full of busy and enthusiastic young people ready to create their own Apps.
They had all travelled to the independent Curzon Cinema in Clevedon with their laptops and tablets, expectant of a morning packed with different coding activities.
I was pleased to see how quickly the boys and girls learnt some basic JavaScript coding – then interact with their own apps on their tablets and phones. They also unilaterally chose to ‘work’ right through their ‘Haribo-breaks; maybe I should approach Haribo to sponsor the third #SummerOfCode next year?!
The event would have not been possible without the passionate and dedicated staff at the Curzon Clevedon Cinema who helped me put together the event – and our kind sponsor, Leslie Dark & Co.
Creating games with Hopscotch
Years 1 & 2 enjoyed creating their own games with Hopscotch. The app is intended for 8+ year olds but it can also be used with younger children that are confident using ScratchJr. In our case, most of the children had been creating games with ScratchJr and Hopscotch was the perfect follow up.
Hopscotch is a drag and drop code block programming application, which enabled children to create their own interactive games and stories.
The children learnt how to use the iPad’s features like touch and orientation and use these in their creations. They also learned about coordinates, pixels and how to use emoji’s as characters for their projects as well as the logic needed to animate their characters. Check this project out.
Hopscotch it a great app for learning coding, but it can be a bit challenging for some children if they haven’t grasped the basics. If that is the case, then the ScratchJr app might be more suitable.
Emoji creations
Backwell students (Y7 – Y9) created their own emoji’s with the javaScript library p5.js. They learnt about the tools they need to get started with p5.js, how to use the online editor JS Bin and how to draw on the browser. Continue reading “Emoji creations”
JavaScript Playground
Last school term, I facilitated half a dozen sessions with a group of secondary school students who had the opportunity to get started with javaScript through play. We used the strategy game Codecombat, which allows students to write code and use computational thinking to guide their character through obstacles and battles. Continue reading “JavaScript Playground”
Reflections on #SummerOfCode
After many months in the planning, our first #SummerOfCode took place at the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon last week. My early self-doubt quickly evaporated as we filled every one of the 100 free places, and the whole thing far exceeded my expectations.
