Coding for Kids 1: Scratch for Beginners

Coding a Story

Have you got your own idea for a new game or do you just like making them? It all begins with your story. Join us as we learn how to create your own unique games in Scratch. You will also learn how to create your very own story-telling `Sprite’ in this wonderful introduction to coding.

Starting from Scratch

Now that we understand the fundamentals of coding, we can begin learning about the essential coding techniques used by professional programmers every day. To begin understanding computers we need to know how computers "think". What instructions do we give to a `Sprite’ to make it move? Find out this and more in this lesson.

Creative Coding

Did you know you can draw code as well? We can draw anything in Scratch by moving our Sprite and instructing them where to move. Coding allows us to express ourselves in many different ways and creating artworks is simply one of many. Are you ready to become the next Picasso? Find out how creative you can be while you code.

Scratchers Got Talent

Now we are beginning to see how Scratch can let us do whatever we want with just a few simple tricks and the right idea behind it. In this lesson we will see how adding sound effects can really make the difference in a game or may even be the main attraction of a game. By the end of this lesson we will know how to import sounds, create backing tracks for levels and how to record songs using Scratch.

Quiz - Time

Speed Maths is a great way to engage your brain and keep it active. Creating a quiz that times how fast you can get the right answer can be frustratingly good fun! In recent year’s apps that do exactly this have become hugely popular. Are you ready to learn how to build your very own quiz and test your friends and family?

Fish Tank Conversations

In this lesson you will learn how to make Sprites talk to one another and what broadcasting a message is used for. Then we will look at asking the player questions in order for them to pass. By the end of the lesson you will learn about adding phrases to a List and organizing our data to talk to our Sprite. Watch as it then learns what we say and chats back to us.

Platformer Games Part 1

In this lesson we will look at coding our very own Platformer Project. This is the first part of a two-part lesson and introduces us to jumping and collecting coins as we go through the level. Starting with the essentials for setting up our project we will introduce the images and sprites that we are using for this game.

Platformer Games Part 2

This is our final lesson in our introduction to Scratch and part two of our two-part lesson. We have learned a lot about the coding essentials that are crucial to coders around the world. To add to our project, we must focus on creating the main script for our game and discuss what happens when we lose the game! This lesson also brings all of the various skills that we have learned in Scratch to a close and yet, it is only the beginning of our journey into the world of Scratch and understanding how the world works with our new "coding" brains. Ready to start creating your very own projects?