CSEdWeek Lesson, 2020

For this activity, you will create a sketch, which is similar to a theatrical skit. Your sketch will explore a concept, idea, or situation through the eyes of an individual or group. Skits are often unscripted and improvised. However, in programming a game, animation, or app—all elements must be imagined, designed, and developed in advance to be included in the game or in this case—your sketch. First, what is Scratch? Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations – and share it!

1. Go to the Scratch website:

https://scratch.mit.edu

2. Click the Join button to create an account.

Note: We do not recommend that you use “Start Creating”, because you will not be able to Save or Share your work.

Scratch offers many resources that are available to you on the Scratch landing page.

3. Click the Create button in the upper-left side of the

navigation bar to begin your first game. Let’s take a tour and find out what all we can do here! There are three main areas to Scratch: the code blocks menu, the code editor, and the stage.

1. Code Blocks Menu 2. Code Editor 3. The Stage

Draggable coding blocks are organized into categories on the left side. Refer to the Scratch Support doc for details, including how to Share.

The code editor is currently empty, but it is the location where you will drop the code blocks from the menu.

Where you place assets like sprites and backdrops. Play test or stop the game by clicking the desired action.

“Share Your Sketch” in Scratch

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CSEdWeek Lesson, 2020

Our sketch begins with establishing a theme through our choices of sprites or characters, and what they say or do. So far, there is one sprite on the stage—the Scratch cat, but what if you do not want to use the cat? Lucky for us, there are many more sprites available to use in Scratch.

1. Under the Stage, you will see

where you can control the sprites and backdrops. Click the Cat icon and Choose a Sprite.

2. Search by name or category

and find a sprite you like and click it.

3. The sprite appears and is

selected. Notice the Trashcan icon in the upper right corner. To remove the Scratch Cat, select it, and it disappears. Note: You may add as many sprites as you want, but keep in mind that the following codes blocks are for the main character here.

4. Resize your sprite if needed.

Sprite size was 100, now it is 50. Wow, that is one lonely dinosaur. Let’s create another sprite to keep our first sprite company, and soon we will have a conversation between them.

This sketch really needs a location or a backdrop. Changing backdrops is the same as changing sprites!

1. Under the Stage, you will see

where you can control the backdrops. Search and find a backdrop.

CSEdWeek Lesson, 2020

Now, what? It would be great if our sprite(s) could talk to us -they can - and here is how! Notice, that all of the coding block categories are color-coded to aid in quick-find and recognition. Now, let’s code our first sprite!

1. In the code

blocks editor, go to the Events group and drag over the When Flag Clicked block. Note: If you drag over a block and change your mind, you can separate it from other blocks and drag that block back to the block’s palette.

2. In the Looks

blocks, you will find code to help you program your sprite to Say and Think.

3. Control blocks

can control time to give your audience more of it to read the dialogue. Drag over blocks to customize your own message. Note: Say messages can get long!

4. Test your

progress by clicking the green flag to play and the red stop sign to end the code. Tip: Test your code early and often!

5. In the Motion

blocks, you will find code blocks to help your sprite move. Combining move blocks adds a lot of motion to your sketch.

6. Other Control

blocks can repeat or loop action(s) for a specific number of times or per a set condition. Example: If score < 100

7. In Events, drag

over the broadcast message1 block and place it before or after a say block with your message.

8. In the Looks

blocks, drag over switch costume to __ to animate the sprite.

CSEdWeek Lesson, 2020

Time to program a second sprite and put our sketch together with a Title and End text sprites.

1. First, you will

change sprites by clicking on the sprite you want to program. Here, dinosaur1 is deselected and dinosaur2 is selected. Notice, the code editor for this sprite should be empty.

2. In the Events

blocks you will find code to help you program your second sprite to receive the message with the when I receive message1 block. Feel free to respond with say or think blocks.

3. In the sprites

palette, click the add a sprite icon and then choose Paint. Now, it is time to create sprites for the Title and End of our sketch.

4. The Paint sprite

editor opens and displays the tool options for text, color, font name, and the Select tool to move. Hint: hover over the icons, and they will display their names.

5. Position and

name the sprite: Title. Now, repeat your steps to create an Ending sprite to your sketch and name it: End. Set both to no show by clicking the icon.

6. Go back to the

main character sprite and click Code. In Events, drag over a when I receive message1 block into place, click New Message and name it titlemessage.

7. Select the Title

sprite and add the Event block to receive the message. Type it with the same spelling. In Looks, drag over the show block. Repeat for End sprite.

8. A Control block

will limit the time the Title and End sprites are visible, then use a hide block. Once, your sketch is the way you want, use the Scratch Support doc to Share it!