Coding with Scratch Made Easy

Have you heard of Scratch? Both of my children were introduced to Scratch at school this year.

Title: Coding with Scratch Made Easy
Author: Jon Woodcock & Steve Setford
Published By: Dorling Kindersley, 2016
ISBN: 9781553632740

Coding with Scratch Made Easy

My children love computers and technology. I think this is because they started using them so early. Even in school it is common to use a computer most days even in the younger grades. They are already both using Chromebooks at school and are avid Minecraft players at home. When they were introduced to Scratch at school this spring they were both very excited and I often find them trying Scratch at home in their free-time.

Scratch is a free coding program for children, developed by MIT.

Coding with Scratch made Easy is a great introduction to using the Scratch interface. It walks you through Scratch and even provides Lessons you can try to become more familiar with the functions of the program and to learn basic computer programming skills. This is a great interface to help children begin to understand how coding works. It also includes gold stars that can be awarded as you progress through the lessons in the book.

First, the book introduces us to Scratch:

• What is Scratch?
• Getting Scratch (online and offline)
• Exploring Scratch

The sections included:

Learn the Basics

• Your first project. Make Scratch Cat Walk
• Move it! Taking steps and bouncing back.
• Which way? Giving directions to sprites.
• Loops. Making things happen repetitively.
• Animation. Walking and dancing.
• Party time! Adding scenery and music.
• If-then. Making decisions in Scratch.
• Variables. Boxes for storing data.
• Math. Doing equations with Scratch.
• Inputs and events. Questions, answers and triggering scripts.
• If-then-else. Using “true or false” questions.
• A game: Dragon! Have fun with this simple game.

Games

• Fishball
• Ghost hunt
• Rapid reaction
• Melon bounce

Projects

• Weird music
• Skywriting
• Quiz time!
• Pet party
• Bounce painting

Solutions

Take a look at what is included in this short video from DK about Coding with Scratch Made Easy:

If your children are interested in computer games and coding, Coding with Scratch Made Easy is a great book to introduce them to coding. It will help them navigate the Scratch program, learn basic coding skills, practice these skills and create fun projects and games.

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You can purchase your own copy of Coding with Scratch Made Easy, directly from Amazon.

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