Please contact us if you have any questions about this guide

fred@teachingbites.com sharon@teachingbites.com
©2015 Teaching Bites
www.teachingbites.com
 Important Tips
• This is guide is designed to get you and your students learning how to code within 5
minutes of setup (your mileage may vary) - YOU DO NOT have to be a coder to do
this. You just need to click everywhere! (don’t worry, there are “undo” buttons)

• We suggest after setup, have your students explore the interface for 2 minutes and
share what they have found

• Encourage students to collaborate and share tips with each other

• For first projects, emphasize students to keep their projects simple - they will spend
a lot of time trying to create the “perfect” sprite/background and will distract them
from learning to code.

• If time is really short, have them choose a ready made sprite and background to
code

• Though Scratch automatically saves the file, hitting the save helps just in case

• Reinforce student respecting each other’s files in a shared login account

• Share student projects by embedding them to your blog/site

Go to http://scratch.mit.edu/
Or you can search for Scratch online
 Join Scratch
• Create a shared classroom login for students (if they do not have a
school emails address) and choose a classroom relevant
password. I use my own school email address for this.
• Students with school issued emails can register with their school
emails and password. Scratch is a student safe site, but please
check with your school’s online policy
• Make sure you have access to student email login credentials so
you can check on their progress
 Fill in your info
This will help recover forgotten email addresses and
passwords
 You are in!
This is the dashboard and you skip this for later
Get creating!
Click on the Create tab
Have students create own file
Students will need to rename “Untitled” to their initials
(check your school’s digital privacy policy)
 Under My Stuff
You will find your student files accessible. Click on the
“See inside” button to see/edit the code.
Cool Tip: Command+F (Control+F for PC)
This keyboard shortcut will help you search for names/words on ANY
webpage! You will need click “load more” to be able to search the Scratch
page.
Change file name and save now
Again, if sharing a class login acct., remind your students to
respect each other’s work and only access their own files
 6

1
3

5
1
4

Layout
1.Stage (background preview) 5. Sprite pane to create new sprites
2.Blocks Palette (these are the 6. Admin and editing toolbar
“ingredients” to build code/scripts) 7. Stage (background) pane to
3.Scripts Area is where you drag and drop
create new stage
blocks to make a script (think recipe)
4.Thumbnails of stage and sprites
Blocks are
puzzle-like
pieces to
create code;
they are like
ingredients to
a recipe

• Motion
• Looks
• Sound
• Events
• Control
• Sensing
*We’ll skip the other blocks
for next time
 Blocks
• Motion blocks are used to control sprites
• Looks blocks are used to control a sprite’s appearance
• Events blocks are used to sense events, which trigger
scripts to run
• Control blocks are used to control scripts.
• Sound blocks are the blocks that control sound
• Sensing blocks are used to detect different factors of a
project.
 Click drag,
drop and
snap blocks
together

Scripts (they are like recipes)

• When you click, drag and drop a block and combine with other block, you
make a sprite do something; Scripts are like the recipes
• The order of blocks do matter and affect the action of the sprite
• You will need the Green Flag, found in Events, to start the code
 2
1 3

Your Sprite
1. Draw your sprite with paint brush (recommended)
2. You can choose an existing sprite
3. Upload (or take) a picture to be your sprite
 New costume -
changing/modifying that Costume name Undo & Clear buttons
particular sprite’s look (good to keep
track of
costumes) Drawing
toolbar

Preview
Drawing
Area

Thumbnails Color Palette & Line

thickness slider Zoom in/out

Creating/modifying Sprites
 undo, redo, clear

Drawing
area

Drawing
tools

Line thickness slider Color palette Zoom in/out

Backdrop (background)
Click the stage preview and choose Backdrop tab
Draw your own, choose existing, or upload your own image
New backdrop: you can change/edit that particular backdrop
 Editing Tool
Select the editing tool and click the sprite/object to
duplicate, delete, grow or shrink
 Reset sprite
Change the x, y, to 0,0 and your sprite will return to the
center
 Sharing your student projects

Your community can view and play your student Scratch projects on your school blog by adding a link or
embedding the project with the following steps:

1. Go to the file name (not “See Inside”)

2. Click "Share to" on the grey bar below the project.
3. To EMBED: Copy the embed code from the text box that opens up. and paste this code into the HTML
editor of your website.
4. To LINK to the project in your blog or emailing: copy the link under the “Share” section
 Done with the basics!
Now, you should be able to get your students
started with Scratch! Scratch is probably the BEST
“open-ended” tool to learn 21st century skills.

Don’t worry about being perfect - these projects are

designed for students to explore and figure things
out among themselves! You’ll see how they will
grow their skills by playing with the tools. Keep it
light-hearted and fun. Your kids will enjoy it and
you as well.

Like everything else, as you continually use

Scratch, you will find that you can innovate your
curriculum in amazing ways.

Now, GET SCRATCHING!

If you have any questions about this guide - we are

here to help. Contact us at fred@teachingbites.com
and sharon@teachingbites.com
 Project Ideas
• Explain a classroom routine or process step by step (i.e. cooking, writing process)

• Show the scientific method process of personal experiments

• Have students tell/re-tell a story to gain deeper understanding of the story themes and topics

• Recreate a musical instrument or a even create a new one

• Create a game (i.e. Pong, racing cars, capture the flag, soccer)

• Create a digital citizenship superhero that fights hacking, cyber-bullying

• Create a tour of a historical event or place

• Create Powerpoint-like interactive presentations that explains a math concept, historical event,
language arts concept etc.

• Create holiday cards, invitations, thank you notes

• Create maps of geographical landscapes (i.e. Google Earth)

• Create a space rocket and explore the Solar System

Name(s) ____________________________________ Date _____________________

Project _____________________________________

Coding Exceptional Meets Expectations Room for improvement Unsatisfactory

4 pt 3 pt 2 pt 1 pt
Skill
Significant amount of time and effort All sprites are present and created. Sprites, dialogue, and narration One or more key
put into the creation of the sprites. Narration and dialogue are are all present, but sometimes sprites, is not
Narration and dialogue is complete, complete and accurate. jumbled, overlapping, or difficult to original.
NARRATION, accurate and entertaining! understand/follow. Dialogue and/or
DIALOGUE, AND narration is broken,
SPRITES hard to follow, or
missing altogether.

Includes 2 or more backgrounds that Includes 2 or more backgrounds Includes only one background or Only 1 background.
are complex, accurate to the story that represent the different settings minimal adjustments to a second
BACKGROUND
and are significantly different from and/or elements of the story. background.
each other.

Contains complex movement and/or Contains movement and/or Provides minimal movement No movement or
MOVEMENT/ interactions between sprites. interaction between sprites. and/or interaction between sprites. interaction between
sprites.
INTERACTIONS

Clear directions are provided and Directions are given to the viewer Directions are given, but may not Questions and/or
QUESTIONS & thoughtful/insightful questions are and questions are posed to the all function or may be difficult to directions are
DIRECTIONS TO posed. characters and/or viewer that relate understand and/or follow. missing.
to the story. Questions are posed but do not
CHARACTERS
necessarily relate to the story.
AND/OR
VIEWER

3 or more sound elements present 3 sound elements present. At least 2-3 sound elements present but Only 1 sound
SOUND and all are student created. one is student created. pulled from Scratch. element present or
ELEMENTS missing altogether.