1 – An Introduction to Scratch

🎯 Learning Objectives

Develop the Programming and DevelopmentAlgorithmsLiteracyInformation Technology Learning Strands:

  • Understand what a Graphical User Interface is (GUI).
  • Understand how to use Scratch Blocks to create a sequence of instructions.
  • Investigate arithmetic operators and loops.
  • Understand how to output text.


📖 An Introduction to Scratch

Scratch is a programming language that can be used to make small programs and games. Above is the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Scratch. A GUI is how the a user interacts with software.

📖 Learn It
  • The Scratch GUI is split into 4 sections
  • These are listed below:
  • The key areas are:
    1. The Blocks Palette
    2. The Scripts Area
    3. The Stage
    4. The Sprite List
⌨️ Code It

If you’ve used Scratch before and already have an account, then you can skip this section.

  • Fill in the details required. Be sure to pick a username and password you will remember.
  • You should use your school email address when you register, it looks like this: [email protected]
  • Once you are logged in, click on the Create button in the menu bar.
  • Now we can name our file. Call it Practice Scripts.
  • Scratch works by dragging blocks of code from the blocks palate into the script area. These blocks then can be stacked to create scripts.
  • Let’s make a simple Script. From the Blocks Palate, choose Events.
  • Now, click and drag the following block on to the Scripts Area.
  • Next choose the Looks scripts from the menu.
  • Click and drag the say Hello! for 2 secs block and snap it to the When flag clicked block.
▶️ Run It
  • To run our Scratch script, you just need to click on the Green Flag in the Stage area.
⌨️ Code It
  • Now let’s try something a little more complicated.
  • Delete your current script by dragging it back to the Blocks Palette.
  • We’re going to make the cat grow. You’ll need to search through the Blocks Palette to find the appropriate blocks, and build the script as it’s shown below.
  • Now click on the Green Flag in the Stage area to run your code.
📖 Learn It – Uploading Your Work Video Tutorial

Video Tutorial – You’ll upload your completed work to www.bournetolearn.com for marking. The video tutorial below explains how to do it:

🏅 Badge it

🥈 Silver Badge – Cat Talk
  • After you have completed the code in Scratch as shown above, try changing what the cat says and how long it says it for.
  • Follow the video tutorial on how to upload your work and upload your work to www.bournetolearn.com.
🥇 Gold Badge – Cat Shrink!
  • Try to change the script so that after the cat has grown, it says “I’m Shrinking!” and then returns to it’s regular size.
  • HINT: You can use negative numbers in Scratch
🥉 Platinum Badge – Cat Moving in Circles
  • To get your platinum badge, you need to make the cat move around in a large circle.
  • You’ll probably want to look into using a loop to achieve this.