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An ELEMENTARY Teacher’s Guide

A WORLD OF IDEAS: SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

An ELEMENTARY Teacher’s Guide
prepared by Grant Smith
To complete the projects outlined in this guide, your students will need the
following DK publications:

Note to Educators: projects in many fields of interest including art, music,

games, simulations, and more. These projects are perfect
Coding with Scratch Workbook, Coding in Scratch: Games for aligning your lessons to another content area.
Workbook, Scratch Challenge Workbook, Coding Projects
in Scratch, and Coding Games in Scratch serve as Scratch builds on the constructionism learning theory.
workbooks and guides that are useful in helping young Seymour Papert developed this theory as a branch of
learners understand and create simple computer Jean Piaget’s description of constructivism. However,
programs. The books contain project walk-throughs that the difference is that Papert focused on the social aspects
will engage all types of learners. Many projects also of learning. The idea is that students learn best when they
include suggested “hacks and tweaks” that are perfect for use the knowledge they have to build an artifact and
differentiated learning. share it. Scratch was intentionally developed not only to
provide an open and creative coding sandbox, but also to
The workbooks (Coding with Scratch Workbook, Coding allow users to build and share projects on a global scale.
in Scratch: Games Workbook, and Scratch Challenge
Workbook) provide a scaffolded learning environment Papert explained that “the role of the teacher is to create
that can be used to build student knowledge. These the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-
workbooks also contain short quizzes that can serve as made knowledge.” This teacher guide has been
formative or summative assessments. developed with the goal to assist teachers (even those
with little to no computer science content knowledge)
The larger guides (Coding Projects in Scratch and Coding in effectively creating the ideal “conditions for invention”
Games in Scratch) promote student choice by outlining for their students. At this point you may be asking
yourself the following questions:
• Will I know the answer to every question that my
Seymour Papert students will have?
In Mindstorms (1980), Papert wrote: “One might
• Will I feel well-rested, prepared, and in control
say the computer is being used to program the child.
at all times?
In my vision, the child programs the computer, and in
doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a • Will every class run without a hitch?
piece of the most modern and powerful technology
and establishes an intense contact with some of the Let me answer those questions for you:
deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and 1) No. 2) You wish. 3) In your dreams!
from the art of intellectual model building.” Will it be worth it? You better believe it!
Now let’s make it happen!
GETTING STARTED
All the projects in this teacher guide will be made by your students using
Scratch. Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the
MIT Media Lab. It costs nothing and takes student privacy seriously. Scratch is a coding environment where students
snap blocks together to create computer programs. The advantage to learning in a block-based environment is that
your students won’t have to worry about complicated language syntax. Additionally, Scratch provides a learning
environment that is easy to get started with, allows a wide variety of types of projects, and is powerful enough to
create fairly complex programs.

Before you get started with your students, you will Pages 6–7 of the Coding with Scratch Workbook provide
need to set up Scratch. There are online, offline, and iPad an overview of how to sign up for or download Scratch.
versions of Scratch. To choose which one is the best for If you only have access to iPads, you can use Pyonkee
your class, you will need to consider the following (and (based off Scratch 1.4, not officially made by MIT). If your
it may be a good idea to get help from your technology district has policies against students under 13 years old
department): creating online accounts, consider applying for a Scratch
Educator account.
•D
 oes your school/district have policies against
creating online student accounts? Before your first lesson, you should complete the
student projects found in this teacher guide. Completing
•A
 re you able to download programs/apps onto the activities yourself will help you anticipate the needs
your devices? of your own students. Also, your completed projects
• What kinds of devices do you have? will serve as models to show students what they will
be making.

INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING:
If you are unfamiliar with computer programming, prepare to introduce coding to your students by reading
pages 12–23 of the Coding Projects in Scratch guide. Understand that an algorithm is simply a list of steps to
complete a task and a program is an algorithm that a computer can run.
You can introduce coding to your students by showing one or all of the following videos:
Coding for Kids 1: What Is Computer Coding?
http://bit.ly/2rmKFeV
Coding for Kids 2: How Computer Programs Work
http://bit.ly/2qociHm
Coding for Kids 3: Think Like a Computer
http://bit.ly/2qnZnoL
In Coding for Kids 3: Think Like a Computer, the robot has to be given very detailed and clear instructions to
successfully serve the food. You can model this with your students by pretending to be a robot. Ask students
to “program” you by making a list of instructions for you to follow to complete a task (e.g. walk to the door,
go to your desk and pick up a pencil, etc.).
INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO SCRATCH
Next, you will introduce your students to Scratch. You can show the Computer Coding
Games for Kids: Introducing Scratch video (http://bit.ly/2pQNKnr) to give an overview
of the environment. Then have students open to pages 8–9 of the Coding with Scratch guide and have them point to
each area as you say them (Stage area, Sprite list, Stage info . . .). The goal at this point is not to have the students
immediately memorize what each button and block in Scratch does. Rather, they should become familiar with the
environment and start to develop a common vocabulary when describing what they are doing in Scratch.
For many teachers, the next natural step would be to teach a concept and give an assignment. However, experienced
computer science teachers will tell you that after the introduction, students will be so excited to get started that they
most likely won’t listen to anything else you have to say. That’s why you should jump right in by having students
login or open Scratch. Set a timer and tell your students they have X minutes to “discover something new.” Encourage
them to share discoveries with their neighbors and to use the correct names when referring to areas in Scratch. While
circulating, ask students to point out something interesting they have discovered. Make sure to model using correct
terminology. When the time is up, select students to share projects they made or interesting facts they learned. You
may be surprised at what students can make and learn without any instruction from you. Encourage divergent
thinking and self-reflection.
At the end of your lesson, congratulate your students for becoming computer programmers! Explain that they have
some exciting projects ahead of them and will be learning about how to make their computers do amazing things.

LOOPS As with all main projects, the end product shown in

The concept of what a loop is can be very easy to the book should not be where your students finish
understand. However, knowing when and how to use working. The goal for your class should be that all of
loops effectively is difficult for young students master. your students’ projects are unique. Many of the
It requires thinking about patterns, decomposing projects in the books have a “hacks and tweaks”
problems, and improving programs iteratively. Help your section. These suggestions are perfect for helping
students by guiding them through the explanation found
your students generate ideas on how they can make
on pages 16–17 of the Coding with Scratch Workbook.
their programs unique. Requiring uniqueness is also
Then, have students work on these simple introduction
projects: a great way to differentiate learning. For some
students, their modifications may be simple, which
Coding with Scratch Workbook—Move It! may be perfect for them. Other students will look
(found on pages 12–13)
forward to pushing themselves as they create
Coding with Scratch Workbook—Which Way something more complex. In the end, every student
(found on pages 14–15) should feel like they were challenged and like they
Both of these introductory projects come with accomplished something they are proud of.
assessments in the book. If the students aren’t ready to
move on, have the students customize their Move It! and
Which Way projects to use loops in unique ways. You can also have your students complete the animation tutorial on
pages 18–19 of Coding with Scratch Workbook.
Main project:
Coding Projects in Scratch—Cat Art (found on pages 26–31)
For the main project, your students will create an art program that can be used to create colorful pictures. This
project is fairly simple but you should still be prepared to answer questions about blocks that may be new to
students. The Cat Art project has some fun hacks and tweaks for students to make their own project unique.
After the students finish their projects, have them explain what loops do. Spend time reflecting on their work. If you
have time, you should also delve deeper into the different types of loops found in Scratch (forever, repeat x, and
repeat until x).
EVENTS AND PARALLELISM
Events and parallelism will bring your students’ programs to life. Event blocks
trigger scripts to run. Your students have already used events blocks like “when
green flag is clicked” and “when space bar is clicked.” Parallelism simply means that computers can run multiple
scripts at the same time, either independently or in conjunction with each other.
Main project:
Coding Projects in Scratch—Birthday Card
(found on pages 82–91)
For the main project, students will use events and parallelism to make an interactive birthday card. Events will allow
the user to control when chunks of code should run and parallelism will enable multiple sprites to run scripts at the
same time. The Birthday Card project has some fun hacks and tweaks for students to make their projects unique.

Here are some examples of events in the Birthday Card project:

when clicked when I receive Line1 ▾ when I receive Go! ▾

hide switch costume to shark-b ▾ show

go to x: –165 y: 180 say Happy birthday to you! for 2 secs glide 2 secs to x: 165 y: –70

point in direction 90 ▾ switch costume to shark-a ▾

switch costume to shark-a ▾ broadcast Line2 ▾

Here are some examples of scripts running in parallel:

When the message “Go!” is broadcast, the Cake, Banner, and Shark1 sprite all run different scripts at the same time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Cake Banner Shark1

when I receive Go! ▾ when I receive Go! ▾ when I receive Go! ▾

go to x: –300 y: –100 point in direction 80 ▾ show

show show glide 2 secs to x: 165 y: –70

glide 2 secs to x: 0 y: –100 forever

forever turn 20 degrees

broadcast Line1 ▾ wait 1 secs

play sound birthday ▾ until done turn 20 degrees

wait 10 secs wait 1 secs

CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS
Conditional statements will make your students’ programs smarter. In Scratch
programming, conditional statements use the if-then and if-then-else blocks. Have
your students work through pages 22–23 of Coding with Scratch Workbook to get a handle on if-then statements.
You may want to have students spend time making their own projects that use if-then blocks. When ready, have your
students move on to if-then-else statements by working through pages 30–31 of Coding with Scratch Workbook.
Finally, students will complete the main project found below.

Main project:
when clicked
Coding Projects in Scratch—Dino Dance Party
(found on pages 34–45) forever

For the Dino Dance Party, students will use loops, events, if key right arrow ▾ pressed? then
parallelism, and conditional statements to make point in direction 90 ▾
animated characters dance on the screen. A small script
move 10 steps
in the program will check if the left or right arrow key is
pressed on the keyboard. If either key is pressed,
Dinosaur 3 will move in the corresponding direction.
if key left arrow ▾ pressed? then
These conditional statements make the program
interactive and more fun! Here’s what the conditional point in direction –90 ▾
statements look like in the Dino Dance Party program: move 10 steps

VARIABLES AND OPERATORS

While math operators like addition, subtraction, and Before moving on to the main projects, give students an
division work the same in programming as they do in opportunity to modify their starter projects to show that
elementary math, variables are slightly different. Have they understand how to use variables and math
your students work through pages 24–25 of Coding with operators in Scratch. When ready, allow students to
Scratch Workbook to understand variables and pages choose one of the following for their main project:
26–27 of Coding with Scratch Workbook to understand Coding Games in Scratch—Star Hunter
how to use math tools in Scratch. A common use for (found on pages 30–49)
variables in Scratch is to keep track of a player’s score in
a game. Before jumping to the main project, have your Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook—Ghost Hunt
students work on these starter projects: (found on pages 18–22)
Coding with Scratch Workbook—A Game: Dragon! Scratch Challenge Workbook—Keepy-Uppy
(found on pages 32–33) (found on pages 16–20)
Coding Projects in Scratch—Ask Gobo
(found on pages 60–65)
If students finish early, encourage them to either
continue improving their project or choose another
project from the list to work on.
CAPSTONE PROJECT
At this point, your students haven’t mastered all there is to know about coding,
but they have learned enough to make some really neat programs. Give students
an opportunity to show off what they know by creating and presenting a capstone project.
Have students choose a base project from the list below.

Scratch Challenge Workbook—Memory Master Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook—Melon Bounce

(found on pages 28–34) (found on pages 30–33)
Scratch Challenge Workbook—Monkey Rescue Coding Projects in Scratch—Animal Race
(found on pages 22–26) (found on pages 48–58)
Coding Games in Scratch—Jumpy-Monkey
(found on pages 90–107)
Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook—Fishball
(found on pages 8–16) Make sure students modify their end product so that
the program is unique. When your students finish, it is a
Coding in Scratch: Games Workbook—Rapid Reaction good idea to have them present their projects to their
(found on pages 24–28) class, parents, or students in other grade levels.

Congratulations! You made it! You have taught your

students the basics of coding in Scratch. But don’t stop
ARTICLES TO READ
now—keep challenging them! Get your hands on other Mitch Resnick: Let’s teach kids to code
DK coding books or come up with your own subject- https://www.ted.com/talks/mitch_resnick_let_s_teach_
aligned projects. Continue to prepare your pupils for kids_to_code
thriving in the twenty-first century. Learning to Code Isn’t Enough
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2013-05-28-opinion-
learning-to-code-isn-t-enough

MORE RESOURCES
Scratch ED
About the Author
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/ Grant Smith is the founder of Launch CS
An online community for Scratch educators to (www.launchcs.com), the premier provider of
collaborate and exchange resources. K–8 computer science teacher professional
Downloadable DK Coding Kit development. Grant is also a former K–8 computer
https://www.dk.com/us/explore/education/celebrate- science teacher and district administrator. He has
global-scratch-day-with-this-downloadable-computer- led #CSforAll initiatives at multiple school districts
coding-kit/ across the nation and has developed computer
DK 9 Easy Steps Coding Guide science curricula and standards. He has served on
https://www.dk.com/us/explore/education/9-easy-steps- national computer science education teams
for-teaching-coding-in-the-classroom/ including the CSTA Standards Review Committee.

A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW www.dk.com
CERTIFIC ATE OF ACHIEVEMENT

THIS CERTIFIC ATE IS AWARDED TO

COMPUTER CODING EXPERT

FOR DEMONSTRATING AN UNDERSTANDING
OF COMPUTER SCIENCE.
Coding
is a hoot!

Y o u r Fr i e nd s a t D K
ER

I’

M D
A WORLD OF IDEAS: A CO
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW www.dk.com