What Is Scratch?
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If you’re looking for ways to get your young kids interested in coding, Scratch is a great place to start. Your kids can be designing their own games and animations in less than an hour without advanced coding knowledge. Scratch is a user friendly beginner coding platform that is perfect for those just getting started.
Scratch is designed for kids aged 8 to 16 years old, but ScratchJr lets smaller kids start even earlier. Scratch Jr is designed for children aged 5 to 7 years and uses the same coding principles but in a simplified way.
What Is Scratch?
On the Scratch website, they describe it like this: “Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children and a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games, and animations.”
Essentially, Scratch is an internet-enabled coding platform that teaches children and young people the basics of computer 深喉性视频 and coding.
Scratch is a visual block-based coding language. Block based coding languages are the best type of coding language for kids beginning to learn to code. There is no complicated syntax and the visual block-based system is intuitive and easy to understand.
It allows kids to be creative while learning which is completely ideal. Kids will feel like they’re playing a fun game with many dimensions, and they don’t even realize they’re learning key computer science skills while they do it. With a wide variety of game and animation tutorials out there there is something that every child will be interested in from space adventures, to dragons or people.
Why Is Learning To Code Good For Kids?
There are so many reasons why coding is beneficial for kids, from improving critical thinking and problem solve skills to enhancing creativity. In fact, we’ve written that there are 8 reasons every child should learn to code.
Scratch states that their program “promotes computational thinking and problem-solving skills; creative teaching and learning; self-expression and collaboration; and equity in computing.”
Learning to code in this fun way can set students up for career success too because the skills are transferable across many platforms. Chantelle Bonfiglio wrote that “If we want to set our children up for academic success, every child should learn to code.
Coding is considered to be one of the most beneficial extracurricular skills for young people to engage with because it can help with other areas of study, encourage resiliciency, and help refine their computer skills.
Is Scratch Safe For Kids?
Scratch is very safe for kids to play with because it’s designed for young people. Many teachers use online communities so the children can show their projects to one another and get ideas.
You don’t have to participate in the online Scratch community though, even though it is really safe for kids due to their full-time team that ensures any commenters speak positively and constructively in an all-age appropriate manner.
They use the CleanSpeak tool to screen profane language and the Scratch team works tirelessly to ensure the Scratch online platform is safe for everyone.
If you don’t like the idea of your kids being able to read comments and view other people’s Scratch projects online, then there is an app you can use on your device which does not need an internet connection to function. Download the Scratch offline editor here.
How Do You Get Started With Scratch?
Getting started with scratch is as simple as heading to their website: https://scratch.mit.edu.
Once you’re on the website, you should click the “Create” button at the top selection bar. There is a helpful video to watch on this page, but the basics of Scratch are that you start with a sprite (cat cartoon) and you can choose what he does, how he moves, what he says, and in what order these things happen.
Check out our post ‘How to Code on Scratch‘ for a step-by-step guide.
Although some kids can learn scratch just by exploring the website and watching tutorials I’ve found that my kids have learned scratch best by learning to create their own video games. Just like most kids, my kids are obsessed with video games. They were thrilled to find out that you can learn to design your own video games with scratch and I as thrilled to have them use 深夜啪啪视频在线观看 for something productive and educational.
How to Get Started Building a Simple Game in Scratch
When my 8 year old son got into building games in Scratch I was surprised that he was able to do it without much adult help. There are quite a few ways to get started building a simple game in scratch.
Watch a YouTube Tutorial
When it comes to learning video games and computer programs most kids quickly find their way to YouTube tutorials to learn the basics. Scratch is no exception. There are quite a few beginner YouTube tutorials available online using the search function.
If you are looking for a YouTube channel, we recommend checking out GriffPatch. He has a variety of Scratch Tutorials and keeps it fun and engaging on his channel.
You can get started building a simple platform game with this GriffPatch tutorial:
Code Your Own Games Using a Book
My oldest son got into Scratch by pulling this book off my shelf and working through the tutorials one by one. These tutorials give the exact instructions needed to make your own simple scratch games. The cool thing is that once you’ve masted the game your kids can experiment with the code and see how it changes the final output.
Is Scratch Expensive?
Here’s the best part, Scratch is 100% free. There are no charges for its use, no downloads, and no upgrade options or in-app purchases. That’s great news for all parents who dread the horror stories of parents getting a bill of thousands of dollars because their kid kept pushing a button on an online game or app.
Scratch is a non-profit organization that relies on donors to keep it going. If you feel like it’s a good product and is fun and instructive for your kids, then feel free to donate to the Scratch Foundation, but you’re under no obligation to do so.
What’s The Take-Away?
In our opinion, learning to comprehend coding is one of the most important things for future generations to grasp. As adults, we already use a lot of coding in workplaces and in integral services.
Traffic lights would not function without coding telling them what color to be in which order. Children should be equipped to handle an increase in the amount of coding that makes our nation and planet function.
Coding is just a language that instructs computers to perform specific tasks and we all need to be able to speak that language because we’re not going to rely on computer 深夜啪啪视频在线观看 any less in the near future.
If you’re hoping to teach your kids some basic coding without them kicking up a fuss, Scratch is really helpful because it’s fun for everyone and gives them the control to create and learn at their pace.
Kate is mom of two rambunctious boys and a self-proclaimed super nerd. With a background in neuroscience, she is passionate about sharing her love of all things STEM with her kids. She loves to find creative ways to teach kids computer science and geek out about coding and math. She has authored several books on coding for kids which can be found at Hachette UK.
