Introduction to Programming with Scratch || Digikids inspiring innovation

Introduction to Programming with Scratch

Course Description

Our Introduction to Programming with Scratch course is designed to inspire young learners aged 7-12 by providing a playful, engaging, and beginner-friendly introduction to coding. Throughout this interactive, project-based course, students will explore Scratch 3, a fun visual programming language, and build their foundational skills step-by-step by creating animations, interactive stories, and simple games. Students will learn key concepts including sprites, motion, events, loops, conditionals, variables, and debugging as they bring their ideas to life, guided by experienced tutors offering personalized feedback and support.

This course is ideal for children with no prior coding experience, providing age-appropriate and approachable lessons that gradually increase in complexity. Each session emphasizes hands-on learning, collaboration, and creativity, ensuring that students gain confidence in their ability to solve problems and express their ideas through programming. By the end of the course, students will have completed a guided game project, developed critical computational thinking skills, and built a portfolio showcasing their creativity and coding accomplishments.

What You’ll Learn?

How to navigate and use Scratch to create simple animations, interactive stories, and basic games.
Essential programming concepts, including sprites, motion, events, loops, conditionals, and variables.
Creative storytelling techniques, sequencing dialogue, and coordinating interactions between characters.
How to use computational thinking skills such as logic, sequencing, and debugging to bring ideas to life.

The Introduction to Programming with Scratch course offers a fun and accessible starting point for young learners to explore programming concepts through game creation and storytelling. Scratch's intuitive, block-based coding interface makes it easy for beginners to understand fundamental concepts like sequences, loops, events, conditionals, and variables, fostering essential skills such as problem-solving, creativity, and logical thinking. This course sets a strong foundation, enabling students to confidently pursue future opportunities in coding, digital creation, and game design.

Course Curriculum

As digital skills continue to become essential, this beginner-friendly Scratch programming course provides young learners with valuable foundational skills. By developing an early understanding of coding concepts and game development, students gain confidence and creativity that can benefit their academic and personal growth. This course is an excellent opportunity for children to become active digital creators, preparing them with skills applicable to many fields beyond programming, including problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaborative project development.

Lesson 1: Welcome to Scratch! Getting Started with the Basics

In this first lesson, students are introduced to Scratch 3 and its playful programming environment. They will meet the Scratch Cat (the default character) and learn how to navigate the interface. By creating a simple program to make the cat move and speak, learners will get hands-on experience connecting code blocks and running their first Scratch project.

Exploring the Scratch Interface
Your First Sprite Program

Lesson 2: Animating Sprites – Motion and Looks

In Lesson 2, students dive deeper into making sprites come alive with movement and appearance changes. They will experiment with moving sprites in different directions, learn about the Scratch stage grid (x-y positions), and change how a sprite looks. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to create a simple animation with their sprite and set a background for their project.

Moving and Turning Sprites
Changing Looks and Backdrops

Lesson 3: Sprite Interaction – Using Events and Input

Lesson 3 introduces the concept of events, which allow sprites to react to user actions (like key presses or mouse clicks). Students will add a second sprite to their project and make their sprites interactive. They will learn how to control a character with the keyboard and how to make sprites respond when clicked. By building a simple interactive scene (e.g., a character that moves with arrow keys and another that speaks when clicked), students grasp how events can trigger code.

Keyboard Controls with Events
Click Events and Multiple Sprites

Lesson 4: Creating a Story – Sequencing, Dialogue, and Scenes

In this lesson, students will use their growing skills to create a simple story or cartoon in Scratch. They will learn how to sequence events and dialogue between multiple characters, using timing and message broadcasting to coordinate actions. Storytelling elements like conversations, scene changes (backdrops), and sound effects are introduced. By the end, each student will have a short interactive animation or story – for example, two characters having a fun conversation or acting out a scene.

Planning the Story Scene
Sequencing Dialogue and Actions
Adding Sound and Interactive Elements

Looping Fun – Introduction to Loops

Lesson 5 introduces loops, which are a way to repeat actions easily. Students will see how loops can make a sprite do something over and over without duplicating code blocks. Through hands-on examples, like making a sprite spin continuously or animate repeatedly, learners will practice using Scratch’s repeat and forever blocks. The concept of looping is made fun and visual, helping kids understand how to create patterns and animations that last longer than a single action.

Understanding Loops
Using Loops in Animations

Making Decisions – Introduction to Conditionals

In Lesson 6, students learn how to make their programs smarter with conditional statements (if-then logic). This means the code can check for certain conditions and decide what to do next. Kids will use if-then blocks to have sprites react to specific situations – for example, bouncing back when hitting the edge of the screen or saying something if they meet another sprite. By the end, learners will understand how to use “if” (and optionally “if-else”) blocks to create simple rules in their projects, a key concept for making games and interactive stories.

If-Then Basics
Applying Conditions in Projects

Lesson 7: Track and Score – Introduction to Variables

This lesson introduces variables in Scratch, a fundamental concept for making games. Students will learn that a variable is like a container that can hold information (like a score, a timer, or a player’s name) that can change as the program runs. They will create a simple score-keeping system, which is a great way to prepare for making their own games. By experimenting with setting and changing variables, learners will see how to display a score on screen and update it when certain events happen.

Understanding Variables
Using Variables in a Project

Lesson 8: Game On – Planning Your Final Game Project

Lessons 8 through 10 focus on a guided final project: creating a simple Scratch game by applying all the concepts learned so far. In Lesson 8, students will design and start building their game. They will decide on a game idea (with guidance), set up the characters (sprites) and setting (backdrops), and implement the basic controls for the main character. This planning and setup phase emphasizes how programmers design a project before coding everything. By the end of this lesson, students will have a clear game plan and a playable character moving on the screen.

Designing the Game Concept
Setting Up Sprites and Environment
Implementing Basic Player Controls

Lesson 9: Building the Action – Coding Your Game Mechanics

In Lesson 9, students will bring their game to life by coding the core mechanics and rules. This is the heart of the game development process: making the player collect points, face challenges, and defining how to win or lose. Students will use conditionals to detect events in the game (like collisions between sprites), loops to continuously check for those events, and variables to keep score or track lives. By the end of this lesson, the game should be essentially playable – the character can interact with targets and obstacles, and the game knows when the goal is reached or when it’s game over.

Implementing Game Interactions
Adding Win/Lose Conditions
Fine-Tuning and Debugging

Lesson 10: Final Touches and Showcase – Completing Your Game

The final lesson is all about polishing the game and sharing it. Students will add finishing touches to make their projects feel complete and user-friendly – such as a start screen, instructions, or sound effects for extra polish. They will also thoroughly test and debug any remaining issues, learning how to troubleshoot problems. Finally, everyone gets to showcase their completed game, explaining what they created and enjoying each other’s projects. This wrap-up lesson reinforces all the concepts learned and celebrates the students’ accomplishments as new Scratch programmers!

Polishing Your Project
Testing and Debugging
Showcase and Reflection

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