Scratch allows students to create stories, games, and animations using free, entry-level coding. It promotes computational thinking, creativity, collaborating, and equity.
Embedded Files
About Scratch
Scratch was first introduced in the MIT Media Lab, where the Lifelong Kindergarten group worked in collaboration with youth to develop an accessible coding platform. Scratch is now designed and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Scratch is free and available in over 70 different languages.
Check out the Scratch About page to view more information and resources.
Exploring Scratch
To get started, go to https://scratch.mit.edu/ and hit Start Creating! Remember to create an account first so your work get saved.
For a 'Getting Started' guide from the Scratch Foundation, click here. This provides textual and visual aids to help you understand the basics - as well as links to lots of extra resources!
The Explore page on Scratch allows you to view other games, animations, and digital stories made on the platform. You can interact with these projects and click the "See Inside" button to view the coding behind the final product. You can even edit and remix that project to personalize it! Below are some starter projects if you want a jumping off point:
The Starter page directly from Scratch also allows you to explore different starter projects.
Starter Projects to Remix
Starter Projects to Remix
Card Project - personalize a card to send to someone!
Pong Game - remix a ball + paddle game (remixing tips included)!
Starfish Choir - remix this project to make your own music!
Makey Makey
Makey Makey is a construction kit that allows you to integrate the digital and the physical to extend the possibilities of gaming. Makey Makey uses properties of conductivity to connect different materials to keys on a computer. Check out the Makey Makey website to learn more and find other resources.
Use the Makey Makey to control a Scratch game you make or remix!
Watch the video below to see what the Makey Makey can do:
Games
Resources for Educators
Scratch helps students build systematic reasoning, collaboration, creative thinking, and self-expression. Utilize any resources on this page, including the ones below, to find out how you can include Scratch in the classroom:
The Scratch for Educators page on the Scratch website helps provide resources for you and your students to use in the classroom.
The Educator page on the Makey Makey website provides information on how to purchase, as well as several resources for administrators, teachers, and students.
Make, Code, Play is a guide for educators that describes projects that expand game design beyond the screen using Scratch and MaKey MaKey. These projects with over a hundred elementary, middle, and high school students and their teachers. Materials for the projects are commonly found in classrooms, schools, or homes.. Download here in PDF or PowerPoint. For more info click here.
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