Scratch

Scratch is a web-based program that was created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

This website was created to introduce students to coding by using a simple drag and drop method. Students can explore projects created by other people and then see how the project was created. There are also lessons that lead the students through creating a basic project.

Click on the Screenshot below to be directed to the Scratch website.

This looks great, but what do I do with it?

Scratch offers a basic tutorial to get started. This tutorial shows users how to drag and drop blocks to make a cat dance. You can try out the tutorial here.

Click on "Start moving" to start the basic tutorial.

This introduction will guide a user through the process by showing exactly what needs to be added in order to make your cat start dancing.

While Scratch is very user-friendly for students, there is also a forum for educators to share resources on teaching with Scratch. The forum is run by Harvard and can be found here.

An example of one of the many resources is shown below.

There are also resources available for teaching with Scratch in Spanish. I found the resource below by clicking on Spanish in the Language Resource section.

Just like what is shown above in Spanish, the resources shared can be links to books on Amazon as well as actual lesson ideas.

There are thousands of resources available within this Harvard run website.