Make a Holiday Card with LYNX

Learn the basics of LYNX:

get an account
animate objects with code
learn text to speech coding

This tutorial is a very brief introduction to animation and text boxes for story telling with LYNX.

In this activity, you will make a Holiday Greeting Card to share!

If you like it, you can learn more LYNX Coding at lynxcoding.club.

With LYNX you can code games, stories with graphics and animations, science simulations, and awesome geometric patterns.

Grades 4 and up

Back to: Code To Learn Week Lessons

Getting Started (10 minutes)

Get a LYNX account

To save and share your coded creation, you will need an account!

- Accounts are FREE for Canadians thanks to funding from the Canadian Government.
  - If you don't want to save and share it, you can ignore this section!

Watch the video to the left to see how to get an account. For more information and details, see this page.

Open the Project Template & Start the Editor (10 minutes)

Click this link to open the project.
- It opens in Player mode. Don't do anything here.
Click the blue EDIT button to open the LYNX Editor.
- You will see:

the Work Area on the right
the Procedures Pane on the left

3. Change the Project name as indicated by the text box that says:

"In the Top Left corner, change the Project name from Sample Holiday Card to Holiday Card by JM (use your initials)"

Note that this text box disappears after 20 seconds.

4. CLICK THE SAVE ICON! (The UP arrow to the cloud!)

There is NO autosave.

Page 1: Edit the Code! (10 minutes)

Things to change on Page 1

Write Your Message

Delete the text you see and write your message inside the Text Box. Write something like TO: Mom: Happy Holidays (and some lovely words you would like to share with her).
- Use the formatting tools to change text colour, style and size.
Click on the button that says: CLICK ME FIRST to hear what you wrote.
- The CLICK ME FIRST Button uses Text-to-Speech

Make Your Gift Flash

Click 'CLICK ME SECOND'
If you want the candle or menorah to flash replace the word GIFT on Line 10 with CANDLE or MENORAH
You can also change the speed of the flashing and how many times it flashes.
- You can figure that out! :-)

Move to Page 2

Click on yellow Next Page icon on the lower right to move to Page 2.

Page 2: Edit More Code! (10 minutes)

Move Santa

Click the 'Click me if you want gifts' button.

If you want Santa to get closer to the tree, increase the number after REPEAT or increase the number after FORWARD on Line 19

Change Background Colour

Don't like a blue background? On line 26 after SETBG remove 90 + random 20 and use setbg any number between 1 and 139

Move to Page 3

Click on yellow Next Page icon on the lower right to move to Page 3.

Page 3: Edit Even More Code! (10 minutes)

Change the MOON Animation

Click on the Goodnight Moon button.
- What happens?
Change the numbers after each SETSIZE command and also change the numbers after WAIT in Line 32.
- What happens?

Change the MOON Animation

Click on the I want a snowman button.

- What happens?
Replace REPEAT 25 with FOREVER in Line 41.
- What happens?
- Want to get the snowman to stop? Click on the Button again or click on the icon with the black square inside the circle (below the Previous Page button)

Sign Your Card! (1 minute)

Go to the next page.
Put your name!

Delete the Startup Procedure (Pop-Up Text Box) (1 minute)

Delete the startup procedure.
- You need to do this before you share your card. Otherwise, the person will see that pop-up text telling them to change the Project Name!!

Delete:

to startup

page1

instructions, showtext

wait 200

instructions, hidetext

end

Share Your Project (5 minutes)

Click on the Share icon to the left of the Project Name.
Click on Create a link to share.
Click Copy link
Send the link to the person you made it for.

Congratulations!!

For more, check out LYNXcoding.club