First Steps in Scratch

With the beginning of the new academic year, the Programming is the New Literacy project was launched. Scratch classes have already been conducted in many schools. Anastasia Sotchenko, Informatics teacher at Orsha Secondary School No.6 shares her impressions. Anastasia chose Animation of Sprites Movements on the Scene. Dialog Development as a topic for her first class.
Anastasia decided to work on the fairy tale "The Cat and the Mouse" during the class. The characters of the fairy tale helped children to start learning how to program in Scratch. Children followed the teacher's instructions and then asked to create something on their own.
The first class confirmed that Scratch not just develop thinking and logic but also gives student opportunity to dream up. All students managed to implement what they imagined with child creativity. The cat, for example, both rode a flying carpet and drove a car, with the only teacher's requirement to make two sprites appear simultaneously. Although students had difficulties in following the requirement, they succeed due to logic thinking.
Anastasia was overwhelmed with emotions: "I did not expect that the children would enjoy the class and Scratch itself that much! One of the students even created a hip-hop party with many sprites dancing – there are no limits for creativity. The students are looking for the next class, and so am I!"
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