Scratch Jnr ... a 5-step challenge

This week, students learned about solving challenges, one step at a time. 

Last week's free play gave the students time to explore the blocks, backgrounds and editing tools in the App. The object of the session today was to develop a better understanding of the coding blocks available in Scratch Jnr. Students were provided the following challenges, one step at a time:

• Create a new project using the Earth and Moon background.
• Place your cat sprite in the bottom left-hand corner.
• Move your cat to the Earth, as quickly as you can. Name your project "first name_Step1" and Share it with me via email.
• Starting with your cat in the same spot, move him across to the right fast and then up to the Earth slowly. Name your project "first name_Step2" and Share it with me via email.
• Now repeat the previous step, but make him say something in a speech bubble when he arrives on Earth. Name your project "first name_Step3" and Share it with me via email.
• Repeat Step 2 again, but this time have him say something appropriate, using your voice. Name your project "first name_Step4" and Share it with me via email.
• Now the challenge ... can you get your cat from the Moon to Earth as quickly as you can on the diagonal? Is this possible? It might not be. See what you can do to solve this challenge. Name your project "first name_Step6" and Share it with me via email.

This set of challenges came from a Google Doc I found on the web. 

Sinead was quick to discover how easy it was to achieve the first step ... using the least number of coding blocks.

Karl solved step 2 by adding the "run" and "walk" blocks to guide the speed of his cat.

Jarred added one more coding block to add his speech bubble.

Oliver used the microphone block to add his voice to the cat.

Getting the cat to the Earth, on the diagonal, proved to be very challenging. Eleni found that repeating 2 steps across and 1 step up got the cat where she wanted him. 

Unfortunately, no-one found the repeating loop option ... but this is something we can explore next week.

The students were certainly engaged in the process of problem-solving. They were also very happy to work collaboratively and to help each other out. Towards the end of the lesson a colleague visited the classroom and the students were very happy to share their projects with her. She was most impressed with what they could do.

The students have been asked to download the Hopscotch App for the next stage of our learning journey.