Lesson 2

Creating Your First Scratch Activity

Creating your first Scratch activity is an important step in helping teachers become confident with digital coding. Scratch is designed for beginners: it allows you to drag and connect colourful blocks that represent instructions. Even a simple animation teaches core programming concepts such as events, sequences, loops, and movement.

In this lesson, teachers build a simple animated scene that can be completed in 10–15 minutes but still demonstrates the core logic of coding. The goal is not to produce a perfect program, but to understand how blocks combine to form behaviour.

1. Choosing a Sprite and Setting Up the Stage

Every Scratch project begins with a sprite — a character or object that performs actions. Scratch includes many built-in sprites, such as animals, people, and shapes. Teachers can also upload or draw their own images, but for beginners it is best to work with default sprites.

Steps to begin:

• Start a new Scratch project.

• Select or change the sprite (e.g., the Scratch Cat).

• Choose a background for the stage — this sets the scene for the animation.

This step introduces teachers to how visual elements shape a digital story or project. In classrooms, allowing learners to change sprites and backgrounds increases engagement and supports creativity.

2. Making the Sprite Move

Movement is usually the first block teachers and learners explore. It shows clearly how instructions translate into actions.

To demonstrate movement:

• Place a “when green flag clicked” block in the scripting area.
  This is an event block — it tells Scratch when the program should start.

• Attach a “move 10 steps” block under it.

When the teacher clicks the green flag, the sprite will slide across the stage. Two ideas become immediately clear:

1. Code runs from top to bottom.

2. Each instruction makes something happen.

Teachers can now experiment by changing the number of steps, adding multiple movement blocks, or directing the sprite to turn. This reinforces the idea of sequencing — a central programming concept also taught in unplugged activities.

3. Adding Sound for Engagement

Scratch allows sprites to speak or make sounds. Adding audio helps teachers see how multiple block types interact. Sounds also make classroom demonstrations more engaging.

A simple sound addition may include:

• Adding the block “play sound meow until done.”

• Placing it after the movement sequence.

This teaches that instructions can target different output types: visuals, sound, or interaction.

4. Introducing Simple Looping (Optional Extension)

If teachers feel confident, this is a moment to introduce looping — repeating an action.

For example:

• Insert a “repeat 10” block.

• Place the movement block inside it.

The sprite will move multiple times automatically. Teachers can see how loops reduce repetition and make code more efficient. This is a key concept in computational thinking and builds connections to mathematics (patterns, repetition, multiplication).

5. Adding a Message or Dialogue

To add personality or classroom context, teachers can include a speech bubble:

• Use “say Hello for 2 seconds.”

• Place it at the end to show the sprite speaking after the animation.

This introduces another output type and allows teachers to personalise the activity — such as having the sprite welcome the class, ask a maths question, or give instructions for the next task.

6. Demonstrating the Final Activity

Once all blocks are in place, clicking the green flag will:

• Start the event sequence

• Make the sprite move

• Play a sound

• Display a message

This simple project demonstrates:

• Events

• Sequences

• Movement

• Sound

• Dialogue

• Optional looping

It is enough for teachers to feel confident teaching basic coding concepts to their learners.

7. Classroom Reflection

Teachers are encouraged to reflect on:

• How they might adapt the activity for Grades R–3 (e.g., simple movement only).

• How to extend it for Grades 4–9 (loops, interactions, additional sprites).

• How Scratch demonstrations can reinforce computational thinking taught in earlier chapters.

• How to integrate storytelling or curriculum content into the animation (e.g., animate a life cycle, illustrate a maths problem).