Entry Date:
May 30, 2017

Getting Started with Scratch


Every day, young people around the world use the Scratch programming language to create and share thousands of interactive projects on the Scratch website. Yet many students aren’t sure how to get started coding their own projects.

To address this, we have launched a new set of free resources to help students learn to create with code. The Things to Try page offers a variety of project ideas, such as creating an animated story, making a pong game, or designing a virtual pet. For each theme, students can use step-by-step tutorials or printable activity cards. In addition, the site offers educator guides you can use to organize a class or workshop based on the theme.

The Scratch Activity Cards is a collection of more than 80 colorful cards with 11 project themes. The front of each card illustrates an activity students can do with Scratch, such as animating a character or keeping score in a game. The back of the card shows how to snap together blocks of code to make their projects come to life.

These resources are designed to let students learn at their own pace and personalize their projects. Students can work individually or pair up to make projects together.