We celebrate "Hour of Code" throughout the month of December and
explore the world of computer programing with our entire K-5 campus - including Staff and Administration! It's a month everyone looks forward to every year. This year,
in searching for a fun experience that is collaborated in Music & Art Encores, I came upon these activities using
Scratch,
a dream of a program by the folks at MIT. The beauty of this
program is that an account does not need to be activated to start creating -
and - in the Educator section of the site, there are many fun activities
to try, lesson plans to help get you started and coding cards for
Students to use that gives step-by-step instructions.
With "
Make Music"
- Students easily add 'sprites' (characters) of musical instruments, select
backgrounds, beats or sounds, then click 'play'. Their creations
come to life! With
Animate Your Name,
Students add letters or their name and code it to move in many
directions. Add sounds to this activity and it becomes multi-faceted experience. I'm a
big fan of these two activities and rate them for 2nd thru 5th
Grade. Once Students get the hang of it, they then enjoy tinkering in the program and quickly get a certain sense
of success. It's
perfect!
