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The main purpose of this blog is to help primary school teachers and student teachers develop sufficient skills and confidence to be able to use Scratch to help the children they teach learn how to write computer programs.

For more information about Scratch see - Finding your way around Scratch

The Tutorials

There is no particular order to the tutorials; they are complementary rather than sequential. They are all technically similar, though some concepts involved in the tutorials are more challenging than others. However, with programming, the acquisition of a concept is largely dependent on the motivation and needs of the learner - the more you want to learn something, the more likely you are to understand.

Tutorial	Techniques
Space Invader A shoot-em-up game based loosely on Space Invaders. The player controls a laser cannon at the base of the screen to shoot at an alien which appears randomly.	Importing a background Painting Sprites Keyboard input for moving sprites Random movement of a Sprite Duplicating Scripts Importing and playing sounds Collision detection (touching Sprites) Changing Sprite costumes in response to a collision Variables for keeping score and high score Green Flag scripts Forever loop If loop
Pong Based on the early Pong game, with only one player (ie more like a game of squash).	Drawing backgrounds Drawing sprites Importing sprites Green Flag scripts Key press scripts Sprite touching sprite collision detection Sprite touching colour detection Adding sound to sprites Updating score variable Updating High Score variable Changing sprite costumes
Shark Attack The player controls a shark moving around a fish tank to eat fish	Painting backgrounds Painting Sprites Importing a Sprite image Scripting continuous movement of Sprites Controlling Sprite movement with the keyboard Detecting and responding when Sprites touch Showing and hiding Sprites Copying Scripts between Sprites Removing blocks from Scripts Variables for Scoring Using a timer to terminate a game Using If and repeat until loops Communicating with the player through a say block
River trip  Guide a boat along a river, avoiding obstacles to increase your score against a time limit   Note: the concepts in this tutorial are more advanced than in the other tutorials	Painting Sprites Scrolling backgrounds Detecting when a Sprite touches a colour Forever loop If loops Using keyboard keys to move a Sprite Switching Sprite costumes after a collision Duplicating Scripts Score variable High Score variable Using a timer to terminate a game
Raindrops Catch raindrops before they hit the pavement to score points. Miss raindrops and lose points.   This is a long tutorial but it does introduce a lot of concepts and programming techniques. As with Road Race, the game is playable at several points during the tutorial	Importing a background Editing a background Painting a Sprite Controlling a Sprite with the keyboard Green Flag Scripts Moving a Sprite at random speeds Positioning a Sprite randomly Collision detection between Sprites Collision detection of a Sprite and a colour Playing sounds on collision Duplicating and editing scripts Duplicating Sprites Switching Sprite costumes Switching backgrounds If loops Repeat loops Repeat Until loops Adding to and subtracting from a Score variable Setting a time limit to a game Presenting a Game Over message Updating a High Score variable Using variables for score, time countdown and High Score
Road Race  The player controls a racing car steering it around the track trying to avoid running off the road and the computer controlled car.	Painting backgrounds Painting Sprites Changing Sprite costumes on collision Controlling Sprite direction with keyboard keys Green flag scripts Forever loops If loops Duplicating Scripts Duplicating Sprites and Scripts Detecting collision with touching colour? Detecting collision with touching Sprite? Using say to communicate with the player Using a variable for Lives Using a Timer to stop the game Editing Scripts
Treasure Hunt Adventure Guide Thomas around his house looking for clues as to where his brother has hidden his birthday present Note: This is the longest and most challenging tutorial, but it does introduce a lot of programming concepts and techniques	Importing backgrounds to the Stage Switching between backgrounds Using the keyboard to navigate between background scenes Adding text to a background Using broadcast and receive blocks to send messages between scripts Showing and hiding Sprites Duplicating Scripts Copying Scripts from one Sprite to another Shrinking and Growing Sprites in size Switching Sprite costumes Using say and think for speech and think bubbles  Using variables to communicate a Sprite's co-ordinate position to a Script Using glide to move a sprite Ending a game with stop all
text	text

Computing National Curriculum

From September 2014, children in most primary schools in England will be required to learn how to program computers. There is no specific requirement for the children to use a particular programming environment, but by the end of their primary schooling, the National Curriculum for computing requires them to: 

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts;
• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output;
• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.

 On first reading, this sounds quite daunting, but with an accessible programming package such as Scratch, programming can be quite straightforward and a lot of fun!

The rationale for the tutorials

The tutorials on this blog follow a simple principle; that programming should be purposeful. The outcome of each tutorial is a game which can be played in its own right and which can be further developed into something more challenging and complex. It is possible to follow each tutorial by following the step-by-step screen-shots only, but the text is also there to help you to acquire the terminology needed to support the children's learning and also to reinforce some key concepts of programming.

Once you have acquired a set of basic skills and knowledge of techniques, it should be possible to plan and produce your own programs. With some adaptation, the tutorials could form the basis of computing lessons with KS2 children.

Each tutorial starts from 'ground zero', assuming you have little or no background knowledge of programming in Scratch. Whilst there are some basic skills inherent in every tutorial, each one includes additional unique techniques to solve a range of programming problems.

As time progresses, more tutorials will be added to extend the range of solutions to programming problems. Although some solutions are more elegant than others, with programming, an outcome can be achieved through a range of different solutions. Children (and you) should accept that there is no right or wrong way of writing a program. Either it works or it doesn't. If it works then the problem has been solved!