Project 1 - My First Animation

Learners explore the Scratch Jr. user interface and learn how to add characters and backdrops. They use the concept of sequences to animate a simple and fun story where a ‘character’ performs their morning fitness jogging routine. They are introduced to motion blocks, the ‘say’ block, and the ‘Start on Green Flag’ block. The purpose of the project is to introduce learners to the user interface and enable them to trigger blocks or combinations of blocks through event-based programming. 

Lesson 1: The Scratch Jr. User Interface: 

Learners are introduced to the concept of sequences and block-based programming as they attempt activities that involve following a series of instructions. They are introduced to Scratch Jr. and explore the user interface of this platform.

Lesson 2: The Scratch Jr. Stage: 

Learners complete the layout and design aspects of their animation and discuss the programming logic needed for the animation. 

Lesson 3: Animation Part 1: 

Learners complete developing and debugging the program.

Lesson 4: Animation Part 2: 

Learners complete developing and debugging the program.

Project 2 - Lost

Learners storyboard and develop an animation where a couple of characters explore strange and new places.. They explore ‘trigger’ blocks such as the ‘Start on Green Flag’ block, sound blocks, and understand how parallelism is used to trigger multiple actions in parallel. 

Lesson 5: Adding Characters and Backdrops: 

Learners storyboard the story as a sequence of events. They add the necessary sprites and backdrops to their project.  

Lesson 6: Animating One Character: 

Learners decompose the movement of one character in the form of a series of steps. They add the required code for the character. They are introduced to sound blocks and proceed to add sounds for one character. 

Lesson 7: Animating Multiple Characters: 

Learners decompose the movement of the second character in the form of a series of steps. They add the required code for the movement and sounds of the second character. They understand the concept of parallelism and how it can be used to trigger actions in parallel. 

Project 3 – The Haunted Mansion

Learners storyboard and develop an animation of a haunted house. They are introduced to the ‘Start on Tap’ trigger block, the ‘repeat’ block, and the ‘set speed block’. They understand the concept of iterations and learn how to use iterations in their programs to make them more efficient.  

Lesson 8: Adding Characters and Backdrops: 

Learners storyboard the story as a sequence of events. They add the necessary characters and backdrops to their project. They are introduced to the ‘Start on Tap’ block, which is a ‘trigger’ block.

Lesson 9: Animation without Repeat: 

Learners decompose the story animation into a series of steps and complete coding for their story without using the repeat block.  

Lesson 10: Animation with Repeat:

Learners are introduced to the concept of iterations in programming. They rewrite their programs using the ‘repeat’ block and understand how iterations can be used to make programs more efficient. 

Project 4 – Get, Set, Go!

Learners storyboard and develop an animation in which they describe the journey of a rocket, from take-off to landing. They are introduced to the concept of ‘pages’ in Scratch Jr. and the ‘Send Message’ and ‘Start on Message' blocks. They use these concepts to develop a multi-page story where a character seems to travel from one backdrop to another. They also learn how to customize or create new characters and backdrops and learn how to use these created or customized elements in their projects.

Lesson 11: Adding Characters and Backgrounds: 

Learners storyboard the story as a sequence of events. They add the necessary characters and backdrops to their project. They are introduced to the concept of pages and the ‘Send Message’ and ‘Start on Message Blocks’.

Lesson 12: Animation Part 1: 

Learners learn how to customize and create their own characters and backdrops. Learners decompose the output into a series of steps and complete coding for one page of their story. 

Lesson 13: Animation Part 2

Learners add multiple pages to their project and complete the animation. 

Project 5 (Design Challenge) – The Synthesis Project

Students are challenged to use all the concepts they have learned in previous projects to create an original animation or game. They use motion blocks, looks blocks, control blocks, trigger blocks, and sound blocks along with concepts such as sequences, parallelism, event-based programming, and control structures (iterations and ‘wait’) to develop their output. 

Lesson 14: Project Ideation: 

Learners storyboard their ideas as a sequence of events. They develop a list of characters and backgrounds needed for a project and add them. They customize characters and backdrops as required. They define the starting conditions, the number of pages, the events on each page, and the ending conditions of the animation. 

Lesson 15: Project Prototype: 

Learners add the required programming logic for their animations, and test, evaluate, and refine them.