6th graders are excited about Scratch! After last week’s introduction to this amazingly free 2-D animation software students demand more time to get to know the ins and outs of programming.

This week we looked at a specific type of script – the logic statement (also sometimes referred to as an if-then-else statement). We started our day in the Lab Annex with post-it notes and a random name selector (slips of paper in a box). As students names were pulled out of the box, they brought one element of a program up to the board…either an “if”, a “then”, or an “else” statement. Once our programs were built, we ran them!

Some class favorites were:

IF you are Jac,
THEN eat a post-it note,
ELSE sit down.

IF you have an older brother,
THEN do 10 push-ups,
ELSE go to sleep.

IF you have a dog,
THEN sing the “Elmo” song,
ELSE bite your thumb 15 times.

Everyone quickly came to understand logic statements, so we headed to the computers to create them using Scratch. Results were really cool – spinning breakdancers, jumping cats, singing fish and more!

As a stretch, a few students learned about broadcasting – sending a trigger from one object to another to activate a script. Broadcasting allows our sprites to interact with each other…we’ll be looking at this further before the end of the term.