Scratch

I started running an after-school scratch club for 6th, 7th & 8th graders last year, and I'll be restarting in September when school starts.  So do keep asking questions here and let everyone know how it's going.

Last October when we started and no one in the club knew scratch I started with some simple project ideas:
First week: Your name or favorite things - a project using the letters of your name, or pictures of your favorite things.
Concepts to show:
- elements of scratch - stage, sprites, blocks, costumes, sounds
- having a sprite do something when clicked or when a key is pushed
- creating costumes by drawing them or importing
- changing costume
- playing a sound

Second and third weeks - a game where one sprite chases another (player's sprite could either be chasing the other sprite, or being chased)
Concepts to show:
- having a sprite move using the arrow keys
- having a sprite follow the mouse
- using random block to get unpredictable moves
- using the point towards block along with move to have a sprite chase another sprite
- using the touching sensors to figure out when a sprite is caught.

After that there are lots more things to explore, but those projects seemed to be pretty good at getting new members started.  It might also be helpful to think about what projects you did first with MrShah.
Good Luck!
--Chris

Most of my 5th graders in the afterschool scratch club were past the point chrisg describes within 2 weeks.  A couple of them are prolific contributors to the scratch web site, and one of them has had several of his projects featured and is on the first page of the "top loved" projects.  I only hope that this year's kids will be as enthusiastic!