I teach elementary and middle school students in Manhattan, New York using Scratch. I used to use Python, and have switched to Scratch for beginner. It's fantastic.
Anyway, my students need more advanced activity cards for Scratch, so I"ve made a few and posted them on my website if anybody else wants to use them:
http://stratolab.com/misc/scratch_cards/
-Winston
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It's nice to see others using my work. If you'd like to add my cards to your main card page, please go ahead. Just leave my website on the card to give me credit please.
Also, I'm thinking of having several levels of cards. The purpose of that is to reward students: learn things and you will earn access to new cards. Also, they get very excited about new cards, so it's nice to dole them out gradually and keep the excitement level up. On the other hand, I don't want to make too many cards that they just copy. We want them to think on their own.
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These new cards are great, perhaps we could have a scratch-card area for new resources as I'm sure others are developing activities for Scratch with school pupils all the time.
I have just used Scratch for the first time with a class of year6 pupils (UK, age 10 & 11 years). I showed them a few ideas and basic commands and the let them loose, working in pairs. The enjoyment, motivation and pereseverance was impressive. Also the level of their language and discussion as each pair collaborated and worked towards making the sprites behave as they wanted them to was fascinating to listen to.
I thought perhaps there is a place for some guided projects with questions and challenges spread along the way, especially to develop pupils who are not naturally logical thinkers or have less experience in using computers in this way.
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I just used the grasshopper lesson with 3rd graders (approx. 9 years old) and most did very well. One has troubles with reading and keeping up but we got his grasshopper dancing as soon as we could! Thanks!
Linda George
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