Scratch Jr. Cards – Off-line coding activity

Objectives

• Children will use the green ScratchJr cards to carry out a variety of offline projects and discover computational thinking concepts.

Materials

• Per Group or Student:
  ScratchJr cards (Green cards only) available at online and through book/game stores.

  Teacher Tip: Materials vary per activity card, please familiarize yourself with the card deck ahead of time to gather options.

Key Questions

• What was easy about the activity? What was hard?
• Which was your favourite activity and why?

What To Do

The Deck:
Scratch Jr. Cards are sorted by colour : select the Green Cards to practice computational thinking skills without a computer.

Each card is also numbered and titled. Select the following cards to emphasize each skill:

DECOMPOSITION

Card 6: Sorting and Sharing
Card 14: Storyboarding

ABSTRACTION

Card 11: Invent a Language
Card 12: I Spy a Sensor

ALGORITHMS

Card 1: Guide a Friend
Card 2: Draw a Picture
Card 3: Make a Sandwich
Card 4: Hokey Pokey
Card 5: Walk in a Square
Card 8: Simon Says
Card 9: Programmer Says

PATTERNS

Card 7: Clapping Patterns
Card 10: Circle the Blocks

LOGICAL REASONING

Card 11: Invent a Language
Card 14: Storyboarding

EVALUATION

Card 13: Design Journal
Card 15: Find the Bug!

Hint: The set up and materials vary with each activity card!

Extensions

• Now that you’ve practiced your computational thinking skills, apply them using the Scratch Jr app. It’s a free app for android and Apple devices available at: Scratchjr.org. The remaining Scratch Jr cards give project suggestions, or you can make use of the many lesson plans and ideas on the website.