Programming skills can be introduced at an early age. With toys like Code and Go Robot Mouse, a 4-year-old can learn the first programming concepts having lots of fun and without reading skills.
Once they master Robot Mouse, Bee Bot, DOC Talking Robot, or another similar toy, what is the next step? Do we need to wait until children know how to read? Not really. ScratchJr is an amazing tool where children between 5 and 7 years old learn to program using graphical programming blocks.
What is ScratchJr?
ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that uses graphical programming blocks and doesn’t require any reading skills. Children can create games and stories using this programming language.
Besides the focus on programming, children’s imagination and artistic side are very much stimulated while using ScratchJr. They have many characters to choose from and they can make them move, jump, dance, sing, among other actions.
Children can record their own voices and sounds and make the characters play their recording. There is a paint editor where children can make changes to the characters or create their own. Their eyes sparkle with joy when they see their creation in action by running the program.
Where should I start?
You have all the information you need on the official ScratchJr website. Read it and try it out at the same time.
You can then find a few suggestions for activities on the ScratchJr website. You can also find 75 activity cards with fun and exciting projects in here.
Finally, you can learn more about Scratch in the official ScratchJr book.
Having suggested activities is great to have some structure and guidance, but remember to complement it with a free-form format where children use their imagination.
With ScratchJr, children will see how fun it is to program.
Who created ScratchJr?
ScratchJr was created in collaboration with some well-known entities:
- the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab
- Developmental Technologies (DevTech) Research Group at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University
- Playful Invention Company
The Android version was implemented by Two Sigma, with input from Benesse Corp.
The graphics and illustrations were created by HvingtQuatre Company, Sarah Thomson, Peter Mueller, and Jillian Lombardi.
Is ScratchJr the same as Scratch?
ScratchJr was inspired by Scratch, but it isn’t the same. They are both block-based visual programming languages, but Scratch requires reading skills, while ScratchJr doesn’t. Also, ScratchJr is a simplified version of Scratch.
While Scratch is recommended from the age of 8 years old, ScratchJr is designed for children between 5 and 7 years old.
Which programming concepts will children learn in ScratchJr?
ScratchJr provides an enriching programming experience. Here are some of the programming concepts children can learn:
1 – Debugging – while the program is running, the block that is being executed is highlighted. If the program isn’t working as expected, the highlight will help to debug the issue.
2 – Messages – it is possible to send a message from one character to another and the receiver will only execute the actions once the message is received. It is also possible to wait until characters bump into each other and make actions dependent on the bump.
3 – Loops – you can define that certain actions need to be repeated in a cycle.
4 – Scenes – this concept is more common when programming games. In ScratchJr, you can define different scenes and change between them.
5 – Variables – you can add the characters you wish and then you individually program the actions for each character. The characters can be seen as variables of the program.
6 – UI changes – with the paint editor, children can draw, change colours, duplicate, take a picture, and a few other things to their characters or backgrounds.
7 – Run and stop the program – it might sound like something so obvious for those familiar with programming, but being familiar with the concept of running and stopping a program is important. There is also a button to get the program back to the initial state.
8 – Pixels – ScratchJr doesn’t use pixels, but it uses a grid which is quite useful if you want to know exactly where a character is going to when you program it to move. If you choose to move it forward 4 times, where will it end up? By using the grid, you will know. The grid concept can be compared with pixels.
9 – Wait – there is the wait block, an action that exists in other languages. I find this particularly useful to show that sometimes the wait action works, but in many other cases, a message will be more reliable.
Where can I download ScratchJr and which platforms are available?
ScratchJr is available for iPad, Android tablets, Mac OS X and Windows.
The different versions can be downloaded in the links below.
- Tablets: https://www.scratchjr.org/
- Mac and Windows: https://jfo8000.github.io/ScratchJr-Desktop/