Scratch is a block based visual programming language created by MIT Media Labs. Students drag and drop blocks and snap them together to write programs. It's an easy and fun way to create animations, games, and more. We like using it for Spanish projects because there are text blocks for speech and thinking bubbles and audio blocks where students can record their voices. It's a great way to practice writing and speaking Spanish. We've also done a similar project with 2nd Grade using Scratch Jr. | |
Preparation
If you are planning to use Scratch with your students, you should definitely get a Teacher Account. The video to the right will show you how to setup a class, add students, and create studios. This will allow you to easily assign new projects and see your students' work. Here is a link to a presentation that I plan on using with my students. It shows students how to access the studio, remix the activity, and post it. | |
In an effort to ensure students focus on Spanish and less on programming, we created two templates for the project. The simplified template is a straight dialogue between 3 characters. Students just need to replace text and audio. We also have another version that has code that makes the dog fly and the grasshopper hop. When they collide... bad things happen. Students can play around with the code once they've finished personalizing the dialogue.
Before students jump into Scratch, they should have the text for their dialogue completed. In the case of the above templates, the students will have to write a dialogue that matches the following:
- cat
- dog
- cat
- dog
- cat
- dog
- grasshopper