Getting ready for Christmas Capers

Our Code Club is having a little break while I and Joe do a few other things.  Next week I am helping at Hull's Hack to the Future in Bransholme, Hull. It is a day for senior school pupils to learn about all things computer related, run by the incredible Alan O'Donohoe (@teknoteacher) who seems to spend most of his time enthusing school children and the general public about coding and computers.
I'm also spending some time learning about physical computing with my Raspberry Pi and new acquisition, a Pibrella.  I'm hoping to plan a practical session using Raspberry Pis for the year 5 or 6 pupils at Bishopthorpe. What I'd love to do is - the biscuit thief detector which was on Twitter earlier this year and which would require me to attach a motion sensor to the Pibrella.  It needs the pupils to write a Scratch program for the motion sensor so that noises and lights go on when anyone steals a biscuit from a plate. Got to get it working myself first!


Anyway, roll on December and Christmas Capers at Code Club!

A brilliant creative session - Create your own game

The group had so many ideas this week!  Some of the pupils used Scratch.mit.edu starters:  Maze,  Greeting Card and Pong (with the 'Don't hit Finn!' remix) were the most popular.  Others worked completely on their own and some were very well-organised, looking back over previous projects to help them write scripts. Can't wait for next week to see how these games work out and put some of them on the Scratch website.

Maze

 

Don't hit Finn!

 







Create your own game

This was quite a challenging week as far as keeping the pupils on task went. They found it difficult to concentrate on planning. They were given laptops once we'd seen a rough plan but they weren't as attentive even then. Most of them have chosen aims that fit into the groups that the Scratch Team have written starters for www.scratch.mit.edu (in 'See examples') :

• Pong
• Maze
• Hide and Seek
• Greetings Card

so to structure the session a little more I'm going to take along part of the scripts on paper to give them something to type in then remix.  Also, with the help of Richard Austin I've found out how to download Scratch2 projects and copy the sprites out of them into .png files.  Therefore I can give the pupils some additional sprites that they've requested, such as bears.

Scratch Second Level with Year 6

Had a brilliant group of returning children on Thursday and we worked through the 'What's that?' activity.  I know most of the children already and it's lovely to see them coming back for more.  Also, Joe Cutting has joined us as my partner volunteer so he is going to be most helpful. Whereas I only know about programming, he has skills in making and electronics so we should be able to do some practical work soon.

This coming week I thought I'd be a little more brave and use Richard Austin's Flappy Bird for Scratch 1.4.  I've had to write the activity notes myself so I hope I've done alright with them!  Well, I'll soon find out tomorrow!


For the following next few weeks we are going to use the activity 'Create your own game' and I'm looking forward to the imaginative ideas that I know this group will have.


BTW, it's really worth investing in a set of reusable badges because each group that I've used them with seems to have had more of a group identity and it's certainly easier for me to get to know each child!

Year 4 get creative with Whack-a-Witch

We had a good, but very busy, session today.  I am observing that year 4 children find it harder to learn by reading the activity sheets so need more help from me. It was a full class of thirteen too, so I had trouble helping everyone.  Next week I must arrange some experts in particular processes, such as,

• using a variable to make a scoring system
• making a timer
• broadcasting when a hit has taken place
• changing a sprite's costume
• finding a sprite from a resource file.

 

That would give me time for the more unusual queries. I love the ideas this group have though. For each child, he/she is very good at making his/her game individual.

Code Club with Year 4 again

We had a really good, although chaotic session, last Thursday as I'd downloaded the new version of 'Felix and Herbert' and hadn't realised it was for Scratch 2.0 so some of the commands were a bit difficult.  Also, I think it will help if I get the year 4s to read carefully, then tick the boxes next to the instructions, before moving on as they are missing out bits of work and getting stuck.  Next week's 'Whack-a-Witch' should be straightforward and I'm just going to program it on my Raspberry Pi, which has Scratch 1.4, to make sure I remember what to do.  The new part in 'Whack-a-Witch' is giving the game a timer.

Another brilliant Code Club session!

The year 4 pupils did a great job with Desert Race. They have worked brilliantly with Adam while I was away.  They needed a little more help than Year 5 children but still produced some good race programs. They are taking all the project notes home tonight so that they can continue working on coding at home. The next year 4 group starts in 3 weeks.