ScratchJr. Review

 

Scratch Jr. is an app developed for children ages 5-7 to create interactive stories and games through coding. It is free for iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks. Children work to snap blocks together to make characters sing, move, jump, and dance. They can add their own photos to make themselves come to life as well. 

There is a very useful activities page that helps users learn how to do new things on Scratch Jr. It is also ordered from simplest to hardest. 

The app was filled with useful tools to help understand all the features. 

Under the Learn Tab was a downloadable guide to understand the “Interface Guide.”

There was also a downloadable guide for the “Paint Editor.”

It seems like a lot of information to follow and understand. However, I think my students would love to learn how to code and would catch on very quickly on how to use Scratch. 

I love that each one of these guides are downloadable and printable. 

Below are the “Block Descriptions.”

I also saw that Amazon has a book and cards for children to follow step by step directions. 

Scratch Jr. also promotes and support community events where people can come together to create projects using Scratch Jr. I am really looking forward to exploring more of Scratch Jr. and using it as a tool in my classroom and at home.