Whats up?

I'm going to share what I like about Scratch.

Before I do anything else, let me take about a minute to show you

all the different kinds of programs you can create with Scratch

All these projects were made inside of Scratch.

So that's what some of the Scratch projects look like but how does it work?

Now I'll show you the Scratch enviroment.

In fact, if I zoom out, you can see that we're inside of Scratch right now.

The code that makes me talk is in the middle of the screen.

All the projects we just looked at have their own code too.

Lets replay those projects with the code showing.

All the action happens over on the right.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the screen, there are lots of blocks that control what happens.

I like to open up sample projects so I can see how they work, and so that I can change the code and mess around.

I like this breakdance project. Let me start it up by clicking the green flag.

Every character and object in Scratch is called a sprite, and every sprite has its own code telling it what to do.

When I double-click a sprite, its code appears in the middle.

I'm going to change the code that runs the boombox.

I'm just going to go through while it's running and change which drums are being played in the dropdown menu.

I don't always know what will happen, but I just try it and see.

I'm not worried about breaking anything. In fact, I like to break the programs apart.

I can even break the blocks apart while they're running to mess up the program and see what happens.

That's one way I get started, but another way I get started is to start from a blank screen.

Here's how Scratch looks when you first open it up.

The first thing I learned in Scratch was to drag the blocks out and double click them.

This one says move, and when I double click it, the cat moves.

If I want to make some music, I go into the sounds category.

I'll get a drum block out so that I can make a phat beat.

From the dropdown menu, I pick any drum I want.

The other important thing besides clicking on the blocks is that I can also snap the blocks together, like this, to make a stack of blocks.

Say I want to make the cat dance back and forth. I'll just copy the blocks I have, and then make a quick change.

When I'm not sure what to do next, I just experiment around and think.

I think that instead of moving forward ten steps in this block, I'll move backwards ten steps by throwing in a negative sign.

If I go into the control category, I can get a really crazy block, the forever block. Then, I put the stack inside the forever block.

I'll put in the other stack too. Oops! I have to grab the stack from the top. There we go.

Now the cat is REALLY dancing.

I can change all the code while it's running. I just click in the white boxes.

Now, I want to make something happen to the way the cat looks.

Hmmm....what if i drop in a change color block? What will this do?

Ha! Umm...well...that's not exactly what I wanted, so I'll take that out.

I want to grab a costume of myself instead of a cat costume.

There I am! Now I'm dancing.

I'm glad i got to show you how I like to Scratch.

Have fun creating in Scratch and sharing your programs with friends and the online world!