Substitute Lesson Plan: Getting Started with Scratch

Objective

Students will learn how to access the Scratch Editor, identify what a sprite is, snap together simple blocks (move and say), test their code by clicking it, and use the green flag event block to start their program.

Materials

• "Scratch — Getting Started Guide" (printed or displayed for reference)
• Computers/devices with internet access (or Scratch app downloaded, for older systems/unreliable internet)
• Optional: projector or screen to display the guide's images for the whole class

Warm-up (~5 min)

1. Have students sit at their computers without logging in yet.
2. Ask: "Has anyone heard of Scratch or made a game/animation before?" Take a few quick hands-up answers (no discussion needed).
3. Explain: "Today we are going to open a program called Scratch and make our very first sprite move and talk."
4. Tell students they will follow along step-by-step using the guide.

Main Activity (~25 min)

Walk students through these steps directly from the guide. Read each instruction aloud and give students time to complete it before moving on.

1. Access Scratch (3 min): Have students go to scratch.mit.edu and click Create. This opens the Scratch Editor. (If internet is unreliable, use the downloaded Scratch app instead.)
2. Look at the Editor (2 min): Point out that the Scratch Editor has different parts (blocks palette, stage, sprite list) as shown in the guide.
3. Move the Cat (5 min):
4. Have students drag out a "move" block (found under the Motion category).
5. Click the block to test it. Ask: "Did your cat move?"
6. Make the Cat Talk (5 min):
7. Click the Looks category.
8. Drag out a "say" block and snap it onto the bottom of the "move" block.
9. Click the blocks to try them out.
10. Explore Sprites (5 min):
11. Explain that any character or object in Scratch is called a sprite, and every new project starts with the Cat sprite.
12. Show students the New Sprite icon — they can click it to choose a different sprite from the library, or hover to see options to draw their own, get a surprise sprite, or upload an image.
13. (Optional) Show how to delete a sprite: select its thumbnail in the Sprite List, then click the trash can.
14. Add a Green Flag Start (5 min):
15. Click the Events category and drag out the green flag block.
16. Attach it above the move/say block sequence.
17. Click the green flag above the stage to test the whole program.

Wrap-up / Exit Ticket (~10 min)

Have students answer the following on paper or verbally, based only on what they did today:

1. What is a sprite in Scratch?
2. Which category did you click to find the "say" block?
3. What did clicking the green flag do to your project?
4. On a scale of 1–3, how did your sprite behave when you clicked your blocks (moved and talked, moved only, or neither)?

Collect answers or have students share with a partner.

If Time Remains

Have students try changing the words in their "say" block or adjusting the numbers in their "move" block to see what happens. Remind them: "Experimenting and changing numbers is a great way to learn — nothing will break!"