Welcome to the exciting world of creative coding! If you’re a parent, teacher, or a young aspiring programmer looking to dive into the basics of programming, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll explore the fantastic realm of Scratch programming – a user-friendly platform that makes coding fun and accessible for kids.
What is Scratch?
Scratch is a free block-based visual programming language developed by MIT Labs, primarily designed for children aged 8 to 16. It serves as an educational tool, allowing kids to create interactive narratives, animations, games, music, and visual art.
Block-based programming means that instead of having to type out the code needed for any project, you can drag the easy-to-understand blocks that are provided and join them to make your program.
You can use Scratch online through your web browser or offline by downloading the Scratch Offline Editor(also known as the Scratch App). Scratch also allows users to share their projects online on the platform as well as view projects from other users. However to share your own projects, an account will need to be created.
Getting started with Scratch
There are two ways to begin your Scratch journey:
- Launch the Scratch Online Editor:
Open scratch.mit.edu in your browser.
Though you don’t need an account to start creating projects, doing so will let you save the progress of your projects and lets you come back to it at a later time.
Creating an account on this site is free. Click on “Join” to create a free account.
This will be the Welcome page. Now you can start creating projects in your account.
Scratch is an ideal programming language for kids to learn as it is very easy to learn and code. The website offers several starter projects to guide the kids about how to use the different features and it does so in fun ways and games.
- Download the Scratch Offline Editor:
You can also use an offline editor if you want to work on your projects but don’t have an internet connection. To download the editor, you can scroll down on the scratch.mit.edu page and click on the Download option in the Resources section.
After installation, this is what the Scratch Offline Editor would look like.
The Offline Editor saves your projects directly to your computer while the Online Editor saves it to its cloud storage.
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