Last week we were told there were eleven expected, with two absent. One of those eleven would not be able to attend this week, so I expected to start this class with ten students, two of which would need guidance to catch up. Imagine my surprise when fourteen students entered the class room, with five new additions!
As the first class didn’t start on time we were a little behind and hadn’t finished project one, Felix and Herbert, so we started this session with the plan to complete it. Easier said than done though. I think some are closer to finishing, but we now have a handful of students who downloaded Scratch after the first session, so I know at least one student spent the second session making their own game, rather than working through the instructions provided. Add to this another late start, and the difficulty currently appears to be getting students focussed, rather than with coding.
The challenge I now face is how to keep them all moving on project one, so that they can move onto project two together. Most of the Code Club projects come with additional challenges, but project one doesn’t. So for those that complete the project instructions I am providing the additional challenges myself. For those who are familiar with the code club Felix and Herbert project, this is what I was planning to get them to do:
- Make the cat meow when the mouse is caught;
- Make the cat move further or faster each step – two options, change the move X steps variable, or change the delay on the drum beat – either way it gets them familiar with changing variables to see what happens;
- Change the points they get each second.
- Change the points they lose each time the cat catches them.
Also, because the children have been asking about downloading it at home, I’ve put together a letter to take home to parents, which will help explain a little bit more about Scratch. I will post it next week.
