(Chapter 6: "Step wise thinking Scratch Programming); "Scratch, starting scratch,"" Components of Scratch window, Starting Scratch

Scratch

Scratch is a software which help you to understand and create many games, create animated stories.It help to make the young students learn game creation with ease.There are many versions of Scratch .The latest version is Scratch 3.0

• The official website of scratch is www.scratch.mit.edu
• Scratch was created by Mitchel Resnickat the MIT Media Lab in 2007

Uses of Scratch

• In scratch , there are colourful objects to make program creation fun and easy.
• You can create animations, quizzes , and stories.
• You can create and share your scratch projects online on the scratch website.
• The website also has an option to see projects created by others in scratch.You can even make changes to the projects created by others.

Starting Scratch

To start Scratch , follow the steps given below:

Step 1:Click on the Start button.

Step 2:click on Scratch Desktop to open scratch Program

A Scratch windows opens

• Title Bar – It is at the top of the Scratch window shows Scratch Desktop written on the left. The right side of the toolbar has the three control buttons – Minimize, Maximize and Close.

• Menu Bar – It contains options and commands related to the projects that you create in Scratch. The options are File, Edit, Tutorial and name of the Scratch project.

  

• Stage Area – It is similar to a stage in a play where everything takes place. You can watch stories, play games and run your scratch projects on the stage. In Scratch, the background is called backdrop.
• Sprite – It is the actor who acts on the stage. Sprite is an object in Scratch that performs the function on stage area. The default sprite in Scratch is an orange cat.
• Go Button – It is the green flag and when you click on it, it runs a Scratch program.
• Stop Button – It is the red button which on clicking stops the running of Scratch program.
• Sprites Info Pane – It is just below the Stage area. It shows all the details of sprites and backdrops used in a project. You can add, delete, see the name and location, increase and decrease the size of a sprite. Similarly, you can add or change the backdrop.
• Block Menu – It displays the categories of blocks based on their function and use. These blocks within the same category share the same colour which allow better distinction of the parts of a program.

  

• Coding Area – It is also called the scripts area where you stack your blocks to create scripts. If you save a project with a script, the script will also be saved. When we click on a script, all the blocks execute from top to bottom.

• Script – Script is a collection of a number of stacked blocks. It gives stepwise instructions to a sprite to do something on the stage. Script is actually a program which gives the instructions in the form of blocks. A script must have at least two blocks.
• Backdrop – It is a background of the stage.
• Tabs – Scratch has mainly three tabs which are described below:

a) Code Tab – It contains block categories and the list of blocks in a category. Some block categories are – Motion, Looks, Sound, Pen, Events, Control, Sensing, Operators, Variables and My Blocks. All block categories are in different colours. The blocks create scripts. In scratch, each block performs a task in a project. The blocks connect to each other like a jigsaw puzzle.

b) Costumes Tab – In this tab, you can add and make changes in the appearance of the Sprites and backdrops.

c) Sounds Tab – In this tab, you can add and make changes in the sounds of the sprite and backdrop.