How to Teach Primary Programming Using Scratch

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Teacher Book

Workbook 1

Workbook 2

Workbook 3

Workbook 4

This is the book I have been wanting to write for ages. Based on teaching computing science in six schools for the last three years, over 1300 hours of lessons. I have evolved my approach and philosophy based on what works for my pupils. Combining computational thinking, real programming projects from a wide spectrum of genre and clear instruction followed by re-purposing or investigation. Many of the modules are based on my Primary Scratch plan but they have all been re-written as I teach them now. I would love to remove the online versions as the book versions are much better but that wouldn’t be fair to those who use the site, so rest assured I won’t. I am also working on teacher support videos and other media to go with the book.

Professor Les Carr talks to Phil Bagge about his new book

The book could be used by:-

Experienced teacher – programmers as a guide to what works in the classroom when delivering the National Curriculum
Teachers with little experience of programming, who would value a “way in” to teaching computing with confidence
Parents who want to help their children gain important skills and work on a topic that they have an enthusiasm for

This book can be used as:-

As a full programming strand for KS2 (7-11 year olds) for all four year groups
As a resource book of programming planning that emphasises computational thinking
As a supplementary strand of programming that emphasises Music, Maths, Literacy or Gaming
As a starting place to think through and create your own programming planning
As a home tutoring guide to develop computing science knowledge and skills through programming
As a set of projects to work through with your child if their school has chosen to only teach the barest minimum computing science or teach lots of it in an unplugged fashion. Please ask your school if they are using or intend to use the scheme first.

It will include the following projects described without big words

Name	Brief Description
Smoking Car	A simple game to move a car around a screen leaving a smoky trail as it goes
Music Machine	Explore the wonderful world of sound by creating your own music machine
Conversation	Gossip, argument, discussion, persuasive pitch. You decide the focus of this simple conversation
Interactive Display	Turning facts learnt in any subject into an interactive display that could be uploaded to your school website
Dressing Up Game	Click on the character to see their costume change. Or click on their accessories to see them animate or change colour.
Year 3 Assessment	Design a program based on the ideas learnt in previous modules
Maths Quiz	Create a scoring quiz
Music Algorithm to Music Code	Follow musical notation to program Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before choosing your own musical notation to decipher
Slug Trail Game	Can you keep the slug inside the track? There will be consequences if you can’t!
Selection Investigation	Discover lots of the features of Scratch as you investigate what happens when your character touches a colour.
Train your Computer to do Maths	Train your computer to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Break up a more complex maths problem and solve it with the power of programming.
Counting Machine	Train the computer to count in whole numbers, fractions, backwards etc before creating a countdown timer for your teacher.
Music Abstraction	Discover what is important and what is not when you convert a music video into Scratch notes
Random Word	Create random words that follow real spelling patterns, program multiple story starts using the same code or just gaze into the future and choose a job for everyone.
Coin Program	Program a function machine that sorts money totals into all the correct coins and notes.
Crab Maze	Can the crab make it through the maze collecting coins as it goes? Will it make it to the next level or will it hit the maze wall and end the game?
Toilet Fan	Design and build a Lego fan model before programming it to turn on when someone approaches the toilet and off when they leave.
Angle Sorter	Type in the number of degrees your angle has and the program will tell you what type of angle it is and its properties. It may even draw it.
Car Park Barrier	Design and build a Lego car park barrier before programming it to lift when it senses a car approaching.
Times Table Game	Can you click on the moving balls which are part of the table in question and earn points or will you click the wrong ball and lose points?
Perimeter Program	Design and create a program that calculates perimeters of regular shapes.
Clock	Program a working digital and analogue clock
Cartesian Coordinates	Practise plotting Cartesian coordinates before turning them into Scratch code that draws the shapes you planned. Simply the best Cartesian coordinates supporting activity there is!
Translation, Enlargement & Rotation	Don’t just stop at plotting coordinates in all four quadrants discover the power of translation, enlargement and rotation.
Primary Games Maker	Design and program a complex game based around either a platform game, scrolling background game or snail trail game. Be astounded by the ability of all pupils to adapt, re-purpose and invent with Scratch.
Tilt Switch	Here is a tilt switch. This is how it works. What can you do with it? Sit back and watch the fun!
Chatbot	Compete against your classmates to design a program that interacts with the user like a human

The teacher book retails for £20. There are four pupil work books which retail for £6.99 each which are the pupil resources which go with each chapter.

There is a Book FAQ here

Sample Pages

First page is from the introduction of the teachers workbook second is from a programming project in the teachers workbook and the last two are from a pupil workbook.