Book Image

Scratch 1.4: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Scratch 1.4: Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

If you have the imaginative power to design complex multimedia projects but can't adapt to programming languages, then Scratch 1.4: Beginner's Guide is the book for you. Imagine how good you'll feel when you drag-and-drop your way to interactive games, stories, graphic artwork, computer animations, and much more using Scratch even if you have never programmed before. This book provides teachers, parents, and new programmers with a guided tour of Scratch's features by creating projects that can be shared, remixed, and improved upon in your own lesson plans. Soon you will be creating games, stories, and animations by snapping blocks of "code" together. When you program you solve problems. In order to solve problems, you think, take action, and reflect upon your efforts. Scratch teaches you to program using a fun, accessible environment that's as easy as dragging and dropping blocks from one part of the screen to another. In this book you will program games, stories, and animations using hands-on examples that get you thinking and tinkering. For each project, you start with a series of steps to build something. Then you pause to put our actions into context so that you can relate our code to the actions on Scratch's stage. Throughout each chapter, you'll encounter challenges that encourage you to experiment and learn. One of the things you're really going to love is that, as you begin working through the examples in the book, you won't be able to stop your imagination and the ideas will stream as fast as you can think of them. Write them down. You'll quickly realize there are a lot of young minds in your home, classroom, or community group that could benefit from Scratch's friendly face. Teach them, please.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Scratch 1.4 Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
Preface
Scratch Resources
Index

Fortune-teller


Most of us enjoy a good circus, carnival, or county fair. There's fun, food, and fortunes. Aah, yes, what would a fair be without the fortune-teller's tent? By the end of the chapter, you'll know everything you need to spin your fortunes and amaze your friends with your wisdom.

Before we start the first exercise, create a new project and add two sprites. The first sprite will be the seeker. The second sprite will be the teller. Choose any sprites you want. My seeker will be a clam and my teller will be a snowman. If you want to add a background, go ahead.

Time for action – create a list of questions

In order to have a successful fortune-telling, we need two things: a question and an answer. Let's start by defining some questions and answers:

  1. Select the seeker from the list of sprites.

  2. From the Variables palette, click the Make a list button.

  3. In the list name dialog box, type questions and select For this sprite only.

  4. Click OK to create the list. Several new blocks display in the...