Week One Activities

Scratch is a tool on the internet that you can use to program various things such as games
and animations. This week my class was attempting to use different types of programing
blocks in order to get a feeling for the program. We did numerous activities such as making
a sprite move, turn and point towards another object, go and glide, change positions,
bounce, locate another sprite, change a sprites costumes, speaking, thinking graphic effect
size, presence and layers.
These activities were done in order to use when creating further activities on this program.
These activities showed us how programing is difficult, but can also be done by people who
dont generally work in the profession.
It relates strongly to other programing languages as you have to use different techniques in
order to achieve a final product.
The concepts explored in the activities showed us how to create our own animations, games
and interactive stories by allowing us to understand the basics of scratch programing in
order to create our own final animations. This tool is also helpful if any of us intend to
continue programing throughout life.
I completed four of these activities, here they are:
1.

Move and Turn
We did this activity in order to learn exactly how to move a sprite, how to turn, and how to
point in a certain direction or at another sprite. We were told to use the blocks when
clicked, forever, turn certain (number of) degrees right and a certain (number of) degrees
left and a move x steps block which allowed us to make the sprite move and turn.




2.








Turn and Point
We did this activity in order to learn exactly how to move a sprite, how to turn, and how to
point in a certain direction or at another sprite. We used a two new blocks called the point
towards and the point in direction blocks in order to make the starfish point in the same
direction as the other sprite and follow it.
3.


Go and Glide
We did this activity in order to learn how to control the glide program of sprites and the
transformation of their position on the screen stage. We used new blocks called go to x___
y:___, Glide ___ seconds to x:____ y:____ and go to, that allowed us to make the sprites go
and glide to different positions.



4.


Changing Positions
We did this activity in order to learn how to control the glide program of sprites and the
transformation of their position on the screen stage. In this animation we used new blocks
called set x to, set y to and change x by and change y by, that allowed us to change the
position of the cheese puffs.

Pong Activities
Creating this game was quite simple on the program scratch. Especially with a tutorial. In
order to create this game we needed three sprites in a line (which is drawn onto the
background) a bat and a ball. I needed many control blocks and even some new ones.
Having these three sprites; one as a ball and the other as a stick for the ball to bounce on.
When the ball misses the baton and lands on the third sprite, the game is over.

The concepts explored in the Pong game activity are very helpful as I could use them in
other contexts, such as making your own animations, games and interactive stories. The
programing that I have experimented with is scratch pong game that will help me with any
future endeavours in programing games and animations, not only on this software but on
others.







Sprite 1


Sprite 2 (Background)










Sprite 3


Rock Band Assignment
Using the programing tool Scratch I have been able to follow a tutorial in order to create my
own band. After completing this I was given the task to create my own creative version of
the band with:
A change of music
An update of the sprites and actions to suit the new song.
To make at least 3 other adaptations to the design.
I achieved all three of these tasks. I created the first by changing my music sprite from
playing ABBAs- Dancing Queen and adding a new sprite in the middle, to change to Pink
Floyd- Learning To Fly. I did this by using these blocks.

Sprite 6 Sprite 12
I was very pleased with the use of the blocks to play sound and hide as we hadnt placed them
together before.

I then decided my song choice was quite relaxed so I would change my scene to something
completely different. I changed my background to under the water and aslo changed all my sprites
to sea creatures. It was easy to adjust the new sprites to the music as I just had to make new
costumes and let the changing of them flow with the sounds. Making the other sprites disappear
was quite technical, but worked out in the end. By updating the sprites and their actions to suit the
new music, my piece came together quite well.
Three new adaptions I added into my design were;
1. I made the background and lead signer change colour with the beat of the music in the
second backround (under the sea).
2. I got a flag to float across the screen informing the viewers the name of the band in the
second and first backgrounds. Plus I made the singer say where they were.
3. I made the background change from a concert to an under the sea band, including changing
all my sprites and music at the same time. All this was done with the use of the block. When
Background Switches to_______. I also add in new sound effects in order to make the
tranition to water clear to understand.
All sreenshots of changes

Original Tutorial












Music Change Blocks

Blocks from first song (Dancing Queen) Blocks form the second song (Learning To Fly)


Background Change Blocks






Sound Effect



Flag Blocks

The O.C Flag The O.Sea

Singer saying where they are in the second background





Colour change of my background and lead singer as the music beats