Chapter 1:

Movement and Loops In this chapter, you will learn

how to build simple scripts to make a sprite move
around the stage.
LESSON 1.1 Program Name: Square

1. Click File/New to create a new project and enter a

project name of Square.
2. From the Events menu, drag a when green flag
clicked block to the scripts area. Your scripts area
should look like this:

3. From the Motion menu, drag a go to x: 0 y: 0 block

to the scripts area and snap
it to the bottom of the when green flag clicked block.
Your script should look like this:

4. Add a move 10 steps block to the bottom of your

script and change the 10 to 100.

5. Click the green flag at the top right corner of the

stage to run your program. Let’s look at what
happened:
 The when green flag clicked block tells Scratch that
the other blocks in the script are to be executed at the
start of the program — that is, when the green flag is
clicked.
 The go to x: 0 y: 0 block tells Scratch to move the
sprite — that’s the cat, which is what you’re writing
instructions for — to the coordinates (0, 0). The stage
has a coordinate system with (0, 0) in the center, x
values ranging from –240 to +240, and y values ranging
from –180 to +180.
 The move 100 steps block tells Scratch to move the
sprite 100 units in the direction it is facing.
Lesson 1-2: Turning and Waiting
Program Name: Square (continued)
Now it’s time to make your sprite move in a square.
1. Drag a turn counterclockwise 15 degrees block to
the bottom of the script and change the 15 to 90:

2. Add more blocks until you have four move/turn pairs

in your script:

4. Run your program again. Better? If your sprite is too

slow, you can always change the wait time.

Lesson 1-3: Repeat Loops Program

Name: Square (continued)

Look at your script. One thing that should strike you is
that three blocks — move, turn, wait — are repeated
four times. Imagine if you wanted your cat to walk in a
square 100 times. You’d need 1,200 blocks! That’s
insane. (Not to mention a lot of work.) Fortunately,
there is an easy way to fix this: the repeat loop.
1. Drag the four sets of move/turn/wait blocks
away from the bottom of the script.
2. Drag a repeat 10 block to the bottom of
your script and change the 10 to a 4. 3. Drag
one set of move/turn/wait blocks

3. inside your repeat block. The result should

look like this:

4. Now run your program. Your sprite still

moves in a square, but with far fewer
commands. Repeat loops are an incredibly
important programming tool. They allow
 you to repeat actions without having to add
extra blocks, thus saving lots of work. Use
repeat loops!
Lesson 1-4: More Repeat Loops
Program Name: Square (continued)
You may have noticed that the move block makes your
sprite jump from one place to another. Sometimes, this
is what you want. Other times, you might want your
sprite to move smoothly across the screen. One way to
do this is to make it move multiple, shorter distances.
1. Replace the move 100 steps block with a repeat
loop that moves the sprite 10 times, moving 10 steps
each time.
2. Remove the wait blocks so that the sprite doesn’t
pause. (Remember, we added the wait blocks only
because the sprite moved too fast to see.)
3. Run your program and watch the sprite move more
smoothly in a square.
Lesson 1-5: Forever Loops
Program Name: Square (continued)
What if you want to make your cat really, really dizzy?
Or just want to do something forever? There is a
special kind of repeat loop for this called a forever
loop, which you can find in the Control menu.
1. Replace the repeat 4 block with a forever block.
2. Run your program and watch your cat go round and
round and round and round and…
Lesson 1-6: Cleanup and Save
Program Name: Square (continued)
You probably have a lot of unused blocks laying around
the script area.
1. Drag the unused blocks to the blocks palette to
delete them.
2. Click File/Save to save your project .
Chapter 3:
Messages In this chapter,
you will learn to use messages, which are
used to communicate between scripts and
between sprites.
Sending Lesson 3-1: and Receiving Messages
Program Name: Taking Turns
1. Create a new project and name it
Taking Turns.
2. Right-click Sprite1 in the sprite list
and select duplicate. This will make a
copy of Sprite1 named Sprite2.
3. Create a script for Sprite1 that
broadcasts the message sprite 1’s turn
when the program starts. You will
need the broadcast block in the
Events menu. To create your message,
click the drop-down list, select new
message..., and type sprite 1’s turn.
Your block should look like this:
4. Drag a when I receive block to the
scripts area and set the value to sprite
1’s turn:

5. Add blocks to the when I receive script

to glide to a random position, then
broadcast a new message named sprite
2’s turn. You will need the glide 1 secs to
x: y: block from the Motion menu, two
pick random 1 to 10 blocks from the
Operators menu, and a broadcast block.
Use the random blocks to choose an x
value between –240 and 240 and a y value
between –180 and 180. 6. Click Sprite
2. Create a script to receive the message
sprite 2’s turn, glide to the position of
Sprite1, and broadcast the message sprite
1’s turn. To determine the position of
Sprite1, use __ of __ blocks from the
Sensing menu, set as follows:

7. Run your program. Sprite1 should glide

to a random position on the stage; Sprite2
should glide to Sprite1’s position; Sprite1
should glide to a new position; and so on.
Let’s see what’s happening: a) When the
program starts, Sprite1 broadcasts the
message sprite 1’s turn.
A message is like yelling into a crowd of
people, “Who is supposed to wash the
dishes?” Everybody can hear it, but only
those people (sprites) who have been told
they are on dish duty (have a when I
receive block for the dish duty message)
will respond. This could be zero, one,
many, or all people (sprites).
b) Because Sprite1 has a when I receive
block for the message sprite 1’s turn, it
executes the script for that message. In
this case, it randomly picks an x value
between –240 and +240 and a y value
between –180 and +180, then glides to
the new position. After gliding, it
broadcasts the message sprite 2’s turn.
c) Because Sprite2 has a when I receive
block for the message sprite 2’s turn, it
executes the script for that message. In
this case, it finds the x and y coordinates
of Sprite1, glides to that position, and
broadcasts the message sprite 1’s turn,
starting the cycle all over again.
Lesson 3-2: Message Practice
Program Name: Simon Says
A common use of messages is to
choreograph animation sequences, where
two or more sprites take turns doing
something.
Use messages to animate a short game of
Simon Says between three sprites: the
game leader and two game players. For
example, the leader might say, “Simon
says jump” and both players jump. Or the
leader might say, “Turn around!” and one
player turns slightly but catches itself and
the leader says, “Almost got you.” The
game should end with one player
winning.
Use the say ____ for __ secs block in the
Looks menu to have sprites say things.
Depending on how you structure your
code, you might also want to use the
broadcast ____ and wait block in the
Events menu. The broadcast ____ and
wait block waits until all sprites have
finished processing a message before
passing control to the next block; the
broadcast ____ block passes control
immediately to the next block.
Chapter 4: Animation
Lesson 4-1: Bitmap Mode
Before learning animation, you need to
learn about two different ways to draw
with a computer: bitmap drawing and
vector drawing. In this lesson, you will
learn about bitmap drawing.
1. Create a new project and name it
Bitmap vs. Vector.
2. Click the Costumes tab and click Clear
to delete the cat.
3. Look in the lower right hand corner and
make sure you are in Bitmap Mode. If you
are not in Bitmap Mode, click Convert to
bitmap.
4. Using the line tool, draw an X with a
short and a long arm:
5. Now suppose you want to rotate the
short line while keeping the long line in
place. Using the Select tool, select the
short line:

6. Using the rotation handle (the circle at

the top of the line coming out of the
selection box), rotate the short line:

What happened? Both the short line and a

segment of the long line in the selection
box rotated. This is because you didn’t
actually select just the short line, you
selected everything in the selection box.
(Actually, the computer stores a grid of
numbers, where each number tells the
computer what color to draw each dot in
the grid. But it’s easier to think of the
computer as just storing a grid of dots.)
Because the computer just stores dots, it
doesn’t understand anything about those
dots. That is, it doesn’t realize that the
grid shown above is a line, or that a
different grid might show a circle or a
triangle. All it sees are dots. As a result,
when you use the select tool, you can’t
select a particular line in the grid. You can
only select the dots in the grid. And when
you rotate the grid, you rotate all of the
dots in the grid.
Lesson 4-2: Vector Mode
In the lesson 4-1, you learned about
bitmap drawing.
In this lesson, you will learn about vector
drawing:
1. Click Costume2, clear the canvas, and
check that you are in Vector Mode. If you
are not in Vector Mode, click Convert to
vector.
2. Using the line tool, draw the same
lopsided X you drew in the previous
lesson.
3. Using the select tool, select the shorter
line and rotate it:

What happened? This time, only the

shorter line rotated. The reason for this is
the difference between vector graphics
and bitmap graphics. In vector graphics,
the computer does not store a grid of bits.
Instead, it stores information about the
actual objects you draw.
For example, for a line, it stores the
endpoints of the line, as well as the fact
that you are drawing a line. For a circle, it
stores the center and radius of the circle,
and the fact that you are drawing a circle.
Because vector graphics store information
about individual objects — as opposed to
a grid of dots — you can select, rotate,
move, and resize individual objects
without affecting other objects, even if
the objects overlap.
In general, you will use vector graphics.
Bitmap graphics are useful when creating
objects that can’t easily be described by
equations, such as the cat sprite or a
photograph. However, they are more
difficult to work with and this class is
about writing programs, not drawing
pictures.
Name: Hiding Man
Sprites can have different costumes, or
graphics, for different actions. For
example, a sprite might use different
costumes for walking, running, and
jumping. In this lesson, you will draw four
costumes.
1. Create a new project and name it
Hiding Man.
2. Click the blue in the upper left corner of
the sprite icon, rename the sprite Hiding
Man, and click the blue triangle to return
to the sprite icon.
3. Click the Costumes tab, clear the
canvas, make sure you are in Vector
Mode, and use the line and oval tools
to draw a simple stick figure of a man
walking. Make sure you use separate
lines for the body, arms, and legs.
This is because we need to reposition
the arms and legs later.
Don’t spend too much time drawing.
We’re learning programming, not fine art.
4. Using the Set costume center tool
(the plus sign in the upper right corner
of the screen), set the center of the
costume to a point on the “ground” just
beneath the man’s feet:

A costume’s center is used for

movement and rotation. When you tell a
sprite to go to a certain point, its center
goes to that point. When you tell a
sprite to rotate, it rotates around its
center.
 5. Click costume2 and delete it, then
make two copies of costume1. You can
use the stamp tool at the top of the
screen, or right click and select
duplicate.

6. Click costume2 and use the zoom

controls — the plus and minus in the
lower right corner of the screen — to
zoom in on your stick man. Rotate and
move his arms and legs:

7. Click costume3 and move the arms and legs

again:
8. Finally, click costume2 and duplicate
it. You should now have four costumes,
with costume2 and costume 4 being
identical
OTHER INFORMATION IN NEXT PART .