Lesson video

Hello everybody, it Mrs Franzsen here.

It's really great to see you.

I'm glad that you've chosen my lesson today.

We are going to be doing some really great learning about block-based programming.

Are you ready? Then let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to choose a command for a given purpose.

Let's go through our keywords for today.

We have got keywords here.

We're going to do my turn and your turn for these keywords, so that means I'm going to say the keyword and then I want you to say the keyword and then I want you to listen closely while I explain the definition of that keyword, okay? So, here we go.

First word, my turn: animation.

Your turn.

That's great! An animation is a moving picture with actions made using step-by-step commands.

Next word, my turn: command.

Your turn.

That's great! A command is an instruction you use to control something.

Next word, here we go, my turn: sprite.

Your turn.

That's great! So, a sprite is an object that can be controlled by a command.

In the first part of this lesson, we are going to be identifying commands that are used in an animation.

Are you ready? Let's go.

An animation is where you create actions using step-by-step commands.

Many films are made using animation.

We are going to use commands to make animations.

And at the bottom of the screen here, you can see I've got one, two, three images of Tic that are all still images, they're not moving.

But then on the right-hand side, you can watch my animation of Tic moving to the side of the screen.

So, that is animation where you create actions using step-by-step commands.

A sprite is controlled with commands.

This is Tic.

Say, "Hello, Tic." Tic is a sprite.

You will be controlling Tic the sprite with command blocks.

So, you'll be seeing a lot of Tic in these lessons.

A command is an instruction that you use to control something.

In the ScratchJr programme, commands are made with command blocks.

The command blocks control what actions a sprite will do.

And at the bottom of the page here, we have got a blue block.

Which way is the arrow pointing? Yep, it's pointing to the right.

So this is a move right command block.

Let's have a look at the different parts of the ScratchJr programme.

Okay, so over here in the middle, we've got our blue friend.

This is Tic.

Tic is a sprite.

We've got Tic the sprite there in the middle of the screen.

Over here we've got our command blocks.

Our command blocks control the sprite.

So, we've got a line of blue command blocks here.

We've got the programming area at the bottom.

It's a big white space.

The programming area is where the command blocks are placed and right in the middle all the way around the sprite, we have got the stage.

And the stage is where the sprite performs the command.

Ooh, what do you notice here? Pause the video and have a little chat.

What do you notice? Ooh, well done if you spotted that! Tic is facing a different direction.

How do you think this happened? Maybe you've got an idea.

Pause the video and have a little think and a little chat about that.

This happened because the turn right command block was run.

Can you see it happening in my animation? This block is being pulled down to the programming area and the turn right command block is being run.

First you drag the command block down into the programming area.

Then you tap on the command block to make Tic move.

So now, Tic is facing a different direction.

For your command to work, you first need to move the command block down into the programming area.

You then need to tap the command block.

So remember, we've got our blocks palette here where all the blue blocks are, and then at the bottom, we've got the programming area where the command blocks are placed.

Let's see if you've been listening.

True or false? Tapping this command block in the blocks palette will make Tic move down.

True or false? Pause the video and have a think about that.

Oh, the answer was false.

Why? The answer was false because you have to drag the command block down into the programming area for it to work.

Well done if you got that right! The move right command block caused this movement.

Can you see Tic moving? Tic is moving to the right.

I wonder which command block caused this movement.

Do you know? Pause the video and have a think about what the answer is.

Tic's movement here was caused by this block.

This is the turn to the right block.

Right, we are going to be starting a task now.

For the first part of this task, I would like you to draw lines to label the parts of the ScratchJr screen.

So, you can see we've got our screen at the bottom and we've got four labels that I want you to use.

So, you're going to be drawing lines from the label to the area that we are going to be labelling.

So, here are the labels.

We've got sprite, command blocks, stage, and programming area.

I'm gonna say those again.

We've got sprite, command blocks, stage, and programming area.

And your job is to draw lines to label the screen.

Pause the video here to work on part one of this task.

The next part is a question about a command block.

Which command block caused this movement? Pause the video here to work on part two of this task.

The third part of this task is also a question about movement.

Can you see which way Tic is going? Pause the video now and go and complete question three.

And then when you come back, we can review all of task A and I can give you some feedback on what you worked on.

Welcome back.

Let's look at the answers together.

These are the answers for the first part: Draw lines to label the parts of the ScratchJr screen.

So, we've got our lines drawn here.

I'm gonna take you through them.

This bright label is pointing at our blue friend Tic in the middle.

The command blocks label has been drawn down to the blocks palette where all the blue movement blocks are.

The stage is the white area behind the sprite.

It's a white box around Tic.

And the programming area is right at the bottom of the screen.

It's the big blank white area where you can drag your command blocks down to create your programme.

Well done if you got that right.

For question two, we're looking at the movement that Tic is doing and we have to decide which block caused this movement.

And the answer was the first block.

Can you see what direction it's pointing? Show me.

The block is pointing down.

So, this is a move down command block and Tic is moving down just like the command block has told it to do.

For this question, we have to find which command block caused this movement.

So, let's look at how Tic is moving.

Ooh, in the animation, I think I know which way he's going.

Going that way to the left, so this is a move left command block.

Well done if you got those answers correct! For the second part of this lesson, we are going to be looking at using the command blocks.

Are you ready? Let's go.

How would you get the sprite to move up? Lucas says, "I would tap on the move up block.

"It is the block that is pointing up." Thank you, Lucas.

He thinks that you should tap on the move up command block.

Is Lucas right? Pause the video and have a chat about what Lucas thinks you need to do to move the sprite up.

This would not work because Lucas forgot to do something.

In my animation there, it doesn't work when I tap on the move up block.

The sprite is not moving.

Aisha says, "First, you need to drag the block "from the palette into the programming area." Can you see how Aisha's done that? "Then, you can tap on the block "and the sprite will move up." Can you see the sprite moving up? True or false? Sprites already know what you want them to do.

True or false? Pause the video and have a chat about that and see if you can come up with the correct answer.

Ooh, the answer was false.

Why? The answer was false because sprites are controlled using command blocks.

You need to use command blocks to tell the sprite what to do.

Well done if you got that answer right! Izzy says, "Oh no! I put too many command blocks Izzy says, "Oh no! I put too many command blocks "in the programming area and it looks confusing." "in the programming area and it looks confusing." Wow, her programme really does look muddled up.

She's got blocks all over the place.

What could Izzy do? Pause the video and have a little think about that.

If you make a mistake, there's an easy way to fix it.

Can you think of a way to fix a digital mistake? Pause the video and have a think about that.

The undo button will let you go back one step.

This will help you fix mistakes.

Can you see at the bottom I have labelled the undo button there for you? It looks a bit like a white arrow pointing backwards because the undo button will let you go back step by step to help you fix mistakes.

Let's see how the undo button works.

If I tap on the undo button, it will take away the blocks that I have placed step by step.

So every time I tap, one block gets removed.

This can help me fix my mistakes.

Right, we're gonna get ready for our next task now.

The task says use all of these command blocks to make Tic dance.

So, we have got one, two, three, four, five, six command blocks here.

We've got up, down, left, right, turn left or turn right.

It's up to you.

And we've also got one more.

We've got hop.

So, you can tap on these command blocks as many times as you want to once they are in your programming area to make Tic dance.

I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of fun making Tic dance.

It's time for you to pause this video now and go off and work on your dancing.

At least you're gonna help Tic work on their dancing.

You might want to have a little dance as well.

And when you are finished, you can come back and look at my example.

Well done for working so hard on your dance routine for Tic! I'm sure that they enjoyed following your commands.

Let's have a look at how I finished this task.

So, you can see here I have dragged the blue movement blocks down to the programming area and I've laid them out in a way that makes sense to me and I'm tapping on the different command blocks to make Tic move around the screen, to make Tic hop, and make a little dance routine for them.

So, what's even more fun with this activity is if you get some music and put it on and then you try and get Tic to dance to the beat.

Ooh, it looks like my Tic is even dancing on their head there.

Well done for all of your hard work in that task B and for this whole lesson.

You have done so much learning in this lesson.

I hope you're really proud of what you've done today! Let's summarise our learning.

A command is an instruction used to control something.

You can use commands to create animations.

In the ScratchJr programme, you make commands using command blocks.

You can use command blocks to move a sprite on the stage.

To make command blocks work, you drag them into the programming area.

Tapping a command block makes an action happen.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope that you enjoyed all of the learning that we did together, and I hope to see you again soon.