Computing

Coding with Scratch: Animated Stories

Computing | Coding with Scratch: Animated Stories | Animating a Scene | Lesson 1

 Question Marks
You will spot question marks at certain points in
this Lesson Presentation.

Clicking the question marks

will bring up key questions.

The assessment questions that appear will enable you to check

your understanding against the lesson aim and success criteria.
 Aim
• To create appropriate animations.

Success Criteria
• I can select appropriate sprites to fit within a scene.
• I can use costume changes for a motion effect.
• I can use a repeat command to create gradual movement.
• I can use a succession of glide commands.
 Knowledge Organiser

• What is a Knowledge Organiser? • Have a look at your

It contains lots of useful information
and key vocabulary that you are going
to be learning in this unit of work.
• We will be using this throughout the
unit and will be referring back to it.
Hopefully by the end of the unit, all of
the key vocabulary will be highlighted.
Knowledge Organiser
and using a highlighter,
highlight the key words
that you already know.
Underline any words
that you don’t know or
don’t understand.
 Remember It
What Is an Algorithm?
visual block-based
coding
Algorithms on a computer are exactly
the same as everyday algorithms.
They are a set of sequenced instructions In Scratch, algorithms
or rules for solving a problem or are referred to as
completing a task in a logical order. scripts. You create
your algorithms by
Computers need to have their dragging code blocks
instructions written in a special into the Code Area.
language called a programming
language. We sometimes call this
computer code. text-based coding

There are lots of different types of

programming languages. Some
software uses visual block-based coding
while others use text-based coding.
 Function Blocks
We are going to be using Control, To refresh our memory, can
Motion, Looks and Sound blocks you match up the correct
in our code today. colours with the blocks?
 Function Blocks
Let's review our answers:

X
Which blocks would be useful for animating sprites?
 The Project
Over the next few lessons, we are The aim of the project is to develop
going to be creating an animated your coding skills by using
story using Scratch. The theme of algorithms to animate characters,
our animated story is based on a create buttons, embed sounds and
haunted castle. change backdrops. By the end of
the project, you should have an
interactive Scratch animated story.
Let’s Discuss
Look at this Castle 3 backdrop in Scratch.
How could the scene be animated if it
was part of a haunted castle story?

What creatures or objects might be expected?

In this lesson, you will be able to open this

project and change it by adding your own ideas.
 Example Animation
There are different ways to Look at the algorithms for the Knight, the
animate a sprite in Scratch. Bat and the Skeleton in the Scratch project.

Share with your partner a way

of animating a sprite in Scratch.
 Example Animation: Knight
The Knight uses a From a given starting
repeat block to move. point, the Knight is
Each time the code programmed to move
inside is repeated, it by changing x by a
is called an iteration. small amount and
repeating this many
times. This gives the
effect of him moving
fairly quickly across the
Stage from left to right.

You can explore different

speeds by changing the
values in the blocks.
 Example Animation: Bat
The Bat also uses
a repeat block for
several iterations.
In addition, by switching
rapidly between two Costumes, it
gives the impression of flapping wings.

To move diagonally, the position of

both x and y are changed each time
(negative numbers will move from top
right to bottom left of the screen).

Finally, to give the impression of it

flying towards us, the size of the sprite
can be set at the start and become
gradually bigger in each iteration.
 Example Animation: Skeleton

The Skeleton does not use a repeat

command but follows a defined path.

The glide block is used to program

the movement from one place to
another, over a short defined period
of time (in this case, 1 second).

To add to the effect, a Sound block

can be added in between each step!
 Animating Your Scene
Open the Lesson 1 (Pupil Starter) in Scratch and save it as
your own unique filename.

This will be an ongoing

project that you can
return to and enhance
over several lessons.

Try coding the animations from

the examples, as well as adding
your own original ideas.

Use the Animating a

Scene Activity Sheet
to help you.
 Next Steps and Evaluate
If you are ready to develop your code further,
there are lots of ideas for the next steps. You could:

Add sound effects Change the size of a A starting point can

for each sprite. sprite before or during be defined using a
its movement. go to block.

Add your own ideas

and sprites too! Remember to use
the Animating a
Scene Activity
Sheet to help you.
 Next Steps and Evaluate
Using the Scratch Self-Assessment Activity Sheet, evaluate your
work so far by saying what works well and suggesting possible
next steps or improvements.

Remember to save your work

under your own filename.

Test and debug your code.

Use the Scratch Self-Assessment Activity

Sheet to suggest improvements to your work.
 Aim
• To create appropriate animations.

Success Criteria
• I can select appropriate sprites to fit within a scene.
• I can use costume changes for a motion effect.
• I can use a repeat command to create gradual movement.
• I can use a succession of glide commands.