Scratch is a drag-and-drop programming language that is free to use and perfect for students who want to learn to code. Follow along as I show you how to create an interactive Thanksgiving e-card to share with family and friends
Step 1: Sign up for Scratch to make Thanksgiving e-card
Go to the Scratch website and click on ‘Join’. You want to create an account so you can save your work! Complete the info requested and then go to your email account to confirm your account (this is important if you want to be able to share your creations)
Step 2: Create a background
Let’s start by setting the scene for our Thanksgiving e-card. In the bottom right hand corner you will see
Move your cursor over that symbol and you will see 4 options appear above it. Select the first one, “Choose a backdrop”. You can come back and experiment with the other options later. Choose any one you want. I am choosing the hayfield. You will see that the Scratch cat is now standing in front of the background you chose.
Step 3: Adding sprites
Scratch cat is a sprite. You may not want him as part of your Thanksgiving e-card, so you can click on his icon below the scene above and choose to delete him (click on the trash can).
Now you can add whichever sprites you do want. Sprites are items on a scene you can manipulate.
Hover over the cat face icon at the bottom right and then move up to select ‘Choose a Sprite’
Choose anything you would like by clicking on it and you will see it is added to the background. Repeat this 3 times so that you have 4 sprites on the screen. (Note: by making other choices for Sprites you can draw/paint your own or upload your own too)
Drag your sprites to where you want them position on the scene. Here is how mine looks
Step 5: Adding speech / text
To make this an interactive Thanksgiving e-card, we are going to make each of these sprites do something different when clicked. I want the person on my card to say “Happy Thanksgiving”.
Time to move to the coding part of the screen. The different types of commands we can use are in groups on the left of the screen.
First click on the sprite you are programming to do something, so I click on the girl. The go across to the left and click on Looks and drag the first piece of code in the list to the blank canvas in the middle of the screen.
Click on the bubble with Hello in it and change the words to Happy Thanksgiving and then change the 2 to 5 second so it stays on the screen longer.
Now we need to tell it when to do this. Click on yellow ‘Events’ on the left and drag across the 3rd one down “When this sprite is clicked” and add it above the line of code you already have. Make sure they fit together like puzzle pieces. Move your cursor to the sprite you have just created code for and click on it and you should see the words appear!
Step 6: Adding sound
I am going to add sound to the drums so I click on that sprite now. Choose a sprite to use. Drag “When this sprite is clicked” from Events to the coding area.
Then click on ‘Sounds’ and drag this block to join the one above.
Click on the down arrow and select a sound. If you chose a differerent sprite your choices will be different. If the sprite has no particular sounds associated with it the sound will just be ‘Pop’. But you can record something yourself if you would like.
Click on the sprite now and hear the sound.
Step 7: Changing appearance
Select another sprite. I am selecting the tree. Once again add “When this sprite is clicked” to the coding area.
Click on “Looks” on the left and scroll down until you see these blocks
Take each in turn and add them to the code and see what they do. For the bottom 2, click on the arrows for all the options. Remember once you make a change, click on the sprite to see what it does.
I decided to use the Whirl effect and after a few clicks on the tree it looked like this!
Step 8: Adding movement
For the final sprite let’s add some movement. Once again add “When this sprite is clicked” to the coding area and click on the sprite you will use.
To make the apple bounce, change the y co-ordinate (to move side to side you would change the x co-ordinate or use the ‘Move’ block’.
Click on the sprite to see what happens. Let’s make it come down now. You need to change y by -10 to make it come down but if you just add that line, it looks like it doesn’t move because it does both actions so quickly. To slow it down, click on the orange ‘Control’ blocks and select the first one ‘Wait’. Place it between the two change blocks like this:
Now click on the sprite and it will bounce.
Step 9: Add text
Hover over the ‘Choose a sprite button’ and now select ‘Paint’. The large T should be selected. Change the fill color to whatever you want and then click on the canvas area. You will see a small text box – start typing. I typed ‘To gran, click on the objects’. It will appear on the background now and you can drag it to a position you like. You can also move your other sprites around.
Step 10: Share your Thanksgiving e-card
Where it says ‘untitled’ at the top of the page, add a title. I used ‘Thanksgiving’. Then click on ‘Save now’ at the top right. You can also click on ‘File’ and then ‘Save now’. Now you should see an orange ‘Share’ button (if you don’t, then you forgot to verify your email account so go do that first).
Once you click save you are taken to the main page of your project and you can enter instructions. Grab the url at the top of the page ie copy it
This is the link you will share with whomever you want to send the card to.
And that is it! You can follow the same ideas to create e-cards for Christmas and birthdays too.
You can get the How to Create Digital Christmas Gifts Unit Study by leaving your name & email. We’ll zip it on over to your inbox.
Meryl van der Merwe homeschooled her 4 children and during that time started teaching at the local homeschool co-op. She still teaches there – as well as online at FundaFunda Academy. One of the classes she teaches is Programming in Scratch. She also hosts the Homeschooling with Technology podcast
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