Scratch jr3/26/2023 ![]() It highlights connections with literacy and mathematics and includes tips for grown-ups in every project. It's available as a digital download or hard copy. The guide book includes a number of sequential projects to create stories, games and animations. The 'Official Scratch Jr Book' is a great resource for families looking for guided projects for the app. There are also a number of activities available online as downloadable PDFs to get you started. You can also visit the Scratch Jr website where you can learn more about the interface, paint editor and block descriptions. ![]() The Official ScratchJr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code The video below gives a nice introduction to the app and the type of things you can do on it. Scratch Jr is available as a free download on iOS, Andriod and Amazon devices as well as an app on Chromebooks. Instead of playing a game or watching an animation, why not encourage your kids can make their own? You can code characters to move, jump, spin and dance, change backgrounds, record sounds and even take pictures to make your own games, stories and animations. Some features, cross over, like pressing the 'green flag' to run your program. In Scratch, the code blocks snap together top down. You code in a linear way from left to right. Scratch Jr is an introduction to block-based coding. Officially it's recommended for 5-7 year olds, but there is a lot of scope for parent and child exploration for younger kids all the way to older kids making some complex games and animations on their own. ![]() Scratch Jr is designed for non-readers and suitable for kids from 3 years and up. It's based (and developed by the same team at MIT) on the very popular coding language, Scratch, which many kids use in school these days. Scratch Jr is a programming language specifically designed with young kids in mind. The Amazon FreeTime is also geared towards a younger audience - read our comparison of the Fire Kids Edition and Basic Fire tablet. The Amazon Fire tablets are a good option for younger kids with their smaller screen size and easier handling for small hands. This also means their screen time is limited, as they only access a limited number of apps. To be fair, the tablets don't have a lot of memory (you can purchase additional memory cards) so I am perfectly happy for my kids to only have access to a few useful apps. Unfortunately not all the apps we love make it onto the Amazon Appstore, although we think more apps should - we love that Scratch Jr, Minecraft Pocket Edition and Wonder Workshop's Dash & Dot apps are available natively. The Amazon Fire tablets on a Black Friday deal was the perfect solution. I was looking for inexpensive tablets for my younger kids to play Minecraft Pocket Edition multiplayer (previously they were sharing an old iPad 2 and couldn't play the game together!). ![]() We are big fans of Amazon's Fire tablets, especially in the hands of young kids. Fire Tablet with Alexa, 7" Display, 8 GB, Magenta - with Special Offers ![]()
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