Scratch Coding Cards, by Natalie Rusk, MIT Lab Scratch Team, (Dec. 2016, No Starch Press), $24.95, ISBN: 97-1-59327-774-1
Recommended for ages 8+
Better than flash cards, these Scratch coding cards teach users to design:
- virtual pets that can eat, drink, and play;
- games where you can catch things falling from the sky;
- animated dance scenes with music and dance moves;
- a bouncing ball game with sounds, points, and other effects;
- characters that you can dress up with different clothes
- stories, where you can choose characters, add conversations, and bring your story to life;
- hide and seek games with characters that disappear;
- a music program, where you choose instruments, add sounds, and press keys to play music;
- a game where two characters race one another, and
- a program that will animate the letters of your name.
Each activity comes with a set of cards, walking users through each action in the process. Every card is fully illustrated and includes screenshots and brief, clear text. I spent the better part of an afternoon creating Pong-type games with my 13 year old when I received my cards to review, and I’m going to start working with my 4 year-old on making up a story using Scratch. I’ve even gushed about these cards to the Collection Development group at my library system, because I love these cards so much.
Librarian or teacher? These cards are a class/program in themselves. Parent, or just interested in learning how to code? You can’t beat these cards for teaching and learning block coding.
Mom Read It 