I just finished participating in my third round of #ScratchPals. ScratchPals is the program founded by my friend and fellow Scratch teacher Kathleen Fugle.
My first experience with @ScratchPals was last year, the Feb-Mar 2020 session. I worked with a group of 4th graders and their teacher on the #Earth-wise round. The class worked in pairs to create projects related to the #SDG #GlobalGoal #15 Life on land and especial to our land in New Hampshire.
We also looked at and commented on the projects other elementary students had created for this session. I particularly remember students excited to comment on projects by students from Italy. When our virtual pals went into pandemic lockdown, we made them Scratch cards and projects to cheer them up.
Soon there was a whole studio filled with projects created for them and then they created a bunch of thank you projects to let us know they appreciated our thoughtfulness. It was great to feel so connected with students so far away. Soon after we were all sent home and started virtual learning as the pandemic reached us, too.
Last fall we tried again. We were in hybrid mode and students worked individually and got to pick one of the UN Sustainable Development goals and create a project to #Spreadtheword about it.
The students did a great job creating their passion projects while learning Scratch. The time went super fast and we barely got started when it was over. Their teacher felt like we could spend the whole year talking and studying the UN #SDGs and working on our Scratch projects. I thought the students, who picked diverse goals, did a great job creating projects that informed and spread the word about these issues. They aren’t even 10 years old and they are making a difference.
With the latest round of #ScratchPals, I asked a 3rd grade classroom to participate. These students had only made one Scratch project before- a coral garden guided learning project like the Butterfly Garden lesson. For ScratchPals, we warmed up with an intro project about creating a world of favorite things in Scratch in our World for me studio.
Then we brainstormed ideas for creating a superhero that would help save the world while addressing one of the #GlobalGoals. A superhero Scratch project is one of my standard 3rd grade coding and art collaborations. I used this Slide for the students to draw out their ideas before starting their Scratch project and I set up our Planet Protectors League studio.
The third graders had a great time working on their Planet Protector protects. They had superheroes cleaning trash from oceans and cities, protecting animals from fire and poachers, and cleaning the air or water from pollution.
The best part of ScratchPals during this round was the opportunity to meet other 3rd graders through virtual meet ups. It is a part of ScratchPals that I haven’t pursued but this time we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet Scratchers from Mexico.
It was a memorable meet up. We were in person, they were remote. The kids had so many questions about life in Mexico and couldn’t believe how similar we all were. The next week we were able to meet up with some 3rd graders from an online school in Idaho. I’m so glad we participated in these opportunities, especially during a year when our students, although in school, never leave their classroom. Over the course of two weeks, they traveled to Mexico and Idaho. They also received comments from ScratchPals from Italy and other places around the globe. The 3rd graders enjoyed all of the parts of ScratchPals from the coding to the meet-ups to the giving and receiving of comments.
I can’t wait for the next round in the fall.
My Code Club Journal 