Session 2 — Make It Move

Duration: 60 min · Format: live online · Ages: 7–11

Session goal: by the end, students can make a sprite walk, spin and glide smoothly using the blue Motion blocks — and keep it from disappearing off the edge with if on edge, bounce.

Before class — prep (5 min)

• Open Scratch in a tab (signed in if you can, so you can save) and be ready to screen-share the editor.
• Have the motion blocks diagram below open to share.
• Drag the cat to the middle of the stage before you start, so everyone sees the same starting point.
• If any student can't run Scratch, have the low-tech fallback (floor "move and turn" game) ready — see Teaching notes.

Agenda

0:00 · Hook (5 min)

Play "robot directions." You are the robot at the front. Ask students to call out orders — "forward!", "turn left!", "forward more!" — and you obey exactly, like a robot, even if it makes you bump the wall.

Then reveal: "A sprite is just like me — it only moves the way you tell it. Today you get a whole box of blue movement orders to give your cat: walk, spin, glide, and never fall off the screen. Let's open the blue blocks."

0:05 · Teach — The Motion family: move & turn (13 min)

Share this diagram and point to each block as you name it:

Explain: all the movement blocks are blue and live in the Motion palette. Build these live on your shared screen, slowly.

Build this together:

1. From Events (yellow), drag out when green flag clicked — the hat that starts everything.

2. From Motion (blue), snap move 10 steps under it. Press the green flag — the cat slides forward a little. Change 10 to 100 and run again. Bigger number = bigger step.

Now show turning. Add a turn block:

3. From Motion, snap turn ↻ 15 degrees (the clockwise one). Press the flag a few times and watch the cat slowly rotate.

when green flag clicked
move 100 steps
turn ↻ 15 degrees

Explain the two turn arrows: turn ↻ spins the sprite clockwise (to its right), and turn ↺ spins it counter-clockwise (to its left). 15 degrees is a small nudge; 90 degrees is a quarter turn.

⚠ Watch for the upside-down cat: after turning, the sprite can end up sideways or flipped. If that happens, click the sprite, find the direction number in the sprite panel, and set it back to 90 (pointing right) — or use point in direction 90 to snap it upright.

Ask: "Which arrow turns the cat to its right?" (Answer: turn ↻ — clockwise.)

0:18 · Teach — Glide, point & bounce (14 min)

Explain the big new idea: smooth vs. jumpy. move 10 steps makes the sprite jump instantly. glide makes it slide smoothly over time — much nicer to watch. Build this live:

1. Start a fresh script with when green flag clicked.

2. From Motion, snap glide 1 secs to x: 100 y: 0. Press the flag — the cat slides to the right over one second instead of jumping.

3. Change the time to 2 secs and run again — now it glides slower. Time controls the speed of the slide.

when green flag clicked
glide 1 secs to x: 100 y: 0
glide 1 secs to x: -100 y: 0

Add a second glide back to x: -100 (as above) and press the flag — the cat glides right, then left. That's smooth motion.

Now point in direction. Explain that a sprite always faces a direction: 90 is right, -90 is left, 0 is up, 180 is down. Add point in direction 90 at the top of a move script so the cat always starts facing the right way.

Finally, keep it on screen with if on edge, bounce. Build a little walking loop and show what the bounce block fixes:

when green flag clicked
forever
move 10 steps
if on edge, bounce

Press the flag: the cat walks to the edge and bounces back instead of getting stuck. (Don't worry about forever yet — that's Session 4; just tell them it means "keep doing this.")

Ask: "What's the difference between move and glide?" (Move = jump instantly; glide = slide smoothly over time.)

0:32 · Activity — Walk, spin & glide (20 min)

Students make a sprite walk, spin and glide on their own. Demo the first step, then let them go and circulate.

1. Open a new project at Scratch.
2. Walk & bounce: build when green flag clicked → forever → move 10 steps → if on edge, bounce. Press the flag and watch the cat pace across the stage.
3. Spin: add a turn ↻ 15 degrees inside the loop. What happens now? Try turn ↺ instead.
4. Glide a path: on a second script, make the cat glide to three different spots — for example glide 1 secs to x: 100 y: 100, then x: -100 y: 100, then x: 0 y: 0.
5. Make it yours: change the step size, the glide times, and the turn amount until the movement looks the way you want.

Circulate and ask: "Show me the block that makes it slide smoothly. What did you change to make it faster?"

Debrief: ask 2–3 students to share their screen and run their movement for the class.

0:52 · Check for understanding (5 min)

Ask these aloud or in the chat. Answer key (for you):

1. Which colour are the movement blocks, and what palette are they in? → Blue, in the Motion palette.
2. What's the difference between move 10 steps and glide 1 secs to …? → move makes the sprite jump instantly; glide makes it slide smoothly over the number of seconds you give.
3. Your sprite keeps walking off the edge of the stage. Which block keeps it on screen? → if on edge, bounce — it turns the sprite around when it hits an edge.

0:57 · Wrap-up + homework (3 min)

• Ask one student to explain, in one sentence, what glide does that move doesn't.
• Homework — Take the cat for a walk: make your sprite glide to three spots on the stage, then press the green flag. Screenshot it for your portfolio.

Teaching notes

• Correct this misconception: "turn 90 means turn to face 90." No — turn ↻ 90 degrees adds 90 degrees to wherever the sprite is already pointing (it turns by 90). To face an exact direction, use point in direction 90, which sets the direction. Turn = by; point = to.
• Fast finishers (extension): have them combine blocks into a "patrol": forever → move 5 steps → if on edge, bounce, plus point in direction 90 at the start so the cat stays upright. Then ask them to make the cat glide in a square using four glides to four corners.
• Low-tech fallback: no devices? Play it on the floor. One student is the "sprite" and stands still. Others hold up paper cards — "move 3 steps", "turn right 90", "glide slowly to the door". The sprite obeys each card in order. The lesson — motion is a sequence of exact orders, and glide is just a slow move — lands with no computer at all.

Vocabulary

Resources

• Scratch editor — where students build (free, in the browser).
• Scratch Ideas page — official tutorials, including "Animate a Character".
• Scratch Starter Guide (PDF) — a one-page getting-started sheet.

Practice set

Extra tasks to explore the Motion blocks. Work them easy → hard, at lab time or for homework. Answers follow each arrow.

1. Colour clue. You want your sprite to move. Which palette and colour do you look for? → Motion — blue.

2. Big or small. Which moves the sprite further: move 10 steps or move 200 steps? → move 200 steps — bigger number, bigger jump.

3. Smooth or jumpy. Which block makes the sprite slide smoothly: move or glide? → glide — it slides over the seconds you set.

4. Predict. The script is when green flag clicked → glide 2 secs to x: 150 y: 0. What happens? → The sprite slides smoothly to the right over 2 seconds (to the spot 150 across, level with the middle).

5. Make it (build task). Build a script so the cat faces right, walks forever, and bounces off the edges. → when green flag clicked → point in direction 90 → forever → move 10 steps → if on edge, bounce.

6. Fix it (harder). A student's cat keeps ending up upside down after turning, and won't face right again. What one block fixes it? → Add point in direction 90 to reset it to face right (turning adds to the direction; pointing sets it).

Going deeper (optional)

Optional — for a class that's got its sprite gliding and wants to know how the movement really works.

Steps are tiny. One "step" in Scratch is one pixel — a single dot on the screen. That's why move 10 steps looks like a small hop and move 200 steps shoots across: the stage is only about 480 dots wide. Knowing this helps students predict how far a sprite will travel before they even press the flag.

Why glide feels alive. A move is one instant jump, so your eye sees a teleport. A glide breaks the same trip into hundreds of tiny moves spread over time, so your eye sees motion. Almost every animation in the whole course is really this trick — many small changes, fast — and students will use it again in Session 3 when costumes make a sprite walk.

Common mistakes & fixes

• Mistake: The sprite ends up sideways or upside down after turning and stays that way. → Fix: add point in direction 90 to reset it, or set the direction to 90 in the sprite panel.
• Mistake: Using move and complaining the motion looks "jumpy" or "teleporty." → Fix: swap in a glide … secs to x: y: block for smooth movement.
• Mistake: The sprite walks off the stage and disappears. → Fix: add if on edge, bounce, or glide/go to back to x:0 y:0 to bring it home.
• Mistake: Confusing turn ↻ (clockwise) with turn ↺ (counter-clockwise), so the sprite spins the wrong way. → Fix: read the arrow — ↻ turns right, ↺ turns left.
• Mistake: Expecting turn 90 degrees to point the sprite to 90. → Fix: turn adds degrees; use point in direction 90 to face an exact way.

Next session

Session 3 — Costumes, Looks & Sound: students meet the purple Looks blocks and the pink Sound blocks — switching costumes to make a sprite walk, changing size and colour, and adding say, think and play sound to bring a character to life.