A Kiwi Scratch Day @ Forrest Hill School NZ

I first learnt about Scratch Day in 2009. I was keen to give it a go, however time was against us and I pulled the plug on the idea. So this year I was watching the scratch website for Scratch Day dates so I could start putting arrangements in place early.

 

Our computer suite has 18 computers, give or take a few always needing attention! We also had the use of three neighbouring classrooms with another 18 computers in total if we needed them. So I was not thinking too big for the day.

 

We opened our day to the public on the scratch website but asked for registrations. We invited all the Year 3-6 classes and families from Forrest Hill School, by sending a note home with the newsletter. In addition, I invited 30 students from my Boys in School group at Coatesville School, Albany, Auckland. This was going to be about as many as we could handle if everybody turned up!

 

On the day it was a perfect turn out. We had all 40 computers running full time using scratch from 3pm to 6pm. We had about 15 scratch helpers, mostly from Forrest Hill School. My brother in law Phill Patton is the Sales Manager of IBM New Zealand. He supported us by supplying IBM lanyards for all the helpers and spot prizes like caps and mugs. It was all a bit last minute as we were turned down by local companies, however Phill came through for us.

 

As an introduction to the day, I talked about the basics of scratch and showed various examples of student work.   Our first activity involved everyone. We did a variation of the 8 block challenge found online. I intended this to take about 15 minutes. However, the scratchers became very creative and fully involved in their projects, so half an hour later they were still at it. After nearly an hour, I called everybody together and outlined the plan for the remainder of the session. I showed everybody the scratch account and the galleries that they could contribute to on the day. We had areas in particular galleries; LEARNING BY PLAY – GAMING (Gallery 1), CREATE A QUIZ (Gallery 2), SCRATCH A STORY (Gallery 3), SCRATCH CARD CHALLENGE – 12 SIMPLE PROJECTS(Gallery 4) , ECOLOGY NEW ZEALAND (Gallery 5), MUSIC IN ME (Gallery 6).  

You can view these on our website: http://www.forresthill.school.nz

 

Our server decided to be difficult and blocked the uploads so we went to Plan B and saved our work on the local server in folders to represent the particular galleries we had. The helpers spread themselves out over the four rooms and the buzz started again. It was inspiring to watch, interesting to help and excellent to talk with the parents and even grandparents who were trying out scratch for the first time along side their kids. Some of the adults went solo and created a project by themselves.  

 

Scratch Day was a success and I have received encouraging feed back from the parents and children who attended. There are, however a few things I will aim to improve for next year.

 

• A dumbie run with the helpers so they know more precisely what their roles are on the day.

• To set up skype with other scratch groups prior to the day and make definite times to go online with them.

• To check the scratch upload is working on our server. It shouldn’t be a problem next time around as we think we have remedied the problem already.

• Ask more adults to help with lead up organization.

• I would like to have a Wedo as one of the activities next year as I run a NXT robotics classes at Coatesville School.

 

On a personal note, Scratch Day organization was a lot of work but well worth the time. I have learnt considerably more about scratch and have new lines of discovery for the students to investigate. My students are now building projects using new blocks like transmit and receive as well as making lists for response based projects. We have started exploring the musical side of scratch as well. The students are all keen to share their work with the wider scratch community. I am encouraging them to do so, as in the past we have stored our projects largely on the school servers. I have expanded the galleries on our scratch day account and will create more accounts over time. 

 

Thanks to Christine Robson(Teacher Y4), Penny Elson(Teacher Y4) and Enid Watson(Principal) for their support and help on the day.  

 

Student Responses:

 

Just walking in and hearing the briefing is enough to feel what the atmosphere is like.  First, my family and I did the 8 block challenge.  We had to use a collection of blocks to make a mini ten second animation. 

After that we thought we did so well, that we decided that we should go to the advanced projects room.  In that room, we did: follow the mouse, colour change, dance twist, whirl and arrow keys.  After that my brothers found a computer for themselves, so I decided to remake and improve the Scratch game that I made when we got Scratch in 2008.

It was fun remaking a game that I made two years ago!!

In all I thought Scratch day was absolutely amazing.  I enjoyed all three hours of Scratch.

- Tymon Porter (Year 6) Forrest Hill School

 

On Saturday 26 May 2010 Forrest Hill School held it’s first ever Scratch Day. I was asked to be a scratch helper. I enjoyed helping other people to complete the scratch cards. It was fun knowing more than the adults and my mum had to ask me for help. Scratch is great fun everyone should have a go.

- Jack Culley (Year 6) Forrest Hill School

 

It was awesome making all the scratch games.  I still play with scratch at home.

- Samantha Culley (Year 4) Forrest Hill School

 

On Scratch Day my dad learnt how to program and he loved it! I made a game that I called wizard chase. Iain my little brother made a not quite finished game called monster chase. He even got a prize for it! In wizard chase what you do is you try to get all the letters that spell W.I.N. but there is a wizard that is programmed to chase you. There are three levels in wizard chase. 

-  Ross (Year 5) Coatesville School

 

Students on the day: