Scratch Week Activities

May 21: Make Someone’s Day

Let’s get together and make someone’s day! Whether you want to cheer someone up or remind them that they are loved, a random act of kindness can make them feel special. Make a project to add to this studio that will bring smiles and joy to those around you.

IMAGINE how you might make someone’s day a little brighter. It could be a family member, teacher, friend, a fellow Scratcher, or someone else. There are so many different ways to make someone smile! Here are a few ideas:

  • Make someone a card, animation, or drawing
  • Remix someone’s project
  • Compliment someone’s project
  • Teach someone your favorite dance
  • Make someone a treat or Teach them your favorite recipe
  • Offer to help someone out
  • Tell someone how they’ve inspired you

Next, CREATE your project or decide on your activity. You can use your project to make someone’s day, or use it as a space to upload a photo of your creation or tell the story of what you decided to do.

Finally, SHARE what you created with the world. Send a link to your friend or family member, then share your project in this studio. We hope making someone’s day makes your day, too!

May 20: Invent an Instrument

Make a musical instrument from anything: a starfish? a soccer ball? a snack?

You might be familiar with instruments like pianos, drums, guitars, and flutes. But anything that makes a sound can be an instrument.

People have made all sorts of strange and surprising things into instruments in Scratch, and also in the real world. You can make a Scratch project, or make an instrument with objects and materials you have wherever you are. What will you make?

Some ideas to get started:

  • You might expect a guitar to make a guitar sound. What if it made a dragon sound, or a laughing sound? Make an interactive instrument that makes an unexpected sound.
  • What’s something no one would ever think to use to make music? What would a cloud sound like if you tried to “play” it?
  • Can you make an instrument out of recycled materials? Create a tutorial about how you made it.
  • Record yourself, or sounds around your home, and turn them into an instrument in a project

Tips and tricks

  • Add a music sprite from the library, which comes with instrument sounds, then give it a weird new costume.
  • Browse the sound library for an inspiring sound, and make a new sprite that plays it.
  • Use the sound editor to make sounds higher and lower pitched using the “faster” and “slower” buttons.
  • Use the pitch effect block to change how high or low a sound is. You can even change the pitch interactively, by putting it into a forever loop and dropping the “mouse y” block into it.
  • Try combining music extension blocks with sprites in funny combinations.

Remember, these are only suggestions! You are welcome to come up with your own ideas as well.

May 19: Magical Arcade

Welcome to the Magical Arcade! Put on your wizard hats and grab your wands, in this studio we’ll be creating games of mythical, magical, and fantastical proportions. From games with dragons, to magical chess, to enchanted forests, and adventure quests, the choice of what to make is up to you!

Looking for help getting started?

  • Create a game set in a fantasy world with things like castles, dragons, or talking plants
  • Design a magic inspired dress-up game
  • Create a choose your own adventure game set in an enchanted forest
  • Recreate a favorite game with a few magical twists. for example, magic chess, where the chess pieces come to life during the game
  • Make a quiz to test our knowledge of magical spells
  • Design a magic-themed scrolling background that others can use for their own games!
  • Make a game based on a myth that you love!

Remember, these are just a few suggestions! You are welcome to come up with your own ideas as well. What magic will you create today?

May 18: Cooking with Scratch

Do you hear Scratch Cat’s stomach growling? Feed us some tasty scratch projects!

We invite you to create a project that celebrates foods you enjoy or wish existed. From a regional specialty or family tradition, to imaginary magical fruits, to healthy eating, to junk food, or anything in between — you decide what to make.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Draw your favorite snacks
  • Tell us about a food that your family makes
  • Make a project where you can build your own dessert
  • Make a virtual buffet
  • Share a tutorial on how to Make something yummy at home
  • Make fake food out of paper, play-dough, anything you find!
  • Create a game featuring your favorite foods
  • Design your dream recipe
  • If you could eat just one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

These are only suggestions! You are welcome to come up with your own ideas as well. Nom nom nom! *eating noises*

May 17: Ridiculous Inventions

Do you have a problem you’d like to create a ridiculous invention to solve? A fun or complicated device that doesn’t do anything useful? A silly way to solve a common issue you face? If so, you’ve found the right place! Share your fun, overly complicated, ridiculous inventions with us through your next Scratch project!

To have your project added to this studio, please post a comment with the link to your project and a curator will take a look! You can find the link to your project by clicking the ‘Copy Link’ button on the project page. The button is located below the Notes and Credits section of your project.