Intro to Coding with Scratch Jr STEM Ana's Smart Move ISTE Digital Explorers
Intro to Coding with Scratch Jr STEM Ana's Smart Move ISTE Digital Explorers
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Elementary STEM teachers—meet your ready-to-teach coding + science lesson for grades 1–5. This Scratch Jr introductory STEM activity blends computational thinking with NGSS-friendly science topics like pollination, erosion, plant growth, the water cycle, and food chains.
Perfect for elementary STEM labs, media centers, and classroom tech blocks, it builds coding skills while helping students communicate scientific ideas clearly.
How It Works:
Students plan a simple animation in Scratch Jr to teach a science concept step-by-step. They storyboard scenes, design backgrounds/characters, and use sequences, loops, and events to model a phenomenon—then present their projects using the included SMILE presenter guide (speak clearly, make eye contact, etc.).
Along the way, they practice the Engineering Design Process (ask, imagine, plan, create, test, improve, share) and reflect on how technology helps us connect and communicate.
What’s included:
- Teacher instructions with a clear, day-by-day flow, management tips, and optional extension ideas
- Student planning pages (storyboards, presentation script sheet, reflection prompts, checklist)
- Vocabulary cards (app, data, coding, computational thinker) to pre-teach key terms
- Engineering Design Process posters in color & B/W
- “Remember to SMILE” presentation poster in color & B/W
- Optional read-aloud tie-in to Ana’s Smart Move to spark discussion on creativity, kindness, and problem-solving with code
- Helpful Scratch Jr resources (interface, paint editor, block descriptions) for quick student support
Materials & tech
- Scratch Jr app on iPads/tablets
- Printed planning sheets & posters (B/W friendly)
- Optional: headphones, science notebooks, or anchor chart visuals
Perfect for:
- Elementary STEM rotations, makerspace, tech class, enrichment, sub-plans with tech, or a cross-curricular science unit capstone
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