The ever expanding Code Club first promoted Scratch, and I loved it – creating and successfully delivering a range of lessons for Junior students. Code Club is now promoting Blender ,and I think I love it even more! I’ve created and delivered a series of lessons for Junior students this year, and the response was overwhelming. Students loved learning about 3D graphics and went on to produce some amazing creations of their own. While I thought it might be too advanced, students as young as 8 have grasped and loved using it. 3D GRAPHICS REALLY IS A USEFUL SKILL FOR THE DIGITAL FUTURE. The lessons assume absolutely no knowledge and build up in a gradual way Lessons 1-2 (FREE) What is Blender The Blender interface Navigating the 3D view port Lessons 3-5 Transforming objects Creating, selecting and duplicating objects Project: create a snowman Lessons 6-9 Rendering, colours and lighting Editing objects Project: create a donut Lessons 10-13 3D Text Box modelling - extruding, loop cuts, insets, bevels Project: create a Treasure Chest Lessons 14-15 Animations using Timeframes Animations using Rigid Bodies Each lesson is delivered via an animated PowerPoint with an accompanying Workbook, and follows a similar format: A short video to inspire (embedded in the PowerPoint) Explanations about any new concepts and skills A demo of what will be covered (Blender demo files included) Working together trying out these new concepts and skills (Workbook and Blender exercise files are provided) Free exploration A project bringing it all together (a finished Blender file is provided) Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback.

There are so many really great sites offering Scratch Project ideas. However, many tend to be like recipes - follow the instructions and you’ll create a cake. The problem I find is that the students almost mechanically enter code and create “delicious cakes”, but without learning an awful lot about Scratch. My goal is to get students to create a fun project, whilst at the same time learn how the instructions work and fit together. To this end, I use the following approach: break the project down into manageable chunks present students with an algorithm for each chunk provide students with the instructions for each algorithm, but jumbled up In this way, students learn about algorithms (a VERY important part of coding), and have to understand the instructions in order to sequence them to correctly match the algorithm. The lessons comprise: a PowerPoint with introductory slides, together with the project instructions a Word document with the PowerPoint instruction slides printed 2 to a page as a handout for students to follow accompanying fully-working Scratch project files for teachers that match each chunk of the project Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and a BIG BIG thanks for looking (as a full time practicing teacher, I KNOW how time consuming this process can be). ALL my postings are FULLY “classroom-tested” - before I publish, my lessons are tested by both myself and colleagues, rigorously evaluated and discussed, and continually updated to maximise their effectiveness. But there is always the possibility of error and room for improvement, so do please provide constructive feedback. Teacher/Author: Barrie James Search words: scratch, computer, programming, coding, algorithm

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