Your nine favourite Scratch projects!

Have you ever wanted to know which Scratch projects educators enjoy using in their Code Clubs?

We asked educators and supporters to tell us about their favourite Code Club Scratch projects.

The nine projects below were firm favourites from our community. Find out why they are so special to our educators and how you can use them in your Code Club. There is a perfect project for everyone, from beginners to more experienced coders.

Top nine Scratch projects

1. Boat race

This brilliant racing game is super popular with young coders who love developing their coding skills to create their own variations of the game.

“It’s simple enough for even the younger students to follow but has so much scope for extra features. It’s also a great basis for creating other top-down racing games.”

Darren Townsend, Southwold Primary School Code Club

“I love Boat Race, there are always so many awesome variations/remixes on that project with young people sharing and playing each other’s games and seeing who can make the trickiest map/maze to get through in a fast time!”

Tanya Howden, The Innovation Centre at Tynecastle Park

2. Space talk

The first project in the project path ‘Introduction to Scratch: sprites, scripts, and loops’ provides a great introduction to block-based programming. 

“It’s such an easy way to understand how coding logic and conditions work. Whether you’re a young coder or a volunteer with no coding experience, this is a really fun and accessible project.”

Izzy Ronaldson, Global Community Coordinator

Space talk

3. Chatbot

We have loved seeing so many remixes of the Chatbot project over the years. It introduces learners to use code to join text in Scratch.

“Chatbot is still my all-time favourite [project]. You can use it for quizzes and many other interactive games.”

Queen Elohoghene Justice-Usum, QueTice Code Club, Nigeria

4. Ghostbusters

Ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and sometimes an Easter egg! This brilliant Scratch project really gets coders to be imaginative as they create a game where they can add a variable to store a score. 

“Ghostbusters for sure! I taught a remix Easter egg hunt version a couple of years ago which the children loved.”

Miss Singleton, St Mark’s Primary, Scotland 

5. Catch the bus

Building on the skills from ‘Space talk’, this project helps learners to create a fun animation. They learn how to use the repeat loop, move sprites, and switch costumes.

“I love seeing the look of amazement on the young coders’ faces when the sprites disappear and the bus drives off.”

Darren Bayliss, Programme Coordinator, Ireland

Catch the bus

6. I made you a book

In this project, learners use a project brief to create their own book. They can tell a story or share facts on a subject that interests them. 

“This project has everything, [it] gives the right amount of freedom, flexibility and guidance to young people to create and build on their own ideas — however different or similar they may be!”

Sangeeta Sharma, NGB Code Club, India

7. Grow a dragonfly

This project belongs to our new project path ‘More Scratch: broadcast, decisions, and variables’. Learners make a nature app where a dragonfly grows bigger as it eats insects. They can also explore the sound editor to add and change sounds in the app — headphones are optional! 

“Not only did my code clubbers find out some amazing facts about dragonflies that blew their minds, but when they saw the fab edits they could make to Scratch library sounds they got so creative — since then every session has had an extra level of noise….and I love it!”

Liz Smart, Clarendon Road Code Club, England

Grow a dragon fly

8. Lost in space

An oldie but a favourite amongst our beginner coders (young and old). This Scratch project guarantees to bring a smile to your face and ignite your curiosity to learn more about coding.

“‘Lost in space’ and it’s great to see how much learners enjoy their first Scratch animation.”

Paul Brennan, Rhiwbina Library Code Club, Wales

9. Create your own world

Go on an adventure with your Code Club members and build an adventure world with multiple levels to explore.

“‘Create your own world’ is a great introduction to creating a multi-level game. I absolutely love it!”

Christina Foust, Program Manager North America

Explore our free educational project paths

Whether your Code Club is starting out on Scratch projects or looking to explore other coding languages, we have something for you. 

You can find all the Code Club classics on our projects webpage or explore the all-new project paths, where coders are guided through new coding and design skills to make things that matter to them. 

Have we missed your favourite Scratch project off our list? Share it with us on Twitter, using the hashtag #MyCodeClub. 

New year, new resources! Welcoming well-being in 2022

Here at Code Club, we’ve been talking about our New Year’s resolutions. Like many people around the world, our focus this year will be on our health and well-being.

In this blog post, we’ll be sharing how we plan to look after ourselves, each other, and you — our amazing Code Club community! Spoiler alert: It involves three new resources for you.

As we welcome 2022, we want to talk about what we can do to look after our mental health this year. Focusing on good mental health is an excellent New Year’s resolution and it ties in brilliantly with Children’s Mental Health Week, which takes place next month (7–13 February). 

Last year, the team got active to help our physical and mental well-being. We put on our walking shoes to take part in a virtual walk from London to Delhi that took 12 months and 14,251,903 steps! We also had a go at yoga and practised mindfulness to help us stay healthy.

To help us continue with our well-being mindset, we’ve been thinking hard about how we can support the health and well-being of our clubs in the coming months.

NEW well-being project collection

Following the success of our project collections in 2021, we are excited to launch a new project collection all about health and well-being. Each project has step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow to help young coders and educators to learn together and develop their coding skills! 

The Relax and stretch project is an ideal beginner Scratch project. Your coders will motivate people to stretch and exercise regularly throughout the day. 

Your confident coders can work on our Mandala project to create beautiful images by repeating geometric symbols. This is known to be a relaxing and mindful activity, and your young people can make their own mandalas in Scratch with this project.

Mandala Scratch project

And there’s more!

Our NEW Scratch and Python word searches are now live. We hope that your young coders enjoy them as much as our team did! These resources are not only great offline activities, but also encourage mindfulness and a moment of calm for coders in the classroom. 

So whether you are coming back to Code Club after a break or simply want to focus on well-being in your club this term, check out these new resources.

If you’re based in the UK, the USA, India, or Ireland, head to your dashboard to download these three new resources. If you’re based outside of these countries, head to our Code Club International website and find the collection and word searches inside your Club Organiser Pack.

Your Code Club highlights from 2021!

In 2021, even with the ongoing impact of coronavirus, we’ve seen many amazing achievements taking place in Code Clubs across the world.

Our clubs are able to run because of the thousands of volunteers who give their time to help young people learn to code. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with Code Club in 2021!

We reached out to Code Club educators and asked them to share their personal highlights and tell us what they are excited about for 2022. Find out what they said and join us in celebrating another fantastic year of coding!

Getting back to in-person sessions

Cubitt Town Junior School Code Club is run by Rhodri Smith, and they’ve just resumed their club activity with support from BP volunteers. In 2022, Rhodri is excited to use more Raspberry Pi projects, help members code with micro:bits, and introduce Python to the club! 

“After a long period without Code Club, we are excited to renew our partnership with BP. It has been a difficult time without in-person sessions so there was an excitement to begin them again. Spaces for our Code Club were snapped up by students eager to join the club. Having BP support Code Club has been great and the children benefit from greater adult support. We are looking forward to trying new projects in the year ahead.”

Delivering sessions in Welsh

Marcus Davage is the club organiser for Ysgol Treganna Code Club in Cardiff. He started to run his new Code Club in September and has enjoyed using our Welsh-translated resources on the website.

“This term, I started a brand-new Code Club in person at the school at which my wife teaches. She helped me, caught the Scratch bug (pardon the pun), and has now taught three classes herself. Over 120 kids have had an introduction into coding through her and me this term.”

Collaborating to create something awesome 

Kevin Johnson from Code Club USA recently took a virtual trip to Delmar Code Club. He wanted to learn more about their club and the Raspberry Pi–powered, fully-functioning arcade cabinet that the young coders have created. You can discover more about Delmar Code Club in our blog post.

Exploring the natural world through code

Liam Garnett, Senior Librarian (digital) at Leeds Libraries has been a Code Club educator for four years. He reflected on everything the club has achieved this year and all the exciting plans for 2022!

“I have loved collaborating with libraries, museums and universities to help our Code Club kids to explore the natural world through coding. Having Milo from Leeds Museums bring along his electron microscope he’d borrowed from the Natural History Museum was amazing! It was the first time it had been used outside of London.”

“In 2022 we are looking to re-establish our Code Clubs that paused during lockdown and then get cracking on some projects from Code Club UK!”

Reaching 150 young coders

We caught up with Mrinmoy Pal, a Code Club educator for Curious Coders, based in Bangalore, India, to hear what the club has been getting up to since it was launched in 2020. 

“Curious Coders Club started during Covid in March 2020 with just three kids using Scratch in an apartment. And in 2021, around 150+ kids across US, Canada, UK, Australia and India have benefitted. Kids [have] learnt Scratch, Python, Java, web development, micro:bit and app development. Apart from the coding sessions, kids [have] also learnt Rubik’s [cube] and had [a] Q&A with scientists (microbiologist, astronomer, and climate scientist).”

Going green for Code Club 

Code Club’s Lorna Gibson went green for COP26 and helped 5750 schoolchildren in Scotland join the code-along to learn about the environment. Find out how they got on in this special blog post.

Do you have a cool 2021 highlight from your Code Club? What are your coding resolutions for your club in 2022? Share them with us on Twitter or Facebook, using the hashtag #MyCodeClub.