ScratchJr Family Day Planning Checklist
ScratchJr Family Day is a hands-on, interactive event where young learners and their families come together to explore creative coding with ScratchJr! This event provides a welcoming space for children and their caregivers—parents, grandparents, siblings, and extended family members—to collaborate, experiment, and create their own projects using ScratchJr.
Tags
Platform
ScratchJr
Audience
Educators and FacilitatorsParents and Caregivers
Experience Level
Getting Started
Type
Event GuideGuide or Worksheet
Topic
Scratcher Resources
Language
English
Related Resources
Scratch Day Organizer Toolkit and Media KitScratch Day is a global network of events where people come together to celebrate creativity, coding, and learning through hands-on activities. Whether you're an educator, parent, community leader, or simply a Scratch enthusiast, you can host your own Scratch Day and bring the joy of creative computing to your community! Scratch Day events can take many forms. (Learn more here.)
Our Organizer Planning Toolkit includes a variety of resources to get started. And use our Media Kit to download Scratch Day logos, images, and social media templates to promote your event.
Learn MoreScratchJr Activities and ResourcesExplore starter activities that give you a quick way to learn how to do new things with ScratchJr.
Learn MoreHost a Virtual Family Creative Coding NightThis facilitation guide was developed collaboratively by staff at Scratch and the Office of Computer Science at Chicago Public Schools, with teachers and school leaders in mind. It has suggestions for ways to run Virtual Family Creative Coding Nights. Not every suggestion will work for every school or organization, so please modify your event to fit your audience’s needs!
Learn MoreCreative Learning Supplies ListA helpful list of items you may want to collect or have donated to enhance your creative learning space.
Learn MoreScratch's Creative Learning PhilosophyScratch pioneered block-based programming, enabling young people to learn to code creatively and interactively. Creating Scratch projects fosters the development of computational and creative thinking skills that are critical for future success: learners identify problems, break them into smaller parts, debug them, and iterate on solutions.
Over the years, we’ve loved seeing the unique, exciting strategies educators use to explore Scratch and creative learning in their classrooms, clubs, and beyond. To learn more about our Creative Learning Philosophy, see our guide that lays out our guiding stars and includes a trove of facilitation tips and recommended reading. And we encourage you to explore the variety of Creative Learning Materials in our Learning Library (including lesson plans, coding cards, and educator guides).
When we adapt/remix or develop a creative coding activity/lesson, we look to:
Design for tinkering and learning through play
Design spaces for learners to bring themselves in and see themselves in the lesson (considerations we call the 4/5 P’s): Peers, Passion, Projects, Play, and Purpose
Allow multiple pathways of engagement to foster a wide diversity of projects and support different experience levels (what we call low floors, wide walls, high ceilings or the “house model”)
Create opportunities that naturally guide learners through the creative learning spiral (an iterative process of imagining, creating, playing, sharing, reflecting, and imagining again) by building in time and opportunities to play, share. and reflect
As facilitators, we want to support playful learning and tinkering mindset values, so that participants can:
Engage playfully in projects that are meaningful to them and elicit joy
Collaborate with peers to experiment, share, and celebrate ideas
Develop a mindset that is comfortable with the discomfort of getting stuck (making room for risk and iteration)
Develop a mindset that thinks critically about strategies for getting unstuck (saving space for the process to start again or help them imagine what’s next)
Learn MoreCreative Learning Guide for FamiliesScratch pioneered block-based programming, enabling young people to learn to code creatively and interactively. Creating Scratch projects fosters the development of computational and creative thinking skills that are critical for future success: learners identify problems, break them into smaller parts, debug them, and iterate on solutions.
As a parent interested in engaging in creative learning and creative coding with your learner, we encourage you to support playful learning and tinkering mindset values by letting them engage playfully in projects that are meaningful to them and elicit joy, helping them develop a mindset that is comfortable with the discomfort of getting stuck (making room for risk and iteration), and helping them develop a mindset that thinks critically about strategies for getting unstuck (saving space for the process to start again or help them imagine what’s next).
To learn more about our Creative Learning Philosophy and how to engage young people in creative coding, see our guide. And we encourage you to explore the variety of Creative Learning Materials in our Learning Library (including coding cards, starter projects, tutorial videos and guides to blocks, and more).
Learn More