Hello World!

The world is under attack! Pumpkins are being thrown down to the ground by the evil Pumpkin Witch and you must save the planet from being covered in pumpkin goop! (Is goop a word? Well, it didn’t underline…).

In this activity, students will code a game of “Catch The Pumpkins.”

Big Ideas:

Geometry: Plotting x and y positions on a grid
Algebra: Creating, incrementing and manipulating variables
Probability: Choosing random numbers
Number Sense: Counting and addition

ISTE Standards:

Empowered Learner, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker

Task:

The first step for students is to create two sprites – one for the pumpkin and one for the paddle. My pumpkin sprite came courtesy of an image search and the paddle is built in (named “button”). In my example, the paddle acts as the variable “reseter” while the pumpkin sprite senses touches and increments variables.

Here is the source code for the paddle:

Here is the source code for the pumpkin:

Finally, here is my video explanation outlining how the game mechanisms work as well as possible next steps!

Have a go at it yourself, here is the game in action!

If you would like to see inside, here is the project page:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/253682670/

For more lessons, activities and ideas, grab a copy of my book, Code Breaker, on Amazon here!