Have I got a great Scratch activity for you today! It all started when a student added an image to a Google presentation and it started moving! They were shocked and delighted. We began talking about animated gifs and just animations in general. This got me thinking that Scratch would be a great way for my students to make their own animated "gifs".
The hands you see above are a part of a Scratch file called Hand Waves. It's a simple example of "gif" animations in Scratch. In this project, I created one animation and then duplicated and remixed it. Check out the real example below: (If you are reading via email, you will need to visit my blog or Scratch to see the project)
To create an animation:
- Start by creating a new sprite from a picture. You can use the camera located in Scratch or take pictures and upload them as a sprite.
- Add at least one other costume using either the camera or by uploading an image. (Remind students they shouldn't see a bunch of new sprites as they add photos. It can be easy for students to confuse the similar camera button.)
- Then use the following code as a starting place:
I then encouraged the kids to either create other animations using new photos or drawings or remix their current animation by adding color or changing the speed to name a couple of examples.
My 2nd graders loved this!!!
Happy animating!
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