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Week 4: Giving Your Programs a Brain!

Unit: Building Blocks of Programming (Weeks 3-5)

What’s in Store This Week?

This week, we’re giving our programs a superpower: the ability to make decisions! You’ll learn the magic words of programming—If… then…—that let your creations respond to touch and make choices. We’ll start by designing our own “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories and then build a mysterious “Magic 8-Ball” that can predict the future. Get ready to make your programs smarter and more interactive than ever before!

What You’ll Be Able to Do!

By the end of this week, you’ll be able to:

  • Use “if… then…” logic to solve problems and create stories.
  • Make programs that do different things when you touch them.
  • Use special “trigger” blocks to make your programs interactive.
  • Build your very own interactive story with different paths and endings!

Lessons This Week

Lesson 4.1: Choose Your Own Adventure!

Get Ready To: Become an interactive storyteller! You’ll learn how “if… then…” sentences work in the real world and then use that power to build a story in Scratch Jr. where the user gets to decide what happens next.

Lesson 4.2: Code a Mystic Magic 8-Ball

Get Ready To: Create a fortune-telling program! You’ll build your own Magic 8-Ball that gives a random, mysterious answer every time you ask it a question.

How We’ll See Our Skills Grow

  • Logic Check: We’ll see how you use “if… then…” logic in our games and in your programs.
  • Interactive Showcase: You’ll show off your adventure stories and explain the different choices a user can make.
  • The Final Project: Your finished Magic 8-Ball will prove you can build a complete, interactive program from start to finish!

Connecting to Other Subjects

  • Literature: We’ll explore how “Choose Your Own Adventure” books are structured, just like the programs we’re building.
  • Math: You’ll learn about the basics of probability and what makes something “random.”
  • Language Arts: You’ll practice creative writing by building your own branching stories.

Your Programmer’s Toolkit

  • Tablets or computers with Scratch Jr.
  • A few “Choose Your Own Adventure” books to inspire us
  • Templates for planning your interactive stories
  • A real Magic 8-Ball (or a video of one) to see how it works!

Assessment Highlights

  • Formative: Understanding of if-then logic, successful touch trigger implementation
  • Performance: Interactive story creation and explanation of programming choices
  • Summative: Complete Magic 8-Ball program with functional random responses

Cross-Curricular Connections

  • Literature: Story structure and choose-your-own-adventure narratives
  • Math: Basic probability and random vs. predictable concepts
  • Science: Logical reasoning and hypothesis testing
  • Language Arts: Creative writing and storytelling

Real-World Applications

  • Traffic light systems and automated responses
  • Thermostat operations and environmental controls
  • Game mechanics and interactive entertainment
  • Safety procedures and decision-making protocols

Materials Needed

  • Tablets or computers with Scratch Jr.
  • Choose-your-own-adventure books for reference
  • Story planning templates
  • Magic 8-Ball (real or demonstration video)
  • Design and project planning worksheets
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