• Eight Categories of Scratch Blocks

    Scratch provides access to over 100 code blocks. These code blocks are organized into eight categories and are made available on the blocks palette. Each of these categories of code blocks is described in the following list:

     

    • Motion. Code blocks that control sprite placement, direction, rotation, and movement.

    • Looks. Code blocks that affect sprite and background appearance and provide the ability to display text.

    • Sound. Code blocks that control the playback and volume of musical notes and audio files.

    • Pen. Code blocks that can be used to draw using different colors and pen sizes.

    • Control. Code blocks that trigger script execution based on predefined events, repeatedly execute programming logic using loops, and perform conditional logic.

    • Sensing. Code blocks that can be used to determine the location of the mouse-pointer, its distance from other sprites, and whether a sprite is touching another sprite.

    • Operators. Code blocks that perform logical comparisons, rounding, and other arithmetic operations.

    • Variables. Code blocks that can be used to store data used by applications when they execute.

    You can view the code blocks belonging to a given category by clicking on one of the eight labeled button controls at the top of the blocks palette. Note that each category of code block is color coded, making it easy to distinguish between code blocks from different categories.