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Scratch is a programming language for young people to create their own interactive stories, games, music, and art. Scratch was created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. You can find more information and download Scratch for free at scratch.mit.edu

Just in time for Scratch Day, check out this special preview video about the new features that will be included in the next generation of Scratch, Scratch 2.0.

"Scratch is often cited as one of the best introductory languages for teaching kids - or anyone, really - to code. So it's no surprise that a Rutgers University honors class called "Programming for the Masses" would utilize Scratch as part of its goal of making programming a more accessible, everyday skill. What is unique - and if I may say so, pretty fun - is the direction that a research project, an outgrowth of the class, has taken since. The project is called Scratchable Devices, and with it, computer science Professor Michael Littman and some of his students are working to make it easy for anyone to program their household devices by using Scratch."

Although Scratch Day is on a Saturday, I thought that it might be useful to list some classroom resources that can be used in lessons before / after the day itself and, of course, at other times of the year too. I hope that this is useful if you want to use this great software for the first time… or if you're looking to extend what you can already do with Scratch.

New website for sharing resources around Scratch multimedia programming.

"In this episode, Jeff sits down with Kasia Chmielinski to learn how Scratch is being used in over 150 countries in more than 40 languages.  Join Jeff, Rob Pennington, Kevin Donatello, and Sam Patterson as we dive into the Hour of Code and Beyond on TeacherCast Podcast 124."

Welcome to the distribution center for BYOB (Build Your Own Blocks), an advanced offshoot of Scratch .. .. an attempt to extend the brilliant accessibility of Scratch to somewhat older users-in particular, non-CS-major computer science students-without becoming inaccessible to its original audience.

Google has released a completely visual programming language that lets you build software without typing a single character. Now available on Google Code - the company's site for hosting open source software - the new language is called Google Blockly, and it's reminiscent of Scratch, a platform developed at MIT that seeks to turn even young children into programmers. Like Scratch, Blockly lets you build applications by piecing together small graphical objects in much the same way you'd piece together Legos. Each visual object is also a code object - a variable or a counter or an "if-then" statement or the like - and as you piece them to together, you create simple functions. And as you piece the functions together, you create entire applications - say, a game where you guide a tiny figurine through a maze.

My first go at sharing a link via Diigo ! Hope you guys get it !!!! ======================================================== Join us for a live online show about making your own computer games with Good Game's Bajo and Hex. What makes an awesome game? Sign up to our newsletter to find out how to send us games you've made in Scratch and Minecraft! #ABCSplashLive

Wes Fryer's great Scratch resource wiki has tutorials video and an assessment rubric.

"Panther is a programming language aimed at young users with only a small knowledge of programming. Panther offers you a more advanced version of Scratch, a simple programming language developed at MIT."

Great looking Scratch project

We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world. So we have dedicated our lives to making easy-to-use invention kits. Before we created MaKey MaKey we worked on other creative tools and invention kits such as Drawdio, Singing Fingers, and Scratch.

"ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves - then use the programming blocks to make their characters come to life."

Thanks for sharing this link John. I have recorded my interest with the developers to keep me informed. I love using Scratch with my grade 4s. As you'd know - the new Digital Technologies curric emphasises programming, so Scratch Jr will be a welcome addition. Seems as though currics around the world are picking up on kids programming. Cheers - Chris Trimnell

""Literacy from Scratch" is a response to the United Kingdom (UK) government's initiative to develop computer programming skills in both the Primary phase of education (pupils aged 5 to 11) and the Secondary phase (aged 11 to 18). Explore the website to find out how postgraduate students from London and Prague and schools in the UK and the Czech Republic have risen to this challenge. The site also contains a variety of pupil work using IT in cross-curricular sessions in the UK and other countries, including Stories for Children, and the STAR (Science Through Arts) project."

"But what if we could take all of those bruised and damaged apples and turn them all into "perfect apples" - perfect size, perfect color, perfect crunch when we bite into them, and the perfect sweet juicy flavor and aroma that makes our mouth water every time we think about them. This is the promise of food printer technology as we move from simply printing ink on paper, to 3D printing of parts and objects, to next generation food printers. These aren't the artificial food devices that science fiction movies have been promising. Instead, they are devices with the very real potential for turning real apples into perfect apples. But this is only scratching the surface."

Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational learning and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. Tynker is inspired by Scratch from MIT. It is a completely browser-based implementation written using Open Web standards such as Javascript, HTML5, CSS3 and does not use Flash.

Animate drawings,create music, build ages, craft ebooks. Browser-based programming designed to teach computational thinking.  Use for science, maths etc.  Lesson plans available.

"A project to introduce students to computer programming through problem solving in Scratch."