Examples of Custom Blocks in Scratch: Grade 4 Coding Projects

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🎨 What are Custom Blocks? They're like mini-programs you create inside Scratch to do specific things. Think of them as your own special commands!
• 🧩 Why use them? They make your code easier to read and reuse. Instead of writing the same code over and over, you can just use your custom block.
• 🧱 Creating a Custom Block: Go to the 'My Blocks' category in Scratch, click 'Make a Block', give it a name, and then define what it does using other Scratch blocks.
• 🔄 Using Inputs: You can add inputs to your custom blocks, like numbers or text, so they can do different things depending on the input.
• 🚀 Example: A custom block called 'Move Steps' that takes a number as input to move the sprite that many steps.
• 💡 Benefits: Simplifies complex tasks, improves code organization, and encourages reusability.

Practice Quiz

1. Which category in Scratch do you find the 'Make a Block' button?
   1. A. Motion
   2. B. Looks
   3. C. My Blocks
   4. D. Events
2. What is the main purpose of creating a custom block?
   1. A. To make the Scratch cat dance
   2. B. To share your code with friends
   3. C. To simplify and reuse code
   4. D. To change the background color
3. What are 'inputs' in custom blocks used for?
   1. A. To add colors to the block
   2. B. To make the block move faster
   3. C. To make the block play sounds
   4. D. To make the block do different things based on what you give it
4. If you create a custom block called 'Draw Square', what is it likely designed to do?
   1. A. Make a sound like a square
   2. B. Draw a square shape on the screen
   3. C. Change the sprite's color to square
   4. D. Move the sprite in a square pattern
5. Why is it helpful to name your custom block clearly?
   1. A. So it looks nice in your code
   2. B. So Scratch can understand it better
   3. C. So you and others know what it does
   4. D. So it runs faster
6. Which of these is NOT a benefit of using custom blocks?
   1. A. Makes code easier to read
   2. B. Simplifies complex tasks
   3. C. Makes your project smaller
   4. D. Encourages code reuse
7. What should you do after creating a custom block?
   1. A. Delete all your other code
   2. B. Use it in your project!
   3. C. Rename all your sprites
   4. D. Close Scratch