Irene Pepit is our school lead educator for Zawadi Yetu in Mogotio, Kenya.

School Lead Educator

Scratch is block-based programming built for kids.&nbsp;This week at Zawadi Yetu academy, we decided with the fifth graders that they are going to create their own project. The previous weeks they have been practicing combining blocks of code and so they were only making basic animationsThis week they started on their projects. Everyone in the class is really working hard to make sure that before the end of the term he/she must have created his/her game in scratch. First, i encourage them to use different sprites and now they are in the level of making their own sounds and inserting them in their gameI look forward to encouraging them to discover new things day by day for their game and presentable look. They are very happy that at the end each one of them will have his/her game.

Making Their Own Games in Zawadi Yetu | TechLit Africa

This week in Zawadi Yetu academy, students spend 30 minutes every day building their own video game in Scratch. By the end of the week, they will have completed a complete game.

Zawadi Yetu

Nelly Cheboi is a celebrated social entrepreneur, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/nelly-cheboi/?sh=179de9a85764" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forbes 30 under 30</a> honoree, and<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/14/world/education-technology-recycling-kenya-poverty-cnnheroes/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> CNN Hero</a>. After growing up in rural Kenya and lifting her family out of poverty, she focused on her community.

CEO | CNN Hero | Forbes Under 30

Every Thursday, we all gather around on Zoom to share stories from the classroom. Every educator writes a story to share from their week about student achievement.

Classroom Stories | TechLit Africa

Stories From The Classroom

Scratch

Software Engineering

Making Their Own Games in Zawadi Yetu

Milka is our school lead educator in Saint Mary's Primary in Mogotio, Kenya.

Njeri, a class 4B pupil, made her whole class enjoy their coding lesson with Scratch today. When Evens was teaching grade 4 to code with Scratch. Since it was their first time coding and it was an introduction, they were not very active, so we did not expect much from that class.Then the next day, which was Wednesday, Evans saw the same class again, which was grade 4. I wanted them to do coding and scratch again so that they will remember what they learned. &nbsp;On that day there were some changes compared to the previous day. They were listening carefully and they also showed improvements.Njeri was the first student to make real progress with Scratch in grade 4. Surprisingly, she became the teacher in that group. Every student shouted her name, “Njeri, Njeri, kuja nionyeshe.” which was good and amazing.

Scratch Coding Specialist Educator Evanso Rotich Visited Saint Mary's Primary This Week To Teach Coding | Grade 4 Makes Progress

Grade 4 in Saint Mary's learned to code with Scratch this week. Their student teacher for the day, Njeri understood the lesson very well.

Grade 4 Starts Coding in Saint Mary's Mogotio

Saint Mary's

Grade 4 Starts Coding

<h2>Learning To Code</h2>Coding is one of our specialties at Techlit Africa, lead by Evans. To teach coding, we use MIT Scratch, a block based coding program. But scratch can be overwhelming for lower grades.<h2>Struggling With Block Coding</h2>Eugene, a Grade 3 boy at Zawadi really struggled on his first day of Scratch. The class had students dragging code blocks, changing backgrounds (called backdrops), and changing characters (called sprites).Eugene could not drag the code blocks at all. Even when Evans showed him how dragging works, he would just stare at the screen.This was on the first day.<h2>Scratch Junior To The Resuce</h2>On the next coding class, Evans introduced Scratch Junior, an easy version of Scratch made for the young kids. In Scratch Junior, students don't have to drag and drop. Eugene really enjoyed scratch junior.He was happy seeing different coloured sprites, now that he could easily add and remove sprites. Scratch Junior worked so well for Eugene that he said he wanted to make a busy environment full of moving vehicles, bicycles and airplanes. He was so to proud of his work that he stood happily and showed the whole class.

Grade 3 Boy at Zawadi Struggled With MIT Scratch, But Learned To Code With Scratch Junior | He Shares Work With Classmates

Eugene, a Grade 3 boy at Zawadi, really struggled on his first day of Coding lessons. Luckily, our coding specialist Evanso introduced Scratch Junior and Eugene became so very productive. He was so excited that he shared his work with the whole class.

Eugene Learns To Code With Scratch Junior

Eugene Learns To Code

Tyler Cinnamon is a American programmer and entrepreneur. He started TechLit Africa with Nelly Cheboi in 2018 to disrupt poverty with used IT devices.

Founder & COO

Scratch is a blog-coding application for kids.

Scratch - Block Coding - For Primary Schools

Posts About Program: Scratch

Making Their Own Games in Zawadi Yetu

Grade 4 Starts Coding

Eugene Learns To Code