Scratch as a Beginners Platform to Teach Kids How to Code

In today’s highly technological world, coding becomes a basic literacy skill among kids. They need to understand how the technology around them works in order to be prepared for the future. Apart from digital benefits, kids have better chances to reach academic success if they can code. Experts say that coding helps to improve mathematics and writing skills as well as become better problem solvers. It can also boost both logical and creative thinking as there is a chance to design something completely novel.

What’s more, learning to code helps to develop resilience in kids. As bugs occur very often, children need to try again and again after numerous failures if they want to succeed. Coding can be a big challenge that teaches to find a learning opportunity in any mistake. As you see, teaching kids to code may bring a lot of benefits. The question is how to explain to kids what coding is like and inspire them to gain a new skill?

Start with writing an essay on programming

The best way to introduce a new learning activity to children is to make research on it together with them. If they don’t know anything about programming, you can start with a small project about this topic. Ask children to share their thoughts on how they imagine coding. They can write a short essay and discuss whether their own assumptions were right. Such thought-provoking activities can stimulate their interest in the upcoming activity. Also, having a basic understanding of what coding is like prepares children for the challenges they may face.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a programming language recommended for kids over the age of 8 that was created by the MIT Media Lab.  For younger children, there is even an alternative version of Scratch. It’s called ScratchJr and it can be used by kids aged 5-7 as it’s even simpler and more intuitive.

Since it is completely visual, one doesn’t need to write the code while using it. Kids do programming with the help of a drag-and-drop interface. Scratch allows users to create interactive games by connecting colorful code blocks together. That’s why it doesn’t look like a coding language at first glance. However, in 2020, Scratch became the 19th most popular programming language in the world as the Tiobe ranking included it in the top 20 world’s programming languages.

If you would like to know what else is special about Scratch and how it differs from other programming languages, keep reading the article!

Creating interactive stories

This introductory coding language allows children to create original interactive stories. While developing a narrative for their game, kids can also practice storytelling. This way, learning code gets more engaging and fun. Children like using this platform because it’s very personalizable. This means they can manually create a set of their own characters, called ‘sprites’, and play with them. What’s more, they can draw their own designs for background and use various effects, including animation.

Using a simple interface

A big advantage of Scratch for kids is its easy-to-use interface. It’s divided into three sections, such as a stage area, block palette, and a coding area. It’s important to note that children can also add a section with their own code blocks.

In the stage area, one can see the results of their work, for instance, animations or turtle graphics as well as the list of all sprites thumbnails. Commands from the block palette can be applied to the selected sprites in the coding area. All this makes Scratch ideal for coding beginners.

Joining a safe community

Scratch provides its users with an opportunity to share their projects and get feedback. Therefore, kids often upload their projects to the Scratch online community and discuss them with others. What’s more, they can download someone else’s code and study from it or just add it into their new project.

Users can create so-called project studios, comment and tag others’ works as well as follow community members and keep updated with their activity. As you see, the Scratch community may be a source of inspiration and new knowledge. Moreover, this place is absolutely safe for children as the Scratch team maintains a friendly atmosphere and enforces strict community guidelines.

Educational Philosophy

MIT’s Scratch platform stands out thanks to its educational philosophy. It’s more than just a coding tool – it’s a learning approach grounded in constructionism. At the heart of this philosophy is a revolutionary idea: children learn best by tinkering – through creating, exploring, building, and solving problems that genuinely interest them.

The platform encourages kids to learn actively rather than passively absorbing information. It invites them to create projects that truly interest them—whether it’s a football game or a story about their chess club. By building something on their own, they naturally grasp core coding concepts like sequences, variables, and loops. 

This hands-on, playful approach is both innovative and essential, as it reflects how children learn best today—through creativity and exploration. They can experiment freely and see instant results, which helps build confidence, critical thinking, and curiosity.

How Scratch help kids develop foundational coding skills

Both Cratch and Scratch Jr are specifically designed to introduce fundamental coding concepts to kids in a fun and accessible way. Both platforms are using coding and game-like challenges that help children develop essential coding skills without the complexity of text-based programming languages. Here’s how they do it:

1. Visual Coding

As opposed to the traditional programming languages, which use written code, Scratch and Scratch Jr use blocks that come together like pieces of a puzzle. This approach makes coding for kids much easier and a lot more fun. They can easily create loops, sequences, and conditionals without worrying about spelling or punctuation errors.

By removing the frustration of syntax, visual coding allows children to focus on the logic and structure behind a program. It encourages experimentation and helps build a strong foundation in computational thinking – making learning to code feel like play, not “work”.

2. Algorithmic Thinking

The platform helps children develop a programmer’s mindset by promoting algorithmic thinking. When kids create something in Scratch or Scratch Jr—whether it’s a game, an animation, or a sound effect—they must plan each step logically. For example, they need to figure out how to move a character across the screen, trigger a sound when a ball is hit, or respond to user input.

This process of breaking a big task into smaller, manageable steps is at the core of programming. It builds a strong foundation for problem-solving and prepares them for more advanced coding in the future.

3. Event-Based Programming

Scratch introduces kids to the important concept of event-based programming. In every project, actions are triggered by user input—for example, pressing a key or clicking on a character. This mirrors how real-world applications and games work, where events happen in response to user interactions.

Learning how events drive behavior in programs is a key step toward understanding game development and many other areas of programming. Scratch teaches this concept in a fun, hands-on, and intuitive way that makes it easy for kids to grasp.

4. Sequencing

Sequencing is the process of arranging commands in the correct order to make a program work as intended. When kids create a game or story in Scratch, they must ensure that actions occur in the right sequence—like moving a character, making them speak, changing scenes, or altering colors. If the steps are out of order, the program won’t function properly.

This emphasis on sequencing helps children understand the concept of cause and effect: every action leads to another in a specific, logical order. It’s a fundamental skill not only in coding but in structured thinking more broadly.

The difference between Scratch and Codemonkey

Overall, Scratch is an excellent platform, but its highly “creative” approach—encouraging kids to build everything entirely from scratch—might not suit every learner. This is where CodeMonkey can be a great complement. With a slightly different, more guided learning approach, CodeMonkey can help round out the coding experience and better support kids who thrive with a bit more structure.

Here’s why tens of thousands kids and teachers around the world love CodeMonkey:

✅ Student guidance

Unlike Scratch’s open-ended approach, CodeMonkey provides structured, step-by-step pre-built challenges that walk students through the learning process. Starting from the most basic exercises and then proceeding to more and more advanced concepts.

✅ Built-In Lessons Plans:

No need to create lessons from scratch! Each course includes very detailed lesson plans, developed by professional  educators, so you can start teaching right away.

✅ For Every Age Group:

From beginner-friendly, block-based coding for 5-year-olds to advanced Python programming courses like Banana Tales and Coding Chatbots for teens, CodeMonkey grows with your students.

✅ Kids’ favorite:

Kids love CodeMonkey because it feels like a game! You won’t need to convince them to participate – they’ll be excited to learn.

Final thoughts

In general, creating projects in Scratch helps kids to learn basic logical thinking and problem-solving concepts. It teaches them to plan and design as well as improves their artistic and storytelling skills. Apart from preparing kids to study higher-level computer science in the future, using this innovative coding platform can enhance their performance in other subjects like math and science.